My first night in Midigo...

My first night in Midigo didn't really go like I thought it would. That afternoon I had my first run in with Malaria. Unfortunately it was just before a speech by the deputy Prime Minister a Mr Ali. I made it through my short speech and promptly passed out in the back seat of our Land Rover.

Pretty much the next thing I remember was arriving at night in Midigo. I would describe it as completely dark. Not a single light for perhaps a hundred miles. It was really dark. We had picked up our escort by that time. A platoon of Ugandan Army soldiers. I remember making a Sat-phone call to my wife in Nairobi. She was worried of course. I described my fever and body aches and mild delerium. I was a long way from any help.

She called the Emergency Operations Center for our group back in the US and they talked with a tropical medicine specialist, who thought it could be malaria. So they sent a page out to me, by Sat-pager, telling me what I had and how to treat it. Then 10 minutes later they sent a second message reminding me where in my medical kit the meds where and that I really needed to take it.

Wow, image that... More amazing was that the women of the village already knew all of this. They were quite concerned. I remember them bringing me some tea. We were in a round hut, and each woman entered the room on their knees and head down... Through the fever and the poor lighting coming from a single flashlight pointed against the wall, I could see these women coming towards me and I had no idea what to do.

My interpeter told me to hold my hand out to them. Ok, now I'm wondering if I'm getting married, (I'm not kidding they offered me a second wife earlier in the day). All of what I had been taught in western society, said that I was to treat women the same as men, yet here they where, on their hands and knees, before me. This can't be right? Not knowing anything else to do, I put my hand out...

They took my hand and pressed it to their foreheads. Then looked up at me an smiled, before backing out of the room on their knees. After that they seemed able to interact with me without much more fanfare.

These women, I later learned were selected to "take care of me". Thankfully, that did not include the entire African treatment of sleeping with me as well. They did show a lot of concern for me though. Brought me boiled water to take the anti-malaria's. Told me to rest and that I should eat when I woke up.

I didn't know that I would wake up so soon. I found out later that malaria can be very fast onset and very fast to receed once treated. I woke up at about 2:00am. The elders of the village were still in the ajoining room talking about me and what they should do with me. As soon as the women realized that I was awake, they insisted that I eat. While I felt a lot better, I was still very weak, unable to stand.

In a jesture that I thought was one of the most incredible acts I witnessed over there, they slaughtered a goat that night. The village was not doing well and that goat would have been saved for the most important of occasions, but they wanted to treat me right. After boiling the meat they brought it to me on a large plate. The very best parts... the stomach and intestines...