NCAA Bowl Games

Sorry, but I forgot maybe the most important item on my wish list: College Football Bowl Games. My dad's sending me the UCLA/USC game, so that's off the list, but maybe if you guys (I'm looking at you tekes) can get together and tape em, and either send them to my parents or to me - you will have given me the best christmas gift I can ask for. Thanks all!

On the Road Again

Hey all,

Lusaka has been amazing. The first day here I had another appointment with my doctor and then I met up with some other PCVs and went to the swankiest bar in country - I felt like I was in LA. I woke up the next morning and went to a pick game of ultimate frisbee with a group of brits and americans. After we got indian food and saw the new Bond movie. I've met a lot of PCVs, expats, US employees, aid workers, and they're all really awesome people.

Oh yeah, the address I gave a few months back is wrong. The correct address is:
PO Box 530376
Lundazi, Zambia
Africa

All the mail that's been sent to me has actually been going to another PCV - so no worries, if you have been sending stuff to the old address, I will get it. Along this subject, I've got a wishlist - I know its a little presumptious to assume you all want to send me packages, but if by chance you do and you're out of ideas, here's somethings that have been on my mind:

-Stick Deodorant (NO where to be found in Zambia - seems they only like roll and spray-ons)

-Any new music

-Any new DVDs

-Gameboy games (I know, I know, but it gets boring out in the bush)

-Magazines (Newsweek, New Scientist, Esquire, Maxim, etc)

-Pancake mix & syurp

-Kraft Macaroni and Cheeze

-Parmesan Cheese
-Skittles, Starbursts, Red Vines, and gum
-Goldfish (the cheese crackers)
-Canned cheeze wiz (there's a total lack to cheese in Zambia)
-Honey roasted peanuts
-Pictures
-And anything else you'd think would be good thousands of miles away from home in the middle of nowhere! THANKS!!!!!

Anyways, I'm hitchin back to Chipata tomorrow for a week of admin stuff and thanksgiving celebrations. I hope all is well back home, and I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving!

--Ryan

Lusaka!!

Hey all,

So I arrived in Lusaka yesterday around 2 after a notsogrueling 9 hour bus ride. Well, it was relatively grueling, but I just zoned out to music and stared out into the African bush. Being out at site for two months made the bush seem a little bland, but driving through it at 100+ km/hour - it starts to vary and soon I'm reminded just how beautiful this place really is. Its the beginning of the rainy season too, so the country is bathed in green and everything has a refresing tropical feel. Anyways, we (I wasn't alone on this trip, one of my friends from my intake and from my province had to make the trip too) pulled into Lusaka and made our way straight to the medical offices. I gave the blood, recieved two vials for 'other' samples, answered a few questions, and was sent on my way. The doc said she wanted me in Lusaka till Monday and longer if something comes up (which I highly doubt anything will), but nonetheless its going to be a nice vacation from site. There's a movie theatre here (with the new Bond movie playing!), awesome food, and some friends - so I'll have enough to keep me throughly entertained till Monday. Peace Corps set me up in a really nice hotel room with my own satellite TV, shower, and even a little garden - I haven't stayed in anything this nice since Washington DC! Anyways, I'm sure I'll make another post before I leave. Thanks for all the updates, they really help!

Pampered,
Ryan

The Sick Days

So, yet again, I find myself at the Peace Corps provincial house nearly 200 km from site and home. Why? I’m “sick” – for the third week running. Tomorrow, I’ll find my way to a 5 am bus, end up in the capital, and eventually give a few milliliters of blood to PC medical. Three weeks ago, I thought it was only something I ate, untreated water maybe. And, through a regimen of Advil, Pepto-Bismol, and lying spread eagle on the floor of my cool mud-brick hut, I treated it as such and felt better. One week later, I wake again with the same feeling, but despite the Advil and cold mud flood, my temperature reached 103.8 F by noon. By five I could walk for only a couple minutes, just long enough to satisfy the sadistic tendencies of a hell-spawned spell of diarrhea. By six I called the medical officer. From the black stool and high temperature, she most gentle used the words “on the brink of organ failure” to describe my situation. Of course she made this diagnosis nearly six hundred kilometers away and I’m sure that it made have not been as exact as it could have been, but, nonetheless, did she really have to say “organ failure”? She then followed that up with “I’m am REALLY worried about your life right now, Ryan” which now seems a little dramatic, but at the time it literally scared the shit out of me. Malaria. She suspected the culprit to be malaria. So, I took the Quinine-related malaria medication and the next morning I could stand without falling.

Everything started to level off: the temperature went down, the dizziness wore off, the chills subsided, and (best of all) my poo returned to a healthy brown. She didn’t explain it at the time, but the black stool meant internal bleeding – thus the “organ failure” bit. Anyways, my coordinator drove to my site, picked me up and we went to the provincial house. I was there for four days and by the last day, when my buddies dropped in, I was strong and healthy enough to have a few beers. The rest of the week was fine. I ate, I ran, I gardened –everything I could do before. Then, on Saturday, I couldn’t get out of bed till noon. And so by yesterday, I ended up here. Don’t get me wrong – I’m really OK. Just weak, sore and a little irritated – gastro intestinally. The medical officer just wants to rule a thing or two out, but considering that I’m perfectly OK right now, I’m sure I’ll be back very soon.

I have a eight hour bus to catch in seven hours, so I'm sure I'll think of more to say when I'm travelling. I'll post again in a day or two.

Thankful for US healthcare coverage,
Ryan