Day 92, Nov 11, Thu,
Today was a long day. I spoke to the primary school students in the morning about how unimportant money is compared to friendships, how money in reality is only paper that will one day turn to dirt, and yet it was each other that they despised, fighting and bickering with each other over trivial things.
As I was talking I tore up a one birr note for emphasis of what I was saying. I then continued to remind them that they were creations of God; we were all brothers and sisters, created by the same loving God who took us in his hands and sculpted us like clay, it was He who breathed life into us, and through him all things are possible. As I was saying these things I took the money scrapes and put them into my semi-closed right hand and worked it, as if I was modeling clay. When I got to the part about God breathing into us, I blew into my hand and withdrew the scraps of the Birr note and slowly unfolded it, to reveal an un-torn, perfect note, I wish you could have heard to cumulative gasp and hush that came from the kids, it was priceless.
I finished by saying that they are all special and that they shouldn’t fight, because they were worth much more than that. (I think the Holy Spirit must have been with me, because I have never done something of that scale and succeeded, and somehow it was flawless. Lol, I even had kids coming up to me throughout the day with Birr notes, asking me to do the trick again, to which I replied that I would only do the tricks at the morning talks {Thus cutting my failure rate and creating an air of mystique, [Should also give me enough time to practice sufficiently]})
After the trick, I headed off to teach my spoken English class that I have been teaching, today I taught them how to create outlines to use in preparing for a speech. It went rather well I thought. (Although I had to keep repeating everything a lot) At lunch I was able to talk to the delegates who were staying with us, the two women, Maria-Sarah & Gloria, were from Italy, and the man, Brook (pronounced Brock) was Ethiopian. The reason they were here was to check on the technical school to see how everything was going firsthand. I also found out that Maria-Sarah had been to the world youth day in Cologne, Germany, same as me, so we were able to talk about some of the experiences we each had. In the afternoon I focused on practicing different magic tricks, (Although I wish I hadn’t shown the money trick to some of the office employees, due to the close proximity it required a much more practiced magician, and unfortunately they saw how I was doing it, darn) I think I shall try to do a morning talk at least once a month, hopefully more. (Depends how many tricks I can teach myself) Adoration today was deeply spiritual and before I knew it, it was time to leave for dinner, time flies when you’re talkin’ to God.
Dinner was unusually delicious tonight, BECAUSE THERE WAS CHICKEN!! Anyhoo, after dinner I showed Ferris to Br. Endalkachew, (who had never really LOOKED at a praying mantis before) who became just as fascinated with him as I was. However, something was wrong with Ferris; he was acting very lethargic, usually he is very energetic, scampering up and down all over the place. I have had enough pets to recognize a dying one when I see it. From what it was dying from I have no idea, yesterday he had been acting fine, eating bugs with wild abandon. Maybe it was just old? Regardless, the question that remained was what I should do, and after a bit of thinking I decided to take him outside and leave him where I had found him, but when I tried to put him on the ground he didn’t want to get of my hand, and I kid you not he kept looking at me, as if asking why. I finally managed to get him off my hand, but as I was about to walk away, I noticed he was still looking at me, following me with his gaze, so I decided to pick him up and put him in his terrarium, where he could quietly pass away. It probably seems a bit crazy to become so attached to a bug, Lol, maybe I’ve been in Africa for too long?, but I have really come to enjoy Ferris’s presence, and it almost seem like Ferris understood that.
So after putting him back into his compound, I went about doing my usual evening routine, and sure enough a couple later I discovered that Ferris had died. I buried the little bugger in the dirt in the middle of the compound, with a soda bottle cap for a marker. Interesting enough, today I had read a paragraph in the book: Imitation of Christ, about graces being taken away, which included friends and pets, and how we should be thankful for the time we had them. So even though I was a bit bummed out at the moment, at the same time I was very thankful to God, not just for Ferris, but also for taking him away, I consider it training of sorts for when I will have to leave all my human friends that he has provided me, which I think is going to be much harder.
