An over-due update!

The following blog-post is one that I drafted last Saturday afternoon with the intent of posting the next day. However, at 4:45 am last Sunday morning I woke with a high fever, headache and (hope you’re not squeamish) diarrhea. By the time my community-mates had come home from mass, I had fainted in my doorway from my illness and dehydration. I wound up in a local hospital with an IV in my arm for nine hours that Sunday. This hospital could not find anything wrong with me (not malaria, typhoid, or any of the other usual diagnoses) and they sent me home with a shot of pain medication in my butt and a hefty amount of Tylenol. After spending a rough night on the toilet, I knew that I wasn’t simply suffering from the Flu. So on Monday I decided to take myself to a Dutch clinic in town that was recommended to us by a family friend in Dar es Salaam. I have to admit that it was comforting to see a doctor who spoke English by this point; I don’t think I’ve ever been so sick in my life. I was diagnosed with an ameba and a bacterial infection in my intestine. I was prescribed some medication and am on the mend! Thankfully, I only had to miss the first two days of school this week. So, without further ado, here’s the blog-post that should have been up last week:

Mambo Vipi!

I hope that you are all doing really well. It’s been too long since my last blog-post. Life got BUSY for me in March... which was actually quite stressful at some points, but also exciting. My busyness meant having the comfort to throw myself into this new place in my life and to feel part of it all here.

I battled an illness at one point in early March that really made me saddened by the reality of health-care here. We had a past volunteer, Suzy, come to visit with her law school and we had so much fun swapping stories and seeing the love that she still receives from the Mabibo community. My second-year community-mate, Gretchen, had her family here for nine days! It was wonderful to meet them and to be part of sharing Gretchen’s life for the last year and a half (or so) with her family.

Following the visit of Gretchen’s family, we prepared, typed, proctored, and marked all of the mid-term tests for our students, and then we said goodbye to them for the past two weeks while we went on break. This vacation time has been such a blessing for me. I have really been able to focus on a little bit of self-care (getting caught-up on sleep, laundry, journaling, etc.) and also on building and strengthening relationships here. I have been dancing, have had dinners, and have gone into town with new friends that I and my community-mates are making. In fact, Shea and I traveled to the beach a few days ago with our friend Nati (a Jesuit scholastic) and had a great time swimming in the Indian Ocean while a beautiful rainstorm broke over us.

One of the best things that I did over break was to visit another JV house in Moshi. My fellow JV friends showed me around Moshi and it was great to catch a glimpse of their lives there. It was so wonderful to be able to talk with them and to share our stories, struggles, and joys. I also loved the nature and beauty of Moshi. I was able to see Mt. Kilimanjaro and let me tell you: It is beautiful. The mountains, fields, and GREEN in Moshi were rejuvenating for me, and I was able to re-center myself again for the coming weeks.

 So while the past two months have been crazy, it feels like LIFE... not just a visit somewhere or an extended stay. I’m really happy. I feel like I am where I should be right now. I am living in a way that I’ve wanted to live for so long, and I am coming to find that it does suit me well! I’ve found so much peace with the intentionality that I certainly struggled with at first. I realized that I experienced rather intense culture shock over the first month or two of my time here in Dar. But after I recognized what was happening, I was able to work through it all and find the ME that I was hoping to discover and cultivate.

I hope that you are all doing well and, if you’re in the States, are enjoying Spring! I love receiving emails, letters, and packages from you all. Thank you for your communication. It really does mean so much to me, even if I am not always able to reciprocate. I love and miss you all!

Only good things,

Cat