Lome: it's not malaria...

So last week, a day and a half after I came back to Togo from Senegal, I got hit with some heavy flu symptoms. I immediately thought it might be malaria, which would be quite funny after the way I closed my last post, and would make sense from the ungodly amount of mosquito bites I got in Dakar. But alas, I waited it out for a day, hobbling around and staying mostly in bed, consulted the guidance of some contacts in Boston, and it seems like I had a case of food poisoning. Lucky for me, I got over the symptoms in about 36 hours and felt like a new person afterwards. The sad thing is, since I returned from Senegal, I had bought groceries and only made food for myself at home. So indeed, I had poisoned myself... of all the VERY sketchy foods I have eaten in the street in West Africa, I finally got food poisoning from something I prepared at home. At the time that I was sick, I'd almost preferred it was malaria, because that way, I would have been sure what caused it, and wouldn't have been surprised. But food? It may have been the tomatoes, I had just rinsed them with water and we have to wash all produce here with a bit of bleach...

Tom was away on vacation for a little over a week after I got back to Lome, and at first it was nice to be home and enjoy the apartment, but after a few days I admit I started to get cabin fever. I've never really been alone in such a big apartment before, plus we don't have lounge furniture yet so I go between the chair and table and my bed. I definitely have a new appreciation for some of our Foundation staff members who are alone in various parts of the world (Tom)... it can get quite lonely and tough to focus.

On a positive note, rainy season here in Togo is over! (Though a mini rainy season will reappear in about a month)

:)