Day 93, Nov 12, Fri,
So, this morning I found out that I would be taking both of Abba Larcher’s classes this morning periods, because Br. Endalkachew was busy and would not be able to teach his. It wouldn’t have been too bad, if it weren’t for the fact that the students were a different batch from yesterdays. So I had to come up with something I could teach them that would last 2 hrs. Thankfully I recognized several of my English composition students, who I knew were very bright, so I decided to go along with my speech outline that I had been teaching the previous day. (I myself learned the outlining method in college and I have used it several times, so it was something I could teach from memory with relative ease) The class went well, they were eager to learn it and I enjoyed teaching it. In the evening we had the farewell party for a lay missioner from Kenya, who had been working in Lare for almost eight years! Amazing! In her going away speech, she informed us that the most important thing she had learned was patience, something to remember. (Also, the feast was pretty spiffy; I think I can say that I have been able to eat a little better lately.)
Day 94, Nov 13, Sat,
I’ve started reading an interesting book, called “A canticle for Leibowitz”. It’s about the self destructive aspect of humanity, but what makes it interesting, is that it is set in the future, and told from the viewpoint of a group of Catholic monks. At first, I expected it to turn in to a sort of catholic bash, which is what seems to happen when authors include Catholicism in works of fiction, but so far it seems to be dealing quite honestly with the subject matter. At the Oratory (youth center) I learned how to play dominoes, and I even managed to hold my own against the competition, but when I tried playing checkers, yep…I lost…again…every time.
Day 95, Nov 14, Sun,
Finished “A Canticle for Leibowitz”, Loved it, incredibly wonderful, thoroughly enjoyed it, and although the book was written in the fifties, I think the message is still incredibly relevant in our times, maybe even more so. And to think that if I had never come to Gambella, I never would have read it. I’ve started a new book entitled “The H.M.S. Saracen” it’s about a Monitor class gunships and the action it sees in the first and second world wars. I am also starting through “The Complete works of Edger Allen Poe”. In the oratory today, I played a Pictionary-like game with the kids, where we would take turns drawing pictures in the sand and then take turns guessing as to what had been drawn, which was then translated into English, Amharic, or Nuer so we could learn each other’s language, twas great fun. I think I’m finally starting to connect with the kids.
Day 96, Nov 15, Mon,
I took both of the morning periods this morning; it was with the spoken English group, so I continued with where I had left off, with speech outlines. This time I had them come up and practice on the chalkboard. They were a bit nervous and hesitant at first, but they eventually relaxed and we really got into it. They weren’t quite as competent as my other classes, and at times we got bogged down in intercultural language barriers (apparently, in Ethiopia, when one goes barking? It means they are going to market to buy some oxen? Go figure.) But we made some decent progress.
In the evening we had dinner at the prefecture (Bishops residence) again, this time to celebrate with our neighbors the Anglicans, who had just finished constructing and had just opened a new Library, a project they had been working on for a while. It was attended by several ambassadors from Ireland & England, as well as the Anglican Bishop. There was even an Anglican priest from America, Arizona to be exact, (Fr. Michael was his name) who was visiting to discern whether it was his calling to work in Ethiopia. I got a chance to talk at length with him, it was very nice to talk to another person who speaks English as a first language, I hadn’t realized how much I had simplified the way I spoke till now, lol.
Day 97, Nov 16, Tue,
Today was a holiday of sorts, not quite sure what was being celebrated, (I think it might have been the birth of Muhammad?) There was no school, so I spent the majority of the day cleaning my room, (dusting, de-webbing, sweeping, scrubbing, mopping, bug-spraying, rearranging) and reading. In the evening a massive storm front moved in, and thunder & lightning was seen and heard in abundance. The generator stopped working, so dinner was eaten by candle light. Power finally returned around 8:30-ish, but I didn’t really stay up for much longer.
