Progressing and Struggling
By David Krueger
“There is no progress without struggle.” I smiled when I saw this on the shirt of a man walking around outside of the Awoko office Wednesday morning. Sir, I couldn’t agree more.
The last couple days in Salone have been a bit of a struggle. Yesterday morning, I woke up and my stomach was the most upset with me I believe that it’s ever been. It was twisting and turning, and I’m pretty sure I even heard it yelling and growling at me. But I like to think I’m a tough guy and have a strong stomach, so I just ignored it and went to work.
I immediately regretted not taking any medicine. There’s being proud, and then there’s being stupid. This was definitely the latter.
By the time I got to the Parliament building it felt like just my stomach had been hit by a car. Everything else was fine, except for that one particular body part.
After spending the majority of my time at the Parliament building in the bathroom, I left early and came back to the office, where I was sent home early. Once back in my room, I curled into a ball on my bed and tried not to vomit.
I’m happy to report I succeeded in that effort!
Eventually, I was able to fall asleep for about four hours. Once I woke up I was too scared to go anywhere or eat anything so I decided to write in my journal. I hadn’t written in it since my first night here in Sierra Leone, so I figured I’d get something done, while remaining close to a bathroom.
One hour and seven pages later I was done briefing my journal on the trip so far. Of the seven pages, about two were discussing my stomach problems in great deal, something I’m not going to do in this article. After I finished I finally gave in and took some medicine and went to bed, giving me about 15 hours of sleep for the day.
The whole experience kind of caught me off guard, which it probably shouldn’t have. Everybody I talked to before I left, and everybody I talked to once I got here, warned me this would happen. They said it was difficult adjusting to a completely different diet and climate. I was told to expect to get sick, and to do the best I could once it happened.
But up until my sixth day here in Freetown I went to bed every night feeling great and woke up every morning feeling rested and even better. I began to think that just maybe I’d be able to dodge traveller’s sickness.
Well that didn’t work out. Eventually my completely new surroundings caught up with me and my stomach.
Fortunately, I listen. Thanks to some advice from last year’s intern, I brought some stomach medicine with me for when I got sick. That medicine is single-handedly responsible for me being able to sleep Tuesday night, and come to work Wednesday morning.
However, even knowing what I know now I wouldn’t change anything I’ve done so far in Africa. There’s nothing I ate that I regret. All the food I’ve eaten, from stew green to foo-foo and everything else that I don’t know the name of yet, has been absolutely delicious.
While in Salone I haven’t had a bad meal yet, and I don’t really expect to anytime soon. I’ve loved the food here. It probably helps that I like rice.
Spicy food is also a personal favorite, although I’ve been warned that there’s “spicy” food and then there’s “Sierra Leone spicy.” So far my tongue has been able to handle all of the challenges I’ve thrown its way, but I’m sure there will be many more in the next 11 weeks. I’m excited for each and every one of them.
I also look forward to once again being healthy. Adapting to this new culture has been challenging at times, mostly the last 24 hours, but I feel like I have made significant progress along the way.
Hopefully that will continue without much more struggle.
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