Wednesday, November 19, 2008

One sick person + One sick person = One cranky chimp

Over the past few days, Laura and I have been sick. Laura got malaria
for the first time. In her three years prior living in Africa, she
never got malaria. She lived in Entebbe, Kampala, Kenya and Goma, and
never got malaria. I felt sorry and worried for her. It wasn't that
long ago that I got over my first bout with malaria. Poor Laura had
muscle aches, a fever and vomiting. I was very sad at the time.

At the same time, I had an infection in my feet and my left leg. What
happened was during our forest trip, I had a mosquito bite on my right
foot. I scratchd it until it bled. The rain boots I was wearing kept
digging into the wound. With my wound being wet and dirty, it got
infected. The infection went to a small mosquito bite on my left
foot . The wound on my right foot got big and disgusting. My left
foot and leg got swollen. It was painful to walk on. I started to
take antibiotics and now the pain is almost gone and the swelling is
going down. The wound on my right foot is almost healed and my left
leg looks like a disgusting puss sieve/ volcano.

The good news is that Laura and I are felling a lot better and are on
the road to recovery. Laura is over her malaria and my infection is
going away.

While both Laura and I were sick though, we had a hard time taking
care of our adopted baby chimp. We didn't take him outside as much
and therefore he got bored and he used the bathroom everywhere.
Cleaning up chimp mess is not fun at all, especially when you are not
feeling well. This time was testing our patience, as we tried to take
care of each other and Aketi, the chimp.

Right now though, everything is getting back to normal, and that is
just great for us.

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