Delirious in Goma

August 23, 2009
I have been lucky up until yesterday afternoon. After arriving in Goma, I had lunch and later met with Jennifer from UNICEF. The meeting went well, but shortly after, I found myself curled up shivering under my covers. I had planned to have dinner with Celine and her friends, but that was not meant to be. I continued to think I was fine and would be OK to go out for a bit, but reality eventually struck and I had to cancel. I didn’t eat anything for dinner, or breakfast the next day, or lunch. I was up to the bathroom off and on all night. The worst of it was the fever that made me practically delirious, though I can’t even say for sure since I was out of it (just ask my mom what I am like with a high fever!). Now imagine me in the DRC, waking up and needing to find the bathroom FAST, only to find out that the electricity is off and I have to inch my way there. I tripped over the doorway into the bathroom and found myself lying on the tile floor for some time (on the plus side, the tile felt cool and probably helped the fever!). The electricity did come back on shortly, which resolved much of my confusion within a few minutes, thank goodness!

I am happy to report that I was only sick for 2 days, thanks to Cipro and good old time itself. I still run a low-grade fever on and off, but the worse is way over. I did manage to visit HEAL Africa, an organization and hospital in Goma that does fistula care. It was the first morning after the above incident and I hadn’t had anything to eat. I took a moto taxi (motor bike) because I was running late and couldn’t expend the energy it would take to walk the short distance. I met with Lynn Lusi who is a program manager there and married to the director of the hospital. She talked with me and showed me around, and eventually took pity and drove me back to the hotel. It wasn’t my best moment. She said she would be happy to stay in e-mail contact so that I could ask the questions I would have asked had I been feeling well and truly in the moment. She was very kind and I look forward to further correspondence.