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Monday, November 29, 2010

Apia makes me homesick....for Savai'i

Stuck in Apia
Oh, Apia. Some days you are a great place to eva (hang out) in, and many times you get to be too much, and I just get homesick for Savai’i. If it were not for Thanksgiving I would be enjoying a great weekend in my village. I would be eating a lot, relaxing and enjoying myself. But I was planning on going to Apia for Thanksgiving.
I ended up arriving in Apia earlier than expected, since I needed to see our medical officer on her day off (I felt horrible for doing that to her!). On Friday morning I found myself having a staring contest with a horse to pass the time before the bus arrived. I finally arrived “downtown” at about 8.
Apia is great in many ways because I get to see my friends. I don’t realize how much I miss them, until I get to see them. I love the people that I have met here, Peace Corps, Australian volunteers, Japanese volunteers, and my other local friends. Samoa has such a small population that I feel like I know just about everyone. If I don’t know them, they definitely know me. A few times I was stopped this weekend by someone I didn’t know and they told me my name, village, and even which family I live with. It is really strange (and maybe borderline creepy).
I was really looking forward to a quick trip over here. I was looking forward to being back in my village doing the plans I already had in place. Instead on Friday, after a quick trip to see my medical officer, I was taken to the hospital (I am happy it was a private one) for them to open up my infection and take the disgusting things out of it.
I am a person who does really badly with shots, and blood, one of the things I inherited from my mother, so while this was going on, I was seeing double and in a lot of pain. Thankfully I had a hotel room with air conditioning to go back to. (As well as Rachel who was willing to bring delicious ice cream to much on)
The following day, I went to see my medical officer for her to clean up my infected area, and for the first time saw the gaping hole by my armpit. I was told to stay in town until Monday.
Today is Monday, the hole is getting smaller because of how amazing my medical officer is about coming in on her days off to help me clean it out and re-bandage it. I am really looking forward to the ferry home, since I know it will only be a quick trip to Savai’i.
Oh Apia, I love you, but I’ve had enough. I am ready for home.

1 comment:

  1. My daughter also got one of those nasty infected boils in her armpit as well when she was there. But she was much less genteel, much more graphic in her description..included nasty pictures as well. After reading what she went through, I feel your pain

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