Jinji Sadan

The last days in Mozambique were something to write about, after the recover from the malaria I need to start to cycle again, I was in 100% shape but my visa about to finish and its 100$ a day if I am in the country with expiry visa….I had a sharp pain in my lower back but when I cycled it wasn’t so bad. The view and the faces helped me forgot the pain I was happy to have some hills and to see different landscapes after the monotony of the flats near the coast. The evenings I spent with the locals with my tent next to their straw house or mud houses9when they have more money…) they always offer me to join them for the most important meal in the day dinner, it’s the most important because it the only one and I don’t want to take from there small amount of food so I take a little and after that I cooked to myself some pasta with sardines, I am eating the same amount that the whole family is eating…

 The nights was hard the pain was strong and I could not sleep well, always try to try another position that the pain will be small but still it was hard. When I was a child my mom thought me about the colors on the road. Green is the color to go ahead and red is the color to stop. When I saw one morning that I have blood in my urine I stopped to cycle in to the first truck to the next big city of the name of Tete that is on the mighty Zambezi River. There is a big hospital and I went ahead without waiting in the line. I don’t like to be in hospitals in general and this one was my worst one. The smell of urine and people shouting from pain like it a war zone but the doctors walking with a smile and I try to explain what going on with my body. No one knows good English only “yes “ and “no”. They gave me a small plastic cup to have urine and I ask them where the toilets are and they look at me and say “do it hear it the room….” So I did it when everyone is watching my white instrument. When I finish the doctor look at the cup and say “you got blood” with a big smile like he just invented the cure for the malaria… They did also a blood test and told me to wait for the results that will be in half an hour. After 4 hours of waiting they told me another half hour it will be ready… I was about to go crazy but I past my time looking at the ants on the wall and I can look hours on this little animals working in the hospital… The doctor came and did a blood pressure test and heart pulse test. When he put his fingers around my rest he counted the seconds with his mobile phone… When he moves with his hands to the chest I was wonder if he looking for a mobile signal in my body… After 5 long hours he told me that the tests are ok and I can go. How come it can be ok when I have urine with the color of ice tea (peach not lemon) ? I went to sleep with pain I crossed the border to Malawi and to the city of Blantyre and I was so happy to change a country and went to the good hospital where everyone know English and the sheets of the bed don’t have blood of other people and the ants are in the garden and not on the wall.

They checked my urine and blood and after half an hour they told me that the blood in the urine is only some tissues and it because of the physical work and bad nutrition. I ask then how come the same test took 5 hours in the other hospital. The doctor told me “In America you white people have watches but her in Africa we got time!” Have a good day and great life
Roe “ jinni” sedan

Tags: Africa, Malawi, Mozambique

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 3rd, 2009 at 13:37 and is filed under Africa. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.