On The Mend

Last Sunday I woke with a number of aches and pains. My head had felt like a hammer had been used on it and the rest of my body was feeling similar. It’s never fun having a week-long headache, but my symptoms are finally beginning to subside. I at least felt like a human being when I woke yesterday. Ha! I went over to the clinic to get some tests done considering they received this new machine from the government that can analyze your blood. My blood and the components (WBC, RBC, HMG, PLT etc.) looked good. The malaria test which is done by analyzing a sample of my blood under a microscope was inconclusive. They didn’t find the parasite, but this could be because of my current prophylaxis (meds to prevent malaria). Christa became sick with malaria a few years back and had to have three tests done before finding out she had malaria. Yeah, I wasn’t going to spend my last days here in pain and worry.

Looking for Malaria under the microscope

I took the antimalarial pills whether I had the disease or not. With under a month to go it was recommended. It seems to me that whatever has been going on inside has packed its bags and begun to leave. The headache was faint yesterday and just about gone today. I became a bit dizzy and congested the past week, but these along with the shivering and other aches and pains have gone. With the shower only pumping out ice the number of showers taken this week was low.

Before resting, I was able to finish out my classes for the week as well as head over to the secondary school for sports time. I just sat and spoke with my students rather than run around, but it was nice to just hang out with them.

I was planning to head into Songea today in order to take care of some errands I have been meaning to get to for some time now. I decided against the idea because I thought it probably wasn’t best getting on a crammed bus just yet. I should be able to get in to town next week.

Other than those few things I have just been resting. A week becomes long when all you do is lay around. I’m not a fan, but it was needed. I am feeling much better and so things should reboot this coming week.

I have been able to get in some good reading which was nice. Apollo is a very good book and it is interesting to see how many obstacles the scientists and engineers had to overcome while planning to send man to the moon. Not only is getting to the moon extremely hard and costly, but the government (yes, even JFK) wasn’t fully onboard. Kennedy, as we all know, finally came around which helped. The number of failed launches and tests that were initiated by NASA and the space program was quite high. Obviously, these failures did help them in noticing the problems and, in the end, aided NASA in their final goal - getting an American to the moon.

This is something to note, though. We failed many, many times in getting a rocket off the ground. The world was lucky the Americans had a worthwhile and grand goal, but I don’t think North Korea has the same in mind. We laugh at their failed attempts of launching rockets, but we must be aware that we were in a similar boat in the 60’s. I hope to never see North Korea launch a rocket, but underestimating an opponent is for the foolish.

I do have to say one of the most impressive ideas that led to a successful lunar landing was the Lunar Orbit Rendezvous (LOR). Having a module separate from the shuttle, navigate its way to the surface, land, takeoff and reconnect back with the shuttle was widely thought to be a harebrained idea and, therefore, it was widely rejected. In the end, it would be one of the main reasons we ever were able to make it to the moon considering landing the entire shuttle on the surface of the moon would most likely have ended in failure.

My parents brought us kids to the Kennedy Space Center when we were young. I remember it being a ton of fun. I think I’ll need to venture down there again sometime soon.

Before bed I sometimes play the card game Hearts on my computer to wind down the day. Being sick this past week has allowed me more time to play. I have now achieved the best score possible and officially beaten the computer. I need friends. Ha!

Thanks for reading!