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July 8th, 2009 | Africa

Down, and nearly out…!!

Improvements in the production at the factory are continuing to raise the morale of the workforce, and there are days when I wish I had arrived here a year ago… The future would have been so much different, I believe…

Heavy rain has fallen over the area for the last five or six days, and the mud that gets churned up by the heavy log-moving machinery is something to see ! In front of the sawmill, it is almost a metre deep… I have had all the drains and storm water trenches cleaned out and most of the rain water flows swiftly away. This little exercise was performed by all those workers who had in one way or another, annoyed me… There names were added to the “Drain-cleaning Detail”, and on weekends, they were made to report for work, where they were issued shovels and wheelbarrows, and each given sections of the storm water drain channels to clean. The drains had not been cleared of the mud and debris from previous rainy seasons, for a few years, and although the concrete drains themselves are over a metre deep, some of them were filled to the brim with muck ! This led to a few “flooding incidents” which I was determined to put a stop to ! I also had all of the bridges over the trenches replaced with new blocks of Dahoma, an extremely heavy and hard wearing timber, which allows even the heaviest forklift to ride over them and into the factory without a problem…

When the rain sets in, the factory turns into a quagmire…. This is the entrance to the sawmill…

Building Bridges...

Then came the mozzies…..

Over the past few months, I have been careful not to venture out of doors after dark, as the squadrons of mosquitoes that abound here are something to behold… Many of the workforce come down with malaria from time to time, and it would seem that there are two different strains of the disease… One, is known as “small malaria”, the effects of which seem to last only a few days… The other, is the type that can be life-threatening. A friend of mine who now lives in Barbados, and worked here in Mim for a few years, lost his 16 year old son to this disease. His son had came to visit Mogens from Denmark, to spend time with him during his school holidays. After a few weeks with his father, he returned to Denmark, and became very ill.  Unfortunately, he was initially mis-diagnosed by doctors who had never treated a malaria patient before, and the delay in getting the proper treatment, led to his untimely death…

Although I took as many precautions as I could, knowing how much mosquitoes love the taste of my blood, I fully expected to come down with malaria at some time or another… In early June, I began feeling the flu like symptoms which herald the onset of malaria. I began taking the Malaria drops which had been prescribed for me by a pharmacist back home, prior to my departure. This mixture is a powerful, Liver-flushing agent, which is supposed to be taken on a daily basis if you find yourself in an area rife with malaria bearing mosquitoes… The stuff tasted like drain cleaner, and seemed to numb my taste buds for hours afterward… As a result, I had never prescribed to the “regular doses” which I was told to take…

I mistakenly believed that the tonic on it’s own would sort me out, but after a few days, I could hardly bring myself to walk from my bungalow to my car, for the drive down to the factory… I had to force myself to eat even the smallest of meals, and got by on a handful of peanuts and the occasional slice of bread…and even that usually ended up in the basin or the toilet, depending which was closer at the time I was having the “heaves”…! Needless to say, I had shed a number of kilo’s and was feeling as weak as a kitten, but stubbornly refused to believe that I was in any serious trouble…

My Deputy, Albert Zanu, had been away in Accra for a few days, and on his return, walked into the office we shared, took one look at me and said,

“M.D. , we have to get you to a doctor…quickly !”

“Why?” I replied, “I think it is just a bout of flu…” I replied…

“Flu does not make your skin go grey !” was his reply. “Come, we must go now!”

He hustled me out to the car and we drove out onto the main road, heading for the only doctor in the vicinity, a Pakistani who had set up a clinic near to the areas only mosque, which was a short distance away. I was marched through to the front of a long line of L.S.D.’s (Lame, Sick and Dead…the front porch, “waiting room” and corridors were littered with villagers in various states of dis-repair…) and found myself face to face with the doctor, who was jammed behind a desk covered in various medicines. He gave me a long look with his doe-like eyes, and then pronounced in a loud voice,

“You are sick!”

“You think ?” I replied, wondering what I was letting myself in for…

“Yes…., definitely! Your colour is all wrong!” he went on. “I have the medicine you need…”

This all without laying a finger or a stethoscope on me… These bush doctors are amazing !

After a pro-longed session of poking and prodding, and questions like, “Are you still making such nice furniture?” and “Can you supply me with some Benches and Tables”, he shoved a few packets of tablets into my hands and ordered me to “Go home and rest for a few days…”

I duly spent the next few days sprawled in, or on top of my bed, either sweating bullets, or wrapped in as many blankets as I could find…. Not much fun, this Malaria lark…! My appetite was non-existent, and over the period I stayed at home, I didn’t trouble the stove or the fridge very much… At times I felt as though an elephant had taken residence on top of me, and at other, like I was floating up off the bed and in danger of colliding with the ceiling fan above me… I had the weirdest dreams, some very entertaining, while others filled me with a deep sense of sadness and melancholy…

By the following week, I felt much better and resumed normal duties. I flew back to South Africa on the 18th of June, and I realised that my body had taken a serious knock when I did not have the strength to close the overhead locker on the plane…! All it contained was my laptop, and when the diminutive stewardess closed it with one finger, I knew that things weren’t all good with me ! On arrival at home, I weighed myself, and found that I was 15kgs short of the weight that I had left with just 4 months previously… After a battery of blood tests, it was confirmed that I was on the mend and prescriptions for various multi-vitamins were suggested to get my general health back on track.

I can seriously recommend Malaria to all those who are considering joining Weight watchers….!! Or to those who enjoy hallucinations without having to indulge in any additive form of drug !!

A short while before I left Ghana for good, I had another little run-in with malaria, but this time Mrs. B’s little boy recognised the onset of the symptoms and got stuck into his medication, which included a short course of Coartem, as well as the “Liver Flushing, Drain Cleaner Like Tasting” Malaria drops, and within a few days I was right as rain !!

If anybody out there can tell me why the Good Lord chose to add mosquitoes to his list of “Things to do While I Create”, please let me know….

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