The next day we had conclusive proof that the caterpillars had been causing the mysterious rashes that had earlier afflicted some of the other volunteers – both Anna and I woke with lovely, incredibly itchy, red dots all up and down our arms and on our necks and two other volunteers who'd already suffered were attacked again ... lovely. For me, this was compounded by my trip to the hospital they day before – all good but my cold from last week had migrated to a sinus infection and so I'd gone in for some antibiotics. I'd been impressed with the hospital – it was on the other side of Bombolulu village in a Muslim area and the facilities and staff were good and efficient - I was out in 30 minutes all for 200 shillings ($3) to see the doctor and 1,500 ($22) for 7 days of antibiotics the size of horse pills plus antihistamines. I became extra grateful for the antihistamines given the caterpillars ...
At school that morning, we discovered we had not been the only ones affected by the caterpillars – our classroom had been especially hard hit as the tree with the caterpillars was just outside and the wind blew directly in the window. Luckily we were able to move the class to another room at least temporarily – however, neither we nor the kids could stop scratching ... we conjugated a few new verbs – to itch and to scratch ... and then moved on to cover some English and math. My realization for the day was just renewed appreciation for the school supplies we take for granted at home – we had 6 rulers and 3 protractors for our class 13. It worked but boy those were valuable commodities – they all wanted one at the beginning of class and we needed to ensure we got them back again at the end.
We had learned that the intent of the schedule was that we cover the English, Math and Science classes and then the rest such as Social Studies and Kiswahili were covered by the local teachers. So when we realized that our classes were over by lunch, 4 of us most impacted by the caterpillars, decided that we would head over to the Reef Hotel where Barbara was still stuck (she'd hurt her back and was trying to get home but having challenges getting on a flight out of Mombasa). We spent a lovely afternoon hanging out with her, catching her up on the experience of teaching in the school term and enjoying the pool – I've never been so happy to be submerged under water up to my chin – for at least a little while there was relief from the itching. I'm a wimp I know :-)
Editors note – I'm in India editing this and my aversion of caterpillars is remarkably alive ... had to exit a big hairy one from the yoga hall the other day and then today, saw a little tiny one hanging very near me at breakfast, that looked far to similar to the African variety and I had to have someone remove it. While small bugs have never been a favorite, I'm not normally this bad, but the memory of the intense itching is still just too fresh to be repeated anytime soon!
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