i have been not-regular about taking my doxycyclene (malaria prophylaxis meds) in the last several weeks (bad idea number one) because i have not been eating regularly (bad idea number two) and when i take the pill without food in my stomach i puke EVERY time, no joke, its happened several times, which is, of course bad ideas number three to 1000000. and as a result of awful choices i was awoken at 6:15 on Wednesday morning by the dual needs to strangle the Volta girls running for office (who feel the need to advertise their campaign platforms of silly things at SIX IN THE MORNING by no other means than BULLHORNS. you know the kind with sirens, which you use to get peoples attention before using it to blast them with your propaganda? THOSE bullhorns. which are loud. and since i live in the four story, prison-like Volta annex (made of echoey CONCRETE), they feel the need to bombard ALL FOUR SIDES of the annex separately with their messages, because OBVIOUSLY at six in the morning there is SO MUCH noise that no one can hear their POLITICAL DRIVEL over all the SLEEPING GOING ON. ps, this has been happening all week and for serious the fastest way to get me not to vote at all is by making the electoral process something so inhuman as a shouting match between people who think that ALL of their constituents want a wake-up call that earling in the morning. but anyway, end to the) [don't forget, I woke up with dual needs, the other of which was] to make the awful achy hot feelings i was having go away, and preferably take their pounding headache friend with them. and to recap a paragraph of digression, death to politicians and i have a fever, 6am Wednesday morning, while my roommate is cuddling and complaining with her boyfriend seven feet away from my sweaty forehead. And to top it all off i have an Arabic test at 11:30, 4 1/2 hours away. what to do? well, of course the first thing i did was to lay in bed for a while, miserable. then i texted Sarah and Lauren, who are truly amazing women, and Lauren came over with a thermometer. i had a fever of 101.something, so i drank some water and wrote a note to my prof. telling her i couldn't sit for the exam. then i told Lauren all the rest of my symptoms, ie muscle aches, joint pains, slight nausea, and how i hadn't been taking my pills like i should. she had malaria like 2 weeks ago, and she said that was pretty much exactly how she felt. i was getting worse, and Mikaela and Steve got up to go to class. Lauren took my note to the prof and ran to the pharmacy across the street from campus and bought the (heck of cheap) malaria medication and some juice. i started the regime, took a series of fevered naps, woke up in the even ing, drank more juice, ate some chicken soup from a little powdered packet, made just for me by another girl Kayla, called my parents (who were pretty much like GO TO THE HOSPITAL THIS INSTANT PS NOW), and took my temp again ( 102.9 now). Which freaked me out. so i drank more water, juice, decided to go to the hospital first thing in the am, etc and tried to take a shower because i smelled like sweat and felt GROSS, but ps cold showers while you have a fever are not so fun, kids. so i pretty much got wet and got out. then i tried to sleep but it took forever, and i kept having dreams that i got better and i felt good until i woke up, which is for serious the worst kind of dream to have. then somewhere along about 2am i vomited up ALL the soup and juice and half my insides, crawled back into bed and watched the amazing lightening and thunder minus rain, which took up the rest of my night. in the morning i asked if Mikaela would go with me to the hospital. and she said, "Yes, of course" but when she got back from her shower she did the Mikaela thing and backed out of it and gave me 2 cedis for the taxi instead. so i got this girl Melissa to go with me, who is very timid and such and didn't know where the hospital was or what to do there anymore than i did. but beggars cant be choosers, especially beggars with a fever and the like. so we set off in the taxi to the hospital which was across the street from campus and a bit down the road (a 20-min walk). when i got there i stepped up to the crowd at a window marked Enquiries and did the Ghanaian-standing-in-line-thing, involving lots of pushing. in an ideal 'i have malaria' world the minion/helper i brought along would have done this for me, but what can one do...the help these days...tsktsk. so i told the guy at the window that i needed to be tested for malaria, and he asked if i was a student. i said yes,and he yelled indistinctly at me for a minute. i asked what he said and he pointed around the corner and said "Stand in that queue." Turns out that That Queue started right next to the one i was in, had about 8 people in it, and would be violating 3rd world health regulations if it moved any faster than it was, which was pretty much not at all. after a minute i started to feel dizzy and took a chair while Melissa stood in line for me (god bless minions...help these days is SO good...). For an hour. and a half. while i sat in a plastic chair and watched an endless parade of brightly dressed Ghanaian women and their big-eyed children file by me and take seats on benches or places in line. some leaned against the dirty painted cement walls or pillars, but no one violated the sanctity of the sunny, happy grassy courtyard except for aged nurses in uncomfortable shoes who were moving back and forth between rooms. all of us were sitting under eaves, outside, and in shade only because of hte angle of the sun. in all my waiting i never actually saw someone see a doctor, or be called into any of the sticker-covered wooden doors that apparently hid top secret audience chambers, but were NOT consultation rooms. at least it wasn't too hot, and there were no flies. so. Finally it was my turn, and i told the guy at the window htat i was a student and needed to get tested for malaria. he told me that all students have to go to the clinic on campus at the central cafeteria (which is NOT central AT ALL...its way out in the boonies). so pretty much i had wasted my time and money and Melissa's too. Naturally. it would be too much to go to a hospital and actually get what i need when i am sick, what is this, America? i was actually feeling a little better than when our adventure started, and i hailed a taxi to take us to the doctor at the central cafeteria. when we got there and found it ( bottom floor, hidden under the stairs up to the lecture hall on top and guarded by unreadable signs, and uncomfortable bench and unbreakable bars on the doors), i of course just opened the door and walked in. This time i walked into familiar territory. Not because it remotely looked like a hospital, but because miserable people crammed onto benches while a harried nurse in used-to-be-crisp white dress wandered in and out was old hat by now. So i told her i needed to be tested for malaria, and she waved to the medical records/enquiries window. at which sat a little sign scrawled on scratch paper declaring that they were closed and that all further people should go to the hospital across the street. from whence i had just come. i peered in the window, and was told on no uncertain terms that they were closed. when i told them i had just been sent by the hospital to them, they shrugged and said they only had one doctor, and he was all full for the day with the (fifty thousand or so...seriously lots/tons of) patients already checked in. by this time i had already spent 3 cedis on a taxi and i was really tired, so i decided that i would go back to my hall, eat something, take the pills i had already bought and take my temperature. if it was higher than 100 or if i threw up again, i would go back to the hospital right away. if not, i would take a nap first. my fever was at 99 and my lunch stayed down. after a nap the fever was all gone. i had more food, took more pills, watched a movie, got two visitors from my Arabic class, sent by Saleh, the ta, and went to sleep.
i woke up feeling MUCH MUCH better, to the point where i went to class for the first time all week (my Friday section, one hour...at least the WHOLE week wasn't a waste, right). i told saleh what was going on, and he said he tried to visit me, but got the wrong number so he sent someone else. its gonna be fine about the test, i am still drinking juice and sleeping, and i have all weekend sans roommate to make up my class work. plus i got dream girls on DVD along with 15 other movies (they come 16 on a disk for 5 cedis, of mediocre ripped quality but still AMAZING)...it is the innercitykidsdancefortheirfuture mix, with things like take the lead and stomp the yard and some other ones that are even worse, so i have some truly quality films to get through.
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