P.S. I almost forgot, this Sunday I had forgotten to say that I had gone to the village of Bonga, to celebrate mass with the locals with Abba Thomas and a group of parishioners. It was a good experience, the church is situated a kilometer from the main road, and is nestled in between several government compounds that have become abandoned and are no longer used. The “church” is a small building, barely able to contain the 60 or so people nestled inside. The sound of drums echoed throughout the tiny enclosure as the parishioners sang praises to God. It was a wonderful service, and before long it was time to head back, but not before everyone crowded around for pictures, lol.
Day 98, Nov 17, Wed,
The morning class went well; we managed to cover everything that I intended to. As the day wore on I started to feel...erm, not so good. Lately I have become exhausted, and even if I get a good night’s sleep, I wake up just as tired the next day. On top of that, my joints have really started to ache, abnormally so. At the evening class with the seminarians I was going to teach them some tips on how to troubleshoot simple and common computer problems, but when I tried to use the seminarian’s computer, I found it very slow and unresponsive, so I spent the evening class cleaning up wasteful files and defragging it. As the evening progressed I gradually felt worse and worse, and when I finally made it back to the residential compound I decided to go to sleep early, so after taking some Ibuprofen and hit the sack.
Day 99, Nov 18, Thu,
I ended up sleeping in fits and starts. I finally awoke at around 10:30am, and I wasn’t exactly of feeling peachy. I was still exhausted, all my joints ached, (It basically felt as if I had been run over by a semi) I was getting the chills and was shivering while at the same time I was burning with fever and a headache. I was also experiencing much abdominal discomfort, which, in turn, led to much toilette. My stomach was also a bit upset, and for a good deal of time I felt like I was going to vomit (Although I never did) which did away with any desire to eat. I took some more advil, and after a few decades of a rosary I drifted off to sleep. I slept until 3:00pm, by then the advil had taken effect and I was feeling a little bit better, good enough to walk around and such, so I decided to get a ride to the local clinic to check if I had contracted malaria (which I was experiencing all the symptoms) After waiting for what seemed like forever for me. I was finally shown to the doctor, and after taking my vitals and jotting down my described symptoms, he sent me to the lab to do some blood test as well as a stool test (Yay) and after giving the necessary “materials”, I waited while the lab technician ran the tests. When he was finished (which also been a long wait) We went back to the waiting room…and waited some more. When the doctor called me in again, was informed that I had contracted Typhoid Fever, and he prescribed a medicine, which we picked up at the connected pharmacy.
The whole ordeal cost 233 birr, not quite sure what that works out to in U.S. dollars as I don’t know the current exchange rate. After picking up the meds, I head back home. I had to wait until after dinner to take the medicine and by this time I had started to feel like shiza as the advil wore off, so I took a nap until dinner. I awoke still feeling like kaka, but I trudged to dinner anyway. At dinner I informed everyone of my condition and the days events, they then counseled me to go get checked out at the Abobo clinic before I start taking my assigned meds, apparently the local clinic has a habit of diagnosing Malaria as Typhoid, hurray, blarg. Somewhat dejected from this news, I forced myself to eat something, as I had not eaten all day. I managed to get down some soup, a banana, and some bread, should tied me over for a bit at least. I then retired to my room, took some more advil, and then tried to go to sleep. I was unable to though, and as the advil kicked in I became aware of my growing appetite. I decided to feed my face while I was still hungry, and prepared my last package of Mash Po-tay-toez. When I had sufficiently stuffed my gut with food stuffs I went back to my room, and after a couple of video clips on my laptop, I was able to drift off to sleep. (I think I have spent the last 18 ½ hours of the 24 hours asleep! MADNESS)
Day 100, Nov 19, Fri,
Woke up around 8:30, feeling quite a bit better, at least compared to yesterday. I was still feeling weak and tired, with achy joint pain and headaches, but the fever had gone down (thanks to the Ibuprofen) as well as the chills. I went searching for a driver to take me to Abobo, but I was unable to find one until 10:45, we set off at the same time, hoping to get there in time to check in before the lunch break. On the way to Abobo, we passed (or ran over) a snake, the first live one I’ve seen. It was smooth scaled, with a grayish rust color to it. There was something about the snake that gave the impression that it was poisonous, and have learned that there are red cobra’s in the area, so it’s possible it could have been one of those, but there was no way to know without seeing it’s hood. We made to Abobo at around 11:50, too late to check in, so I went to the Abobo Salesian compound, to wait and hopefully catch the doctors on their break. Thankfully Maria-Theresa did stop by, along with Barbera and her little son, (Her husband, Mr. Frank, was away in Addis on business) during lunch (which was tuna mixed with mayo, with potatoes and some salad.) I described some of the symptoms I had been experiencing, as well as how I had been diagnosed with Typhoid, and that I was here to get double checked, so to speak.
