Everlasting cold

On Friday morning, I woke up with a sore throat :( It’s more or less a surprise. Everybody has been getting sick thanks to the huge difference in temperature between the day and night time. The day at work was long since I was feeling under the weather and the staff + patients were hardly there. I bought my weekend bag to work for an unknown destination. Indeed, we have hit most destinations in Casamance. MC brought the Lonely Planet and we haphazardly selected Diembering as our weekend destination.

After work, we headed chez MC to eat lunch – leftover spaghetti – yum! And left with Sabine’s (her roommate) son who is visiting: Yann. It took us 5hrs to transit there! I was expecting to only take 2! It was so long because we took a local bus which was late and stopped every 50’. Not feeling 100%, this transit was hell. I got there in a very foul mood because my seating had been extremely uncomfortable, I felt like shit and I had missed my seaside sunset.

(Image right: view of the front console of the bus. They always decorate their vehicles with a plethora of tacky things. Oh well: gives the passengers something to look at)

Diembering being a small village, there were not a ton of places to stay. Since the sun was setting and we had no reservations, we were forced to stay at the first suggested place which had outrageous prices. My being sick didn’t help the negotiating process; we were pretty much stuck. Because eating a normal meal would have been also expensive, we ended up eating an egg omelette sandwich.

(Image right: photo of my braid hairdo!)

On Saturday, we headed to the nearby beach after breakfast. The water has gotten really cold so I didn’t even swim! I started reading Great Expectations by Charles Dickens so indulged in that for most of the day. After beaching for hours, we headed back up to the village (about 1 km away from the coast) to move into a different campement. The village of Diembering is really charming: the streets are small and convoluted and there are no cars or motorcycles. Its very easy to get “lost” and there are animals everywhere + beautiful trees. As you walk between peoples’ homes with the chickens and pigs, the people kindly great you. The village has a different feel to it and I can’t help but believe this can be explained by the fact that it is mostly Christian (vs Muselman).

(Image left: at the center of the village stands the great fromager tree)

After finding and getting installed in our campement, a fellow villager escorted us to “the hill” so that we could watch the sunset. He was a really nice guy who simply showed us around and asked for nothing in return. Afterwards, we went back to our campement and had a most delicious dinner consisting of home grown rice, hand cut fries, salad and fresh grilled fish. Yum! We had grand plans to make a fire on the beach in the evening since it was a full moon. However, the meal was so fulfilling that we opted for being party poopers and rolling into bed.

The is a local artist who made it big (of sorts) who wrote a song about Diembering. You can see the video on you tube – its worth seeing because it depicts the village very well:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__-k5mBfLrY

Still feeling so-so, on Sunday after breakfast, we returned to the beach for some more reading and relaxing.

(Image right: on the hill ready for sunset)

Unfortunately, Yann was feeling even worse than I and he stayed in bed. We headed back to Zig in the pm, this time taking taxis instead of the agonizing bus. Once home, I felt I needed exercise so I went for bike ride #2. People get really surprised to see a white girl on a bicycle. Oh well.

My work week started grimly: I was in no shape to go to work, let alone get out of bed. I had a full blown cold. Normally, a cold wouldn’t stop me from going to work, but its as though any ailment here in Africa is four times worse and takes far longer to heal. I’m at a loss for explaining why…

(Image left: the beach of Diembering is lined with trees which provide shade and make it feel enchanted)

Tuesday, I didn’t feel much better when I got up but figured that it is ridiculous to miss work for just a cold, so I went to work. Turns out this was a bad idea. I didn’t have the energy to see patients. Instead, I sat around doing more administrative work and relaxing before walking back home for sleep. During my time at home, apart from sleeping a lot, I watched the TV show Weeds which is quite entertaining.

(Image right: myself and MC on the beach of Diembering. Its wide and empty like this in both directions as far as the eye can see!)

I still felt crappy on Wednesday but better energy levels so went to work. I had scheduled a home visit that I (I should say the patient) couldn’t afford to miss. My poor lady was discharged home and has severe dysphagia. I spent hours trying to get her to eat, drink, etc. and was drained after the visit. Once back at work on Thursday, I was happy to learn that they have an ORL specialist at the hospital who I will be redirecting my dysphasic lady to.

(Image left: Yann, MC and me on the hill at sunset. The ocean (not visible in the picture but was to us) is about 1 km away)

Thursday was a big day considering the cold was still lingering. Lingering might be an understatement…I was a snot factory! Nonetheless, I saw each of my patients and gave a two hour presentation to the porters as had been planned for weeks. It went well. I was late and not in a state to play ultimate so that will have to wait until 2009! I was supposed to go see a play at the theatre but after eating my supper at the location, was too pooped to stay. The smartest thing I did all week was go to the pharmacy to buy the equivalent of Sudafed for my clogged and oozing nose. That night, I slept well for the first time in a week!

(Image right: beautiful sunset. You can see the ocean in the distance. Beautiful land)