Too much information???

So, do you want to know about everything?!  Weekend #1=sickness

It is true....I got the sickness.....hopefully it was part of my initiation to Africa and I will be super strong from the experience.
I think it was just the stomach flu. I have felt fine this whole time, but something got to me in the middle of the night. I realize that I am going through a lot of adjustments: weather, food, water, day to day experiences. There is so much to take in. It was probably my body going, "Hey, wait!!!! I am taking in too may new things all at once and I am overwhelmed. Blargh!!!!!
So, yes....I was unable to keep anything down, even water....for probably about 10 hours...then a little rest and then the fever came. My family was so sweet. They checked on me all the time and made sure that I had plenty of water and fresh juice that they made from FRESH watermelon, bananas, mangos, oranges, avocados.....so good. Chakula polepole.....food slowly.....

I have to say, I did start to feel a bit sorry for myself later on. Just as my fever of 100.2 was breaking and I was covered in sweat, the power went out. Which means that my fan quit working. I feel lucky enough as it is to have a fan, but when you are so, so sick......it is kind of a big deal in terms of securing what little comfort there is. The room was so hot and the air just quit moving and I felt like I was burning up. I survived.

Geez! It seems so odd to be blogging about my sickness, but it is part of my journey. It pretty much is like being sick anywhere....except trying to communicate in a different language has its challenges. There were lots of hand gestures to the stomach and the head. Thank god that is over.

I was talking with my baba and he said to please wake them up if I ever get sick in the night. He says that in their culture, people want to visit and be around someone when they are sick. There are many cultural differences. I just figure, when I am sick, that my body just has to work it out. The extra caring is always nice. It is a bit awkward to be sick in someone's home that you have only known for 4 days!

On that note, here is a poem that I learned of a few months ago. It is a Rainer Maria Rilke poem translated by Joanna Macy. I first heard it when she was interviewed by Krista Tippet on the NPR program, On Being. The podcast that this poem is in is called: A wild love for the world. I love it and have it on my iPod and listen to it when I need to be brought back to earth. I listened to this while waiting to depart from Minneapolis and then again this morning as I was coming back to life from the sickness.

"God speaks to each of us as he makes us. Then walks with us silently out of the night.
These are the words we dimly hear:
You, sent out beyond your recall, go to the limits of your longing. Embody me.
Flare up like flame and make big shadows that I can move in.
Let everything happen to you. Beauty and terror.
Just keep going.
No feeling is final.
Don't let yourself loose me.
Nearby is the country they call life. You will know it by its seriousness.
Give me your hand. "

I hope this finds you in good health. Minnesota and Wisconsin, I hear that you have freezing rain coming. Please be safe! Just as you may worry about me over here, I still worry about all of my loved ones back home.

Much love,
Sadie