After lunch they showed me to a room where I could rest while I wait for the clinic to open at 3:00, but I’m afraid I didn’t do much resting, as my abdominal discomfort had returned…with a vengeance. At 3:00 I headed back to the clinic, and after a bit of waiting I was ushered in for a check up, as well as to take down my symptoms officially, after which I was shown to the blood lab where they took several sample of blood, which they extracted from my finger tip by pricking it…several times…with a tack like implement. After giving my blood, I waited in the waiting area (duh, right, lol) for almost 2 hours. Thankfully time didn’t take too long to pass, I said three mysteries of the rosary, and then became engaged in conversation with some of the locals, (including some rambunctious kids who were running around like mad peoples, like little kids are known to do, lol. Some things don’t change, regardless of country) so after a while of face making at little kids, and conversations of various topics of the local, I was finally called in to discuss the results. They told me that was indeed not malaria, but they had also discovered that it wasn’t Typhoid, and they had become somewhat perplexed as to what was causing my illness.
By this time my fever had come back, and I had become very tired, and so when they had asked me if I had taken the typhoid vaccine, I replied that I was unsure, and couldn’t positively say that I had, but that I think I had, and that when I went back to the compound I could check my yellowcard (A card containing all the information of my various vac’s) to see if I had. They then explained that if I had taken it, that it might explain my symptoms, because it was still possible to get the beginning stages of Typhoid, it just keeps it from developing into something worse. They recommended that I start the med’s I had received from the local clinic. They then prescribed a painkiller that would ease the fever and joint paint, while being gentler on the stomach then advil. After picking up the painkiller, I headed back. We arrived back at 6:20-ish, just in time to take a short nap before dinner. After dinner, I checked my Yellowcard and called Maria-Theresa to let them know that I had received the Vac for Typhoid; I then took the first doses of the Med’s, and went to sleep.
Happy day 100 hundered, eh!
Day 101, Nov 20, Sat,
Woke up feeling significantly better today, the achy-ness was still there, and so was the tired-ness, but all the other symptoms had receded. Didn’t really do much of anything, took my pills, slept and read mostly, and I had decided to skip the oratory today, too much chaos for me. In the evening I retired early. (Shortest entry ever!)
Day 102, Nov 21, Sun,
Slept in late again today, and although most of the other symptoms are gone, the tiredness still prevails. I hope it docent last to much longer. Today I wrote up a letter for Abba Larcher, which was a welcoming speech for a dignitary who was coming later in the afternoon. The dignitary turned out to be Fr. Kanage Maria Arokiam, Who is the Councilor of the Southwestern Salesians. In the afternoon we had an official welcoming for him by the primary school children, who put on a dance of sorts for him. The dance itself was an interesting one, it looked part shuffle, part irish, and part tap, fascinating. As the children left, I hung out with some of the older kids and conversed for a bit about various topics, and I received many questions about life in America. (One particular question I found somewhat hilarious, apparently one of the students teachers was teaching that the American flag had 54 stars, the student had gone so far as to find a connection to the internet to find out the validity of this claim and printed out a picture of the flag. When he showed it to the teacher the teacher claimed that it was not he that was wrong, but that the students sources were wrong, lol. I wonder what he was thinking were the four extra states? This evening there was an interesting movie showing on T.V. called “The Freedom Writers Diary “ about the real story of a class of inner city school children who had come from many different past’s, most of which were violent, and their teacher who was trying her best to give them an education, it ended up being a very touching movie, I definitely recommend it.
Day 103, Nov 22, Mon,
Mostly sleeping, and dilly-dally-shilly-shally (that’s for all you FF7 fans out there, lol) I am very thankful that I can recover at ease, at my own pace so to speak, but at the same time it has left me feeling somewhat unneeded. The schools continue as always, and everything continues on as though I had never existed, which has left me feeling somewhat lonesome and miserable about my weakness. But as the day progressed, I came to realize just how much just my presence here means. Throughout the day I have had several students seek me out because they had heard I had fallen ill and wanted to see if I was doing okay. They had noticed my absence, even though I don’t really have that many classes, this filled me with a sense of peace about my work here, it appears that I am not as unimportant as I thought I was. Moreover, it has created in me a bit of frustration about how tired I feel, I really just want to get back into daily life. This evening I set up a chair and my telescope and sat for a long time admiring the moon and it’s pock marked surface. Pretty incredible thing the moon, without it life would not have been able to survive for very long on earth, yet it docent get the recognition it deserves for it. Next time you look at the moon, think about how many cosmic missiles it has intercepted and stopped from slamming into the earth, and thank God for the marvelous work He has wrought.
Day 104, Nov 23, Tue,
Another slow day, but in the evening we went to the prefecture for dinner with the Councilor of SW Asia, Fr. Maria. (As he likes to go by) They served a rather interesting dish for the meal, (well actually a few, but one in particular caught my interest) apparently a local had gone out in the forest/jungle and had caught a wild pig, a boar of you will, which had then somehow made its way to the dinner table of the Bishop. An interesting taste, I had imagined that it would have a “piggy” taste to it, but it turned out tasting more like a roast beef, albeit a bit chewy. There was also my particular favorite, a local fish, whose name I escapes me at the moment, which tastes like a cross between Cod, Halibut, and Catfish, a chewy but delicious fare. And there was the usual spread of various compulsory dishes, such as wot and cabbage salad.
Day 105, Nov 24, Wed,
Somehow I managed to drag my corpse-like shell of a body out of bed in time to teach the English composition class. Today we learned the differences between Adjectives and Adverbs, which I had some trouble explaining to them. The concept of a word changing from one type to another depending on what type of word they are modifying was somewhat difficult for them to grasp. In the evening computer class I focused on the things I had done last week to get the seminarians computer working (which it is now, thank you very much, lol) and then we had some fun learning a typing exercise by using the sentence: The quick red fox jumped over the lazy brown dog. The goal of the exercise, is to keep your hands in the approximate same position, and then to write out the sentence again and again until eventual through memorization you will begin to access the keys with your eyes closed, thus freeing up your gaze to look at documents or your screen.
Day 106, Nov 25, Thu, Happy Thanksgiving!
Today I thought I would go over some of the things that I am thankful for here in Gambella. I am thankful for a working fan in my bedroom, which helps a great deal during the hotter nights. I am thankful for a toilette, as well as toilette paper, I don’t think I shall ever take those two for granted ever again. I am thankful for a safe and plentiful drinking water source. I am thankful for a working shower to wash away the dust that accumulates so quickly here. I am thankful for working electricity, which allows us to light up the darkness of the night. I am thankful for the internet, even the limited connection that we have here, for it allows me to stay connected to those whom I love. I am thankful for the friendship of the salesians here, which helps make my stay here more bearable. I am thankful for the rec-room, which helps keep me entertained on the slow or sick days, as well as the evenings. I am thankful for the chapel and the church, which provided so much spiritual support that frighten to think what my stay here would have been like without them. I am thankful for the warm and friendly locals, who although they can seem so different, are actually quite similar. I thankful for all the new and exciting things I have shared, especially the different cultures and places, and also the myriad of life which exists here in the form of plants, insects, animals, and peoples. And most of all I am thankful to God for giving me the opportunity to experience these thing, both the good and the bad. I am confident I will come away from this trip a changed, and hopefully better, person.
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