Friends

When I reviewed my last post it bugged me that I had missed out ‘friends’. When I was talking about fitting in socially and culturally I meant to comment on the friends I have made here, and the friends from back home that have supported me, but I guess I got carried away talking about learning Wolof instead! I really appreciate the fact that I have met some great people who, combined with my friends from back home, make me feel very happy. This past week I have particularly valued the bonds that I have made with people here in The Gambia.

Last Saturday I had a lovely day drinking tea and eating chocolate chip cookies (mega treat) round at Nicola’s. We listened to the rain outside and chatted away about old friendships, telling stories of daft adventures we had had with our best friends from back home. Then Helen called in and we continued the ‘girly’ day, chatting away about past and present friendships, feeling happy and content.

Unfortunately as the day turned into evening I started to feel a bit weird. Thinking I was hungry and / or dehydrated we went to get a shawarma and a coke. It gave me enough energy to get home, but I still felt pretty bad, and a little voice in my head started saying ‘I hope this isn’t malaria…’. I had a funny tingling feeling in my arms, like my blood had been replaced with fizzy drink, which I recognised from the last time, and a few hours later I had a full blown fever – shivering and covered in goosebumps despite it being about 30 degrees. To cut a long story short I had a pretty gruesome night and knew I needed to get to Africmed in the morning. Figuring I wouldn’t make it alone I texted Nicola as early as I dared on a Sunday morning, and she rushed straight round to help me. 7 hours later, having had a lot of fluid, quinine, antibiotics (default treatment at Africmed!) and goodness knows what else pumped into me, I went home feeling a little bit better than I had when I arrived.

As the week went on I recovered, Helen brought me juice, Nicola shopped for me and visited me, and Ebou, Alieu and Keway all came to visit me throughout the week. I got better, and feel fine now, but it was a good reminder that I couldn’t have coped here without the great people that I have around me.