Health Woes

I’m afraid that Red Cross-wise, I don’t actually have a lot to report, because in the last two weeks I haven’t been to work all that much!  I had had various grim-looking mosquito bites on my legs for a while, but when two of them swelled up into a hard red mass, I thought it was time to see a doctor.  She said it was cellulitis and prescribed antibiotics.  Given that the first I had heard about cellulitis was in Atul Gawande’s book ‘Complications’ about how he has to excise grey mush from the leg of a girl who had cellultis which developed into something much worse, I was a tad worried, and decided that it would be sensible to rest the leg and take the antibiotics.  The doctor gave me 4 days off, but luckily the infection cleared up easily and I was right as rain in no time.  In fact, the Sunday before last, mysef and the youth of the area I live in (Natokowaqa) did a meke in church, and the pastor told us that we would perform it again the following (last) Saturday, at a special youth service in Nadi, so I was glad to be well enough for that!  We all got dressed up – Alesi and I had lovely matching new green chambas for the occasion, which my host father very kindly bought for us – and got a bus to Nadi for the service.  I was really nerovous, but it went really well, and I think I only made one little mistake in the routine!

So I was back at work this last Monday, though it was quite quiet since many of the regular volunteers have been off training in Suva this week.  Still, Kate and I made a visit to Central Primary which really motivated us to do more for the Junior Red Cross clubs.  The Red Cross Club students at Central were all immaculately turned out- the boys wearing their Red Cross scarves and badges, and the girls all wearing white dresses with red collars, buttons and belts.  They looked so nice!  We chatted with the head-teacher there over tea, and thought of a couple of things we’d like to do with the clubs, which I will write more about when we have discussed them with the Branch President.  I also had plenty of Door Knock stuff to be getting on with – sorting and registering the tins and such.  Then yesterday evening my belly started feeling very very dodgy, and hasn’t quite fully recovered yet.  I won’t go into too much detail.  I suppose it would be too good to be true to get through 8 months abroad without some kind of stomach-buggy.  Thankfully, the worst if it seems to have passed, and I hope I’ll be well enough to work on the Door Knock Appeal tomorrow.  Our appeal ends on the 14th of this month, but tomorrow will be out last big day of collecting- we are hoping for a hige turn-out of volunteers, and their efforts will be concentrated on the city centre, so there should be plenty of organisational stuff for me to do.