Having spent a ridiculous amount of money on vaccinations before I left, it has only taken me four weeks to get my first tropical disease of the trip, Dengue Fever. Thankfully it sounds a lot worse than it is and I am hopefully on the short road to full recovery and will find out today with more blood tests. It makes me feel better to know that I was not being completely pathetic over a cold and that there was something really wrong with me. After a sleepless night, which I thought was due to not being able to get the AC temperature right and having a streaming nose, I woke to find a red rash all over me, which I did not need a doctor to tell me wasn’t good, accompanied by an inability to move my head or eyes at normal speed rather than sick person speed – I decided a trip to a doctor was required. Seeing a doctor is easy, in fact much easier than in the UK, I was sat in front of two doctors within 10 minutes of walking in the hospital door. The problem came when I had to pay for the tests I needed, without enough cash on me, I trotted over the road to the bank cash point only to find it out of service. As the only cash point on the island and with the bank closed all day I was stuck, having been dismissed by the cashiers at the hospital with a shrug of the shoulders when I asked what I could do, I resorted to the thing girls do best in a crisis and sat outside the hospital and cried. It really worked this time, within 10 minutes I had been offered the loan of money from the doctors and the police so all was ok with the world again! Having been given a large amount of various drugs, tests the following day confirmed Dengue Fever. Five days later and with my fever gone and blood returning to normal I can safely say I am on the road to recovery and it would appear that I have got off lightly in comparison to the horror stories I am hearing from everyone, so for that I am grateful, though not as grateful as I am for having a good few English language channels on the television in my room, otherwise the past few days might have pushed me into terminal boredom!
Prior to becoming an invalid we have made a good few steps on the road to founding the Hulhumale rowing club, following a long chat to the UK, I am now going to be based here for the duration of my stay to set up the club here. This is fantastic as Hulhumale is a growing community which really supports the swimming programme and is very excited about the arrival of the rowing boats. So we have decided on the location of the rowing club, currently a corner of the island with huge concrete blocks thrown around and no development at all. With the help of the Housing Development Corporation (HDC) who are the developing body for the island, we will make safe access to the water – which is the most important part as it is deep enough and with a sandy bottom, no mean feat on this island! So fingers crossed that I can get the site ready before the arrival of the boats, so although I am eager for the boats to arrive I am now not too eager! It feels like we are making progress and once I am back fighting fit I will be able to keep pushing things on, Hurrah! In the mean time I shall get back to watching trashy films and taking regular naps!!
Prior to becoming an invalid we have made a good few steps on the road to founding the Hulhumale rowing club, following a long chat to the UK, I am now going to be based here for the duration of my stay to set up the club here. This is fantastic as Hulhumale is a growing community which really supports the swimming programme and is very excited about the arrival of the rowing boats. So we have decided on the location of the rowing club, currently a corner of the island with huge concrete blocks thrown around and no development at all. With the help of the Housing Development Corporation (HDC) who are the developing body for the island, we will make safe access to the water – which is the most important part as it is deep enough and with a sandy bottom, no mean feat on this island! So fingers crossed that I can get the site ready before the arrival of the boats, so although I am eager for the boats to arrive I am now not too eager! It feels like we are making progress and once I am back fighting fit I will be able to keep pushing things on, Hurrah! In the mean time I shall get back to watching trashy films and taking regular naps!!
Byeeee
PS as an update, I am now feeling almost 100% again, am just on the look out to make sure I do not catch one of the three other strains of Deng