Back Home

After a couple weeks in Pretoria I'm finally back in Namibia and ready to head back to site. This week I was able to make a trip to Johannesburg to the Apartheid Museum and some other sites around Soweto including Nelson Mandela's old house. Somehow that seems to justify all the time I was there. I've recovered well from surgery but the inflammation around my eustachian tube is not expected to subside for three months. In short, my symptoms are exactly the same as before I went for surgery but there is hope that I will be feeling completely better by July. Hopefully there will be some improvement at least as the weeks pass. It is nice to be in Namibia again, Pretoria had gotten cold this week but Namibia is still going strong with temperatures topping 90 everday. Winter is coming but now I'm not allowed to go swimming anyway (tubes in my ears) so it doesn't make much difference now. The good thing about Pretoria is that even when it is hot there are large trees along every road so you can walk mostly in the shade wherever you are going. In Windhoek I put on sunscreen before I go for a ten minute walk to the mall. I'll have this week to review some work with my classes and then they will have end of the term exams. We're going to be really far behind from the three weeks I was not around but we'll manage. It is nice to have exams coming because that is a less work intensive time for me to continue to relax some and let myself heal up.

surgery

A week gone bumming around Pretoria and finally I've sat down at a computer. Travelling from Namibia to South Africa is an easy flight and Peace Corps takes care of rides to and from the airport so it was mostly painless. I made a quick stop at the Peace Corps office and met the doctor in charge of all the medical evacuations in the area. We went through the whole story in preparation for my appointment with the ENT and then he invited me to join the other PCV in town for dinner at his house. His wife was a PCV several years back so they understand how nice a home cooked mexican meal is for us. So I saw the ENT and after his examination he suggested the same treatment as the doctor in Namibia so the surgery was scheduled for Tuesday pending approval from Washington. He had me take a hearing test which showed my hearing was fine but the right eustachian tube was not functioning properly, consistent with my symptoms. I spent the weekend with one other medevac from Tanzania and some PCVs from South Africa that were in Pretoria after a workshop. The weekend was fun and my fears were relieved Monday morning when I learned that Washington had approved my surgery. I went in early Tuesday morning with no assurances that the surgery would solve the problem but with the knowledge that it is the only option left since I haven't responded to any other treatment. It took an hour to be admitted, another hour for paperwork at the day ward and then I could get in bed and sleep while I waited for my turn in theater. Sometime around noon they rolled me away and by 3pm I had woken back up. During that time the doctor performed a functional endoscopic sinus surgery & anstostomy & adenoidectomy & tubinectomy (can't really read how that last one is spelled). That means he went through my nose to open up my sinuses, remove the inflammed adenoidal tissue and put tubes in both my ears. Shortly after I woke up they moved me to my room for the night where I read until they brought dinner, chicken and mozzarella salad. By 6pm I was feeling pretty good so I called the nurse in to find out where the nearest phone was, assuming she would want to accompany me but she just let me cruise down the hall to make a couple phone calls. It was surprising how quickly I was feeling mostly normal after surgery. Wednesday morning I saw the doctor again and got all my medicine together and let myself out of the hospital. Since then I've been resting some but also going out for dinner in the evenings. Today I just bought some McDonalds and am planning to stay in and hopefully be feeling well by the weekend. The biggest thing I've dealt with is congestion in my nose. I'm not allowed to blow my nose because thats where the incisions are but its packed full of blood clots that have been slowing loosening up and clearing out enough space for me to breathe. The other problem is the tubes in my ears. Right now they're a bit uncomfortable and until that heals there is no way to tell if the surgery fixed the problem. So now I've got a few more days to kill in Pretoria before I see the doctor again next week and check on my progress. At least the guest house where I'm staying is nice, although no chance to get any NCAA basketball. The cricket world cup is going on right now so that is the big sports news, South Africa is the top rated team in the world so the television coverage is pretty thorough.

Hiking

As in hitchhiking. Before I came to Namibia I was eager to do some hitching since its a lost art in the USA. Transport in Namibia is limited to semi-regulated public transport and private cars. For the longest routes there are buses (expensive) and trains (dreadfully slow) but neither applies to the routes I travel. Last week I had to travel to Windhoek so after school on Tuesday I found a ride to town with a teacher that happened to be going to do some shopping. After spending the night with another PCV I set out to find a ride to Windhoek. By 8:45 I had walked to the edge of town and started trying to flag down a car. An hour later I had grown impatient and started walking back into town to the place to arrange the semi-regulated public transport with the first car leaving anywhere along my route. The problem is that Grootfontein is not on the main north south road through Namibia so there is not a lot of traffic, if you can get to the B1 its much easier to get a hike. I had walked about 30 meters and I finally got a car to stop. He was going to Tsumeb, to the northeast, which is not exactly on my route, but it is on the B1 so I took that free ride 60km to Tsumeb. The town of Tsumeb is 1km from the main intersection of the highways so I got dropped out at the intersection figuring a 1km walk wouldn't be so bad if I couldn't get anyone to stop. I had a little water with me and it was only 11:00. Several cars passed, one stopped but wanted N$80 to get to Windhoek so I let them go, and then a red tin can of a truck stopped to pick me up. He was going to Swakopmund, but that would at least get me to Otjiwarongo. We sped along towards our destination, tailgating a similar truck at speeds in excess of 150km/hr for a while. At one point he slammed a dumpie of Tafel (a small bottle of beer). I was going to object if he went for another but one small beer is relatively tame on Namibian roads. Once we arrived in Otjiwarongo, I stopped off at a friends house to leave some things from my pack and learned that there was a Peace Corps car heading towards Windhoek. I confirmed that a seat was available, waited about three hours and had completed a free trip from Coblenz to Windhoek. It took all day, but it was free. And we saw a rhino 20 meters from the highway about 40km north of Windhoek.

My second trip to Windhoek, just one week later went in similar fashion. It took about 3 hours to cover the first 80km from Coblenz to Grootfontein so by the time I was in town it was noon. Since it was already late and getting hot my plan was to go to the public transport and take the first car that left. Two combies had already left that morning and the only other vehicle there was waiting for eight more passengers before he would drive. My best guess is 4pm for the departure on that vehicle, so I start checking other options. Right then a car pulled in from Rundu and one passenger got out of the car. They were heading to Oshakati (opposite direction of Windhoek) but that takes them through Tsumeb so I jumped in. The main goal is get out of Grootfontein to anywhere on the B1 and then hope for the best. At 1:20 I got out at the crossroads, set my bag down and planned my strategy. I had eaten in Grootfontein but it was hot so at 1:45 I was going to put on more sunscreen and at 2:30 I would walk to town and arrange whatever I could to get to Windhoek. A few cars passed going the wrong direction then I caught sight of a white bakkie on the road to Windhoek. I signaled, he kept going. No big deal, the first car never stops, nobody gets that lucky. Then he turned around, came back and told me to get in. We tore down the B1 at 150+ km/hr and three hours later he dropped me on the main road two blocks from Peace Corps. We passed everybody on the road, almost hit a cow, but it was one of the safest rides I've had in a while. And I probably got to Windhoek about the time the combie in Grootfontein finally got enough passengers to start the journey.

Now I've arrived safely in Pretoria, South Africa and will see another ENT tomorrow morning. South Africa is the regional medical evacuation center for the whole continent. Once I finish with that consultation we should be able to move forward with some treatment that will actually solve the problem of my ears. The Peace Corps doctor here said that any surgeries (even something simple like adenoidectomy) has to be approved by Washington which takes a day or two so will probably be around here for a week at the minimum. Peace Corps has a computer just for people like me on medevac so I will be able to send and receive email during this ordeal.

If I ever forget where I'm living I remember this list of animals I have seen while driving around Namibia (excluding game reserves): kudu, oryx, springbok, giraffe, zebra, rhino, cheetah, warthog, baboon, and many snakes, lizards (4 ft. long monitor) and birds.

Free Vacation

Not exactly vacation but a trip. I saw the doctor this morning and he was ready to remove my adeniods this afternoon. However Peace Corps doesn't want to do the procedure in Namibia so I am headed back to site until an appointment is arranged in South Africa. I'm mostly frustrated by this because I will spend an hour at the hospital but it will now take several days with all the travel.