Sickness, Cellphones and Ant Attack

The title reminds me of an old B Movie. Probably just he Ant Attack part. Anywhoo, Picture links should be in the section 'title', as in, just click the 'Cell Phone' of the title "11/27 - Cell Phone"

11/27 - Cell Phone
Got a cellphone for my time in Kenya. The number is 0725 381 285 and that should include the country code and all. It costs me about 10 cents to send a text/SMS and about 40 cents/minute to talk; and nothing to receive. Thus I won't be contacting too many people outside of Kenya with it. Sweet phone though, got it for 40 bucks and it has a 'fixed' LCD screen. Black and white with super good battery life.

11/28 - Present (12/16) Surveying
One of my primary farm jobs are to survey and make a map of the compound. I've been working on that off and on now for about 2 weeks. Taking measurements is hard work! the Compound is about 2/3 mile long, 1/4 wide. And I'm measuring it with a 300ft tape measure. Which involves staking down one end, walking 300 ft with it, putting my hat down as a marker, walking back and rolling the tape measure back up, then walking back to my hat to re-stake and start again. Thus, for every 300ft I measure, I walk 900ft. Good exercise! And on some of the walls it isn't 'smooth' ground but some good rivers to forge, brambles to walk through, bugs to frighten.

12/5 - Sickness
On Wednesday the 5th I started to get sick. I don't know what kind of sickness but I was just exhausted all day with a headache and couldn't sleep well that night. One would think dehydration so I drank a lot of water that day and was fully hydrated by lunch. Ever since that sickness I've had much more flem in my throat than normal. Weird. Maybe due to the Malaria meds but I dunno. Speaking of Malaria meds, they do make my dreams a little more vivid. The other night I was dreaming about Zombies (not a scary dream as one would assume, just kinda intense. My dreams rarely are scarey, but sometimes kinda intense) but I did wake up suddenly cause I thought I felt someones hand on my back and heard something. In the dream it was a zombie naturally. That startled me a bit. Oh, and I have bats in my roof that consistently make noise at night so waking up at night from weird noises is also a common occurence. As long as they don't come into my room I'm okay with it. And despite what I thought, they fall a lot. I hear a thud from a falling bat quite often. I guess if I was trying to sleep upside down I would fall too.

12/5 - Gum Oddity
Oh, and also the day I got sick was the day I had some Gum disease. My gum on my back molar was a little sore and upon looking I noticed that a small section of it had receded and was red (more red than your generic gum red that is). This worried me as I like my teeth being healthy, but it didn't grow anymore and the redness and pain disappeared within a couple days. It's still receded, but I'm keeping an eye on it to make sure it doesn't grow. Hopefully the gum will grow back normal. I don't know what caused that. Either way, I don't know what sickness I had on