A trip to the clinic

Monday 28th March
It was cool and windy first thing then the rain came for a couple of hours. Once it finished, it soon became quite hot.
Mid-morning we set off to walk to the clinic. We went around the coastal route as pastor thought the hillier route would be too slippery after the rain. On the way, he popped in to briefly visit one or two people, and we were amazed to come across some really tall banana palms, much bigger than usual. We had a soda as Kiiza's, very welcome in the heat. The picture top right is of flowering coffee, it has a lovely scent. The other photo is of young coffee beans.
This photo shows pastor's boat. He's started up a small business buying up goods and selling them on the other islands. He also sells his own surplus produce. The other boat with two ladies in it was going to be used as an ambulance for Fideli's mother. A group of men had left home once the rain stopped, carrying her somehow. That would be a long and slow journey on foot, much easier once she was in the boat. Her condition had deteriorated further, and really, we though there was little chance of her surviving. Pastor was a little concerned that we hadn't met up with the 'stretcher' party on the way, and kept asking people whether they’d seen them or heard of their passing.
At one stage along the path, we heard the sound of deep-voiced singing, and came upon a group of fishermen hauling in a net. Bruce couldn't resist joining in, but I'm not sure he got the rhythm right! A little further on, we came across another group of fishermen, silent this time, hauling in the other end of the net. Bruce said it was very heavy and really hard work. They didn’t think they’d managed to catch many fish.
Once we arrived at the clinic, we sat in the waiting room until the morning session was completed. We'd met the original missionaries, Dale and Chris Hamilton, back in 2007, and had really enjoyed spending a little time with them. Now they have been sent to Nairobi to head up the African division of AIM. Dale is a pilot and leads the floatplane division, and Chris (short for Christine) is a doctor. The new doctor and his wife come from Texas, and have been on Bumbire for two years (Bill and Dorothy).
There was only an opportunity for a short chat, as they were due to leave the island by boat to go to Mwanza to pick up a trainee doctor, but we were given a warm welcome and a glass of cold water, very pleasant in the heat. They were going to have quite a long trip, as they would have to sleep on another island on the way, and then spend a week in Mwanza before returning to Bumbire.
We arrived back at the Mugaruras’ around 2 pm, not having received any news about Fideli’s mother on the way. We had let the doctor know that she was coming, but as he was going to be absent for a week, she would have to see the nurse, who could do some tests and prescribe some medication. I was feeling rather dehydrated by mid-afternoon and my stomach didn't feel too good after our late lunch either. Unfortunately we'd used up all our water, and pastor had forgotten to ask mama the previous evening to boil us some more.
I started vomiting about 5pm, and it became quite persistent, so mama brought me a basin as I didn't have enough warning to be able to get far enough away from the hut. Filipo, an ex-Bible school student of ours, who, like Pastor Mugarura, had attended Harvest Bible School in 2004, turned up and wanted to have a big discussion about some rather controversial subjects. I eventually had to excuse myself as I was feeling too sick, so poor Bruce was left in the small room listening to a lot of (to him) unintelligible talk in Swahili, as I couldn't translate it for him.
I soon ended up with another problem which necessitated running to the choo, unfortunately at a little distance from the house. I also developed a bad headache. Bruce said that I felt feverish, but I didn’t think it was too bad. Once we had some more water, I tried to sip it mixed with Gastrolyte, but it didn't stay down long.