Illnesses

1. For the two weeks spanning a week before the MSID program started (while I was staying at Nyos') through the first week of it, I was basically sick nonstop. I think I got food poisoning twice, which was crazy because last semester I was the only person who didn't get sick a single time (other than an 80 degree weather cold worse than I'd ever imagined colds could be).

I actually thought I might have malaria, and took 50 cent malaria cure drugs, which did seems to cure me for about 24 hours. But, that was just because they have painkillers in them. Turned out I hadn't been in the country long enough to have malaria, and hadn't been anywhere with the type of mosquitoes that carry it.

I'm all better now, though, thank goodness.

2. Scientists have apparently bred male mosquitoes without sperm. They may be able to fool female mosquitoes into laying unfertilized eggs their entire lives, since they only breed once in a lifetime. That would be great, since mosquitoes are the number one killeranimal, followed by hippos.

3. I'm taking the malaria drug that's supposed to give you nightterrors, which it seems to be succeeding in doing. Last year's hurt my stomach. I'm not sure I think people should take malaria prevention drugs, especially over such long terms. They're less than 80 percent effective, create immunities, have horrible side effects, and can make the test come back with false negatives if you're part of the 20 percent that gets malaria despite taking the drugs.

4. I went with Nyos to visit his Aunt and her baby in a Thika government hospital. The little baby, his little cousin, was sick, but has gone home now. Nyos' mom packed food for us to bring them. His Aunt and her husband, a priest, were so welcoming and happy that I came to see them. They were really sweet.

It was full of people. They were sharing a twin bed with another baby and its family, in a room of dozens of twin beds.

Less than a week later, the same hospital was all over the news because four babies on oxygen in the same room died within minutes of each other. Their parents had been lobbying for attention from the nurses, knowing something was wrong. Nyos' family was still there at the time, and his Uncle was a leader of the people demanding something be done. There's a thin line here between negligence and simple overextension of human resources. I don't know that blame can be placed on individual caregivers, though they are investigating. The hospital was packed so far beyond its capacity, there's no way the staff could deliver adequate care. But, those deaths should have been avoidable.