| (2003-09-26) She's Going Home Someone from the group of volunteers that I came with has decided that The Gambia's not right for her, and she's going home. It's not me. For a while, I thought it might be. When I had my kidney infection and my temperature was 104 and I was hot and cold and shivering all at the same time. When my skin hurt to touch it and I was hallucinating. I especially thought I was going to go home when I was tested positive for Malaria. But I decided to stick it out. A couple of different anti-biotics, not to mention more tests to show that I don't have Malaria, and I'm better than ever. But there's a girl going home. She was supposed to stay in The Gambia for at least a year. I don't blame her for wanting to leave- she'd be going "up country" (which is very far away from everything, living in huts, having a pit latrine, and no running water) and she'd be there alone. There would be no other volunteers- it'd be just her and a bunch of Gambians. There's only one flight a week out of this country, so she's got to wait around here (the Kombos- the richer part of the country) until next week when she can get a flight out. This means she's going to be staying with Jinny and I. I'm going to support her to no end, because if she feels this strongly about wanting to go home, after all the effort that's been put into her coming here, she's going to feel a strong sense of guilt about leaving. And I can understand both of those feelings (plus, she's going home because she's in love). ** Personally, I haven't had much self doubt since my health has been better. The other day, I had a momentary lapse back into feeling bad about being here. It didn't last longer than a couple of minutes, but when it was there, it was strong. It's just tiring. Everything's a struggle here... which, I'm sure is good for me, but at the same time, I just miss having an easy life. Today marks the four week mark. I landed in this country, had my first breath of African air four weeks ago... and although it seems like I haven't been home in three months, it also feels like the past four weeks have flown by. A nice combination. |