Posted by Chuck under Updates
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Allyson got to the Internet cafe in Shashemene and was able to do a couple of things before succumbing to what I’ve come to refer to as AGD (African Gastrointestinal Distress). I’ve only been there once, but it finally hit me on the day I was flying home. So I understand what she’s going through. And still the fleas persist. She writes:
Have put flea powder and flea spray all over my room and bed. They woke me up about 5 times last night chewing on me. I really thought I was going to lose it.
But she’s hanging in there. Word is that they are beginning to make a real dent in the malnutrition wave that was caused by a horrible spring drought, which happened just as world food prices were spiking. Allyson saw the picture of the feeding center where she worked, which was shot on Sept. 3, about a week before she got there, and said she hasn’t seen lines that long since she arrived. Good news.
And she is very appreciative of all the nice comments all of you have left on the blog. In fact, she
posted her own comment on the “Fleas” post, just to tell all of you thanks. Check it out.
Posted by Chuck under Updates
[11] Comments
The latest e-mail from Allyson came in on Friday morning. And bless her heart, she has fleas. I’ll let her tell you the details:
When I arrived all the females who work in the feeding centers were complaining about fleas, and they warned me they would eventually get me and they were right. They have feeding times, I think, and I think that they hop off of the people and the various animals that hang around the feeding centers, goats, scroungy dogs, the odd chicken.
At least she’s staying in a place where she can take a hot shower every day. Even after all her time in Darfur four years ago, she says, she was still unprepared to see the filthy living conditions that many people in Africa have to endure. “I still can’t believe they live in houses made of sticks and mud,” she writes.
So today, when you’re watching football on TV, look at the floors beneath you, the walls around you and the ceilings above you and be grateful. You are among the fortunate.
Not much else to report, but let’s send Allyson good wishes. Let’s hope that the Gods of Itching have mercy on her.
