So after returning to village, mostly healthy, I started working again in my fields this week. Now that the planting has been taken care of and a few more rains have come, everyone is in the fields cultivating. Have to kill all those weeds for a good harvest and no starvation! Having a field, I've realized, is perhaps one of the best ways to integrate in Niger. Six days a week from about 7 am to 5 pm, all the men, most of the women, and all the children old enough to work in the fields leave the village to farm. There isn't a sound except the wives and mothers who pound millet to make lunch, but even this ends around 11, when they take food to their sons, daughters, husbands, etc.
Without a field, I'd be bored out of my mind. Even more so than hot season. Hot season was just too hot to want to do anything. Rainy season is actually quite nice, but it's a lot of work. I've been waking up before dawn to walk the kilometer south to my gardens to water. I return about an hour later to eat breakfast, drink a lot of coffee, and start the 45-minute hike to my fields, which are north of my village. In all, I've determined that I walk about 10 km every day now. It's exhausting, and I usually return from the fields to eat leftover breakfast and fall asleep for 3 hours or so. Then it's up again around 5 or 6 to go out and water my gardens again. Then a bath, dinner, and bed, which by that time of the night is very welcome indeed.
We farm with a tool called a kumbu. it has a blade on the end that's shaped kind of like an arc. It's about 8 feet long with a handle on the other end. Basically, it's like a giant spade that cuts off weeds at the root. I spend hours every day in the field with a break for lunch. The heat is a killer, but you do what you can. I usually go out with about 3 liters of water, and when that runs out, I'm done farming for the day. I hear it's easier work when it's rained, but I've yet to farm after a rain for one reason or another. I'm building up some ridiculous callouses from the work, and hopefully getting a lot stronger. It's hard, but I do what I can do. If it weren't for my iPod, I'd go crazy.
If anyone wants to send me a package full of energy/granola bars, they're AMAZING for a lunch break after all that work. Clif bars are so damn tasty...
Saturday, July 19, 2008
Thursday, July 3, 2008
Giardia Round Two...FIGHT!
So I came into Niamey Saturday night after the longest bush taxi ride I've had to endure yet. It usually takes three hours for me to get from my village to Niamey. This time it took five. We stopped in Baleyara like usual, where it took them two extra hours to change tires, load animal fodder, and generally dick around doing nothing. I was not in the mood for any of this, as I felt very sick and told that to everyone who attempted to talk to me. I got in to Niamey at 8:30 pm and made it to the infirmary, where I got the joy of sleeping in the air conditioning for two nights in a row!
It started like this. Monday afternoon I returned to village after visiting a friend who had been sick. I felt a little weak, but I figured it was because I'd biked 30k and it was a little hot. I rested, but still felt sore and weak from the heat, dehydration, and what turned out to be a combination of stomach issues and a virus.
The virus hit first. By Tuesday I had a minor temperature, so I stayed in bed most of the day. Wednesday rolled around, and my temperature had gone above 101 F. My entire body hurt, but electricity to the cell tower was out, so there was no way for me to call a medical officer. By Thursday, my temperature was down most of the day, and since my friend's virus had turned out to be self-resolving, I figured mine must be too. Friday was market day, and I felt fine. I did all my usual things and thought my sickness was over. I still wasn't eating much because I couldn't bring myself to eat after feeling so sick most of the week. I felt weak, but better than I'd felt in a number of days. That night, however, I couldn't sleep. I felt strange all over, like I could see everything clearly, like I understood the world. Of course I realize now that I was delusional and raving a bit, but at the time I thought I was the smartest man alive.
Saturday my maigari went out the fields to cultivate. I went too because I felt bad that he had done most of my work in the days I'd been sick, including some of my planting. I walked the 3-5 km out to the fields to look at them, helped the maigari a bit, and was feeling weak again. The sun was hot and I decided to walk back.
By the time I made it back to my hut, I felt like collapsing. I was tired, hot, and felt a bit nauseous. I went to sleep for about four hours, woke up, got sick several times, had a fever above 101, and nothing left to expel from my body. I called our Peace Corps Medical Officer, who told me to come into Niamey, that I had to, and had the worst bush taxi ride of my time here.
The final culprit? Giardia...again. Only this time it was combined with some virus and who knows what else. It took me about four days to fully recover. It's strange. The first time I had giardia, I barely noticed it. This time was the worst experience of my time in Niger. I think I came the closest to saying, "This is not worth it" this week. I didn't, and I'm still here, but I do not want to have a gastrointestinal issues for a while. Throwing up hawru is not the best experience...
*UPDATE* So I had to go BACK into Niamey again because I was still sick days after taking the medicine. The medical officer, in his lovely French accent, told me "that is not normal." Seriously. Turns out I had giardia, amoebas, and bacteria all in my gut, and I needed separate medicines for each of them. I'm going back out to post today, full of drugs and impressed that I've had the trifecta of stomach ills.
It started like this. Monday afternoon I returned to village after visiting a friend who had been sick. I felt a little weak, but I figured it was because I'd biked 30k and it was a little hot. I rested, but still felt sore and weak from the heat, dehydration, and what turned out to be a combination of stomach issues and a virus.
The virus hit first. By Tuesday I had a minor temperature, so I stayed in bed most of the day. Wednesday rolled around, and my temperature had gone above 101 F. My entire body hurt, but electricity to the cell tower was out, so there was no way for me to call a medical officer. By Thursday, my temperature was down most of the day, and since my friend's virus had turned out to be self-resolving, I figured mine must be too. Friday was market day, and I felt fine. I did all my usual things and thought my sickness was over. I still wasn't eating much because I couldn't bring myself to eat after feeling so sick most of the week. I felt weak, but better than I'd felt in a number of days. That night, however, I couldn't sleep. I felt strange all over, like I could see everything clearly, like I understood the world. Of course I realize now that I was delusional and raving a bit, but at the time I thought I was the smartest man alive.
Saturday my maigari went out the fields to cultivate. I went too because I felt bad that he had done most of my work in the days I'd been sick, including some of my planting. I walked the 3-5 km out to the fields to look at them, helped the maigari a bit, and was feeling weak again. The sun was hot and I decided to walk back.
By the time I made it back to my hut, I felt like collapsing. I was tired, hot, and felt a bit nauseous. I went to sleep for about four hours, woke up, got sick several times, had a fever above 101, and nothing left to expel from my body. I called our Peace Corps Medical Officer, who told me to come into Niamey, that I had to, and had the worst bush taxi ride of my time here.
The final culprit? Giardia...again. Only this time it was combined with some virus and who knows what else. It took me about four days to fully recover. It's strange. The first time I had giardia, I barely noticed it. This time was the worst experience of my time in Niger. I think I came the closest to saying, "This is not worth it" this week. I didn't, and I'm still here, but I do not want to have a gastrointestinal issues for a while. Throwing up hawru is not the best experience...
*UPDATE* So I had to go BACK into Niamey again because I was still sick days after taking the medicine. The medical officer, in his lovely French accent, told me "that is not normal." Seriously. Turns out I had giardia, amoebas, and bacteria all in my gut, and I needed separate medicines for each of them. I'm going back out to post today, full of drugs and impressed that I've had the trifecta of stomach ills.
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