DAY 5 | I will never eat ground nut sauce again

Wednesday was an altogether not-so-great day. I woke up at a reasonable hour, but knew there was no point in getting out of bed because there was nothing to do. I lay under my covers thinking about things until like 11:15 am. As soon as I stepped out of my hut, Erina had tea waiting for me. We drank and ate together in the “living room,” then I made juice again (this time with passion fruit and oranges!). I also ended up reading a lot this day and didn’t actually spend much time with my family, which I obviously regret.

At lunchtime I ate, as usual, millet bread (gag!) but today I also had greens in ground nut sauce. Ephraim had gotten injections but was still getting over his malaria. All day, he let out the most awful, raspy, sick cry I’ve ever heard. Which I guess explains why I stayed cooped up in my hut.

Right after lunch, Erina left to go visit her mom who lived on the other side of the trading center (so it was at least a 6 mile walk). She told me she’d ask me to join her, but since it was the middle of the day and HOT she told me to stay at home, and she called Dave and Eric to come entertain me while she was gone. When she left I took a nap, and then my Toto came in to wake me up when the boys arrived. We sat together in the living room and my Toto brought us in a huge bag of g nuts to shell. Once we’d de-shelled the entire bag, my Papa came home soon after, and the four of us sat outside together and took tea (which actually wasn’t tea, but millet porridge).

The boys walked back home once it started getting dark and Papa and I “gave them a push.” In Ugandan culture, if someone is leaving your house, giving them a push means you walk them at least halfway back to their home. Sometimes, all the way, which then of course means that you have to stay and be polite and chat. It’s a long back-and-forth process.

When Papa and I got back home, Erina arrived shortly after and I sat outside with them for some time while supper was being prepared. I bathed and when I had finished, I came back outside to talk to Papa some more. As soon as I had finished bathing though, I started to not feel great.

By the time supper was served, I thought surely I would throw up, but I didn’t want to be rude. I told myself to suck it up and eat anyway. Lucky me- we were having posho and fish for dinner. I ate maybe 5 bites of my posho, and didn’t even touch my fish when I told Erina I wasn’t feeling well and couldn’t eat anymore. I excused myself to my room, changed into my pajamas and knew the night was going to be rough.

When Erina and my Toto had finished eating they came in to check on me and I told them I was pretty sure I was going to throw up. My Toto grabbed the basin I used to bathe with and set it by my bed then went to call Margaret to let her know what was going on. Gwyn was with Margaret at the time tending to Bea, who was having a bad allergic reaction. Unfortunately, there was really nothing they could do for me.

After hanging up the phone with Gwyn and trying to hold back tears because all I wanted was to have my Mommy there, about 15 minutes later, it happened. I lay on the dirt floor with Erina holding my hair back with one hand, and pushing on my stomach with the other and was violently ill for most of the night. I was finally able to get some sleep around 5 am and when I woke up around 9 am, I was still feeling pretty rough.