Thank goodness for Cippro...

Well, I had my first encounter with the Gondar Hospital and never want to experience that again....ever again. Like I mentioned in my last post, I hadn't felt well all weekend and when it got my serious I figured I needed to get it checked out.

Monday morning I went to the only private hospital in Gondar (it's supposed to be a bit nicer than the government funded hospital) After 4 hours of waiting, the doctor prescribed me with some anti-biotics and I was on my way out. Although, I did not leave with out having to take a stool sample in the nastiest bathroom I had ever stepped foot into. The "Laboratory" (a small room, with a few microscopes which was filthy) handed me a small, clear cup...very comparable to the sample cups they give out on Sample Saturdays at the grocery stores. In the small cup was a tiny wooden stick, and I was told to give a "small sample..." I had to wait to go into the bathroom because there was another woman who was loudly puking and when she finished, I was motioned to enter. Pretty sure the woman was puking because she was sick, I also would understand if she was puking at the uncleanliness of the bathroom-at least that's what I almost did.  I did my business, and then had to do the walk of shame out of the bathroom to hand in my sample to the lab...with all the Ethiopians staring at the only foreigner in the place. Really Ethiopians, yes...white people get sick too!

Anyway, my friend and co-worker Aster was kind enough to come with me and I am so thankful for her being there. Being in a place with so many people in such extreme suffering was intense. Also, I'm getting used to being the only white person around, but when sick, it was nice to have someone with me who spoke fluent Amharic.

What an experience. And one that I don't want to repeat. Luckily the Cippro (the medicine the doctor prescribed) is working and today I'm feeling better and was even able to keep a little food down.

The non profit I'm working with, Yenege Tesfa (Hope for Tomorrow) has officially scheduled the day camp for the kids that I'm running for them. The camp starts on Thursday, and runs all weekend. Hopefully I'll be back to 100% by then, there's is some pretty amazing stuff we're doing with those kids, so I'm looking forward to it!

Good things are to come, and being sick is hopefully behind me! I also hope that when I get back to the states in July, I can laugh at these crazy experiences rather than be scarred by them!!

<3