Bole Bulbula

One heck of a bang actually, just not a good one.
Jack got food poisoning. At least that's what we assume. I recently saw what food poisoning can do to someone I love and I got scared. She got the kind you bring a bowl with you to the washroom just in case. It started at 3am yesterday (Feb 1st) and is ongoing. As nice and new as our hotel is, it's still a shared bathroom. No one wants to feel like this, and then have to walk down the hallway to see if the washroom is available. I offered to get us a room elsewhere, I'd even carry her, but she didn't have the energy to move. By around 1pm yesterday she was able to start hydrating, it took her the rest of the day to finish one 1L bottle including 2 glasses of our hydralyte tablets. Problem is, it's still coming out. We've gotten the nausea mostly under control with our strict gravol every 6 hour regiment, but at the other end, that's a different story.

According to our book, and we believe it, the better health care available in the country, really the only facilities worth going to for treatment, are in Addis. So we were determined to make our flight to Addis this morning. We decided that on the flight to Addis we would decide if she was well enough to continue to Dire Dawa. Otherwise we can just stay in Addis, and make our connection flight to Entebbe in 2 days. Simple.

She's breaking my heart. No energy what so ever. She's currently lying on the airport floor, waiting to board. Cheeks sunken in, but definitely better then they were yesterday afternoon! She couldn't stand without help yesterday, today she can walk short distances. We walked from our ride to the airport to the entrance and sat. We passed security and sat. She wanted to try eating bread, which she actually managed to do, including an egg. I think we're looking up. Problem is, drinking water all day isn't much fun when you know you'll just have to go back to the washroom so I'm spending the day encouraging her to hydrate. It's now 1015am. Boarding the flight soon. Let's see how the day goes. What's making me want to cry right now is that I can't hold her, I can't kiss her forehead or tell her I love her, because we're in public.

It's now 1.30pm and we've made it to the room! Success! Jack slept sitting up in the airport in Lalibela, slept on the floor once passed security, slept the whole way on the plane... It was clear we weren't making it to Harar today, and that's OK. I had already made the decision in my mind that we would stay in Addis, and once I woke Jack up after the plane landed, she said she didn't have the strength to argue with me. I think we did Ethiopia justice. We saw absolutely beautiful things, we got to know the culture and the people, and we both feel very satisfied with the Ethiopia portion of the trip. I'm ready to move on.

I actually got a partial refund of the flight we didn't take today to Dire Dawa. I wanted to inform them we wouldn't be on the flight back from Dire Dawa obviously, but that we planned on taking the flight from Addis to Entebbe. They said they needed to reimburse my ticket, and sell me a flight only from Addis to Entebbe. Problem is, we paid 6300 for our flight and they want to sell me a flight that's 9300. The same flight I'm currently booked on, minus a leg, would cost me more... According to them, because they were booked together I can not take one leg only. So we decided to gamble, show up on the 4th and argue our way on. We'll see how that goes.

Jack barely made it up that stairs once at the hotel room and hit the bed. She's finished another water bottle, kept the egg and bread... We're on the right path! We went for luxury this time. And by that, I mean it's 31$us and we get our own satellite TV, mini fridge, private washroom... Score! Everything I need to entertain myself while she sleeps.

Longer term traveling means you have the time to fully recover, you don't have to be miserable on somekind of time restraint. We will get Jack back to 100% before starting Uganda. More good times to come!

It's now 7pm, and she's doing fantastic! I wanted to wait for a positive outcome before posting about this, and the time has come! She slept all afternoon. I brought back my left over rice which she ate, ate some bread, still drinking water. Nausea under control. She even peed! She's now awake, for the first time in 2 days, eyes wide open, watching a movie in bed, eating a mango. Her colour is back. Best of all, her smile is back. Tomorrow is another relax day in our luxury room, and maybe a 5 minute for Jack... Stretch her legs. She'll be back up and running in no time!

Jack says : Uganda here we come! Oh and if my parents are reading this, I'm fine. Vee just gets nervous.Read more