An Unexpected Event

As I was beginning to find my groove and settle in, I awoke one night around 01:00 with an intense stabbing pain in my lower right abdomen. After enduring the fiery pain every moment of standing, sitting, laying, bending, basically any movement at all, I decided to send the 24-hour medical a text message, as my site rarely has a strong enough cellular network for a voice call. In the morning around 07:00 Dr. Harry, the Congolese Peace Corps doctor for Zambia, called back and told me to come to Lusaka straight away. “No problem”, I said, “be there in two days.” After packing a couple of shirts, some skivvies, and an extra pair of trousers, I was on the road desperately looking for a hitch. With a bit of extreme luck, I found a ride going all the way to Solwezi, the Northwestern provincial capital. So after 6-hours of being covered with red dust from the dirt roads and making idle conversation with the other two men heading to Solwezi for new tires, I made it to the Peace Corps office and checked in for the night. The next day around 06:00 I boarded a bus heading to the capital Lusaka and the careful watch of Dr. Harry, US Peace Corps. With the pain returning and a slight bit of nausea, I hobbled on and found a window seat with a sliding window that worked. After the 12-hour ride, we arrived in the capital and I found a taxi that took me to the main Peace Corps office. After a short examination by Dr. Harry and a short chat with PCVs in for various viruses and foot fungi, I was at a clinic having an IV placed by a nurse who was reluctant to leave her game of computer solitaire that seemed to be ongoing since her time of employment.