Pee, Poo, Belly, Bum, Pants

Kigali Storm

:)o(

I’ve been on 500mg of Clamoxyl (antibiotics) three times a day, and some funny little white pills in an envelope with Aminophylline written across it (something to do with wheezing according to Wiki) and the occasional swig of Broncaléne, since I went to the doc's. I ain’t feeling all that much better. The coughing has subsided but, last night, I had a massive asthma attack, which I haven’t had for years. My lungs still feel gunky.

D’s away until the end of the week. He found some work as Security on a friend’s film trip, which is good, but it did occur to me last night that there is no public transport in an emergency. No taxis, bisis or motos in the middle of the night. I could probably disturb my neighbour, who is a doctor (cancer specialist) at the local hospital, but I'd be reluctant.

The weather here is wet, cold and miserable. I remember this from Australia. You really wouldn’t expect it to be. Unlike home, there’s no carpet, central heating, double glazing or even thick bedding. What I wouldn’t give for my feather eiderdown and big fluffy pillows right now.

Feeling utterly pants. Wondering if it could be some sort of cat-related allergy or something, but I was never like this before I went to Kampala. Perhaps the cats are aggravating something I already have? I wonder if Karzai just isn’t cleaning the house as thoroughly as he used to. I’ve resolved to give the place a good going over myself once I’m feeling up to it. Maybe it’s a build-up of old cat hair or something. I noticed some weird little flies in their water bowl yesterday. I cleaned out the bowl and within an hour they were back. Disturbing, as it’s in my kitchen. They weren’t fruit flies or mosquitoes or anything you usually see. I wonder where they came from. The other thing that makes me think it’s not just the cats is that I never sneeze or get itchy when they’re sitting on my lap or getting cuddles. I really don’t think it’s them alone. Martine’s offered to look after me. If I’m still ill when D gets back I might spend a couple of nights there and see if it eases up. If it did, that would suggest it's the environment.

I’m just knackered. I haven’t had a decent night’s sleep in forever. Martine came over on Thursday and said I looked stoned out of my tree. I don’t know why, but everything went very fuzzy. I don’t remember a lot about her visit, but she said I looked pretty floaty and that my pupils weren’t right. Must have been a combination of the meds and no food, or something. It hasn’t happened again since. She came back on Friday as we were going to talk to the vet about my kittens getting the snip. We never made it that far in the end because we were running late for a meeting at VSO. It turned out only three of use turned up, so we cancelled the meeting and Martine and I went for drinks. Soft drinks in my case. We also ate food at Chez Lando. The food was outstanding, the most I’d eaten in about a week. We had a really good natter and I was home by half-six. Watched movies with D and felt waaaay better than I had been. Thought I was on the up.

I've been having a couple of weird hallucinations. The first night I started the meds, I woke up in the middle of the night and saw a giant spider crawling up the inside of my mossy net. It didn’t scare me at first, but then I was convinced it would fall on my face if I went back to sleep. I tossed and turned and eventually sat up and scoured the inside of the net. Nothing there. I sometimes get that, though. If I wake up in the night, I see spiders.

The second was last night and more impressive. It was as vivid and real as the headless woman. It was an African man in a grey shirt and light-brown trousers. He was standing by my curtains, staring at me - like the woman would have been doing if she’d had a head. I wasn’t terrified like last time. I just stared back, a little disturbed. Then he walked away to the right, out of the light, and disappeared. I was really worried because I thought he was still in my room. Then I fell asleep again. I don’t think I was asleep or dreaming, it wasn't an OBE or anything – I really was awake, or about as awake as I was when I saw the spider. It’s all good fun, but it sure doesn’t do anything for the dark patches under my eyes right now. Seriously need some sleep but I’m always too bunged up to get any. No fever or anything bad, though. It's just like a bad head cold that won’t go away. That does sound like an allergy, but allergies you tend to get over after a while.

The rain is really starting to get me down. It’s just constant. You don’t know the meaning of ‘torrential’ until you’ve been caught in a Kigali storm. Thunder, lightning, serious rain... every day. When it isn’t raining, it’s overcast. It’s cold, grey, yuck. Wouldn’t be so bad if I was back in the UK with a nice blazing open fire and a warm bed, but it’s a bit of an endurance feat from where I’m standing right now.

On the up-side, when Hannah left the other month she also left me her double-plated electric hob! I brought it home on Friday. I can now cook rice and chilli at the same time! Huzah!

The internet has been on the blink recently. I just don’t feel up to anything but drinking endless cups of tea and watching movies. Oh, and reading. I've got some brilliant books to get through. Don’t know what I’m going to do about tomorrow. See how tonight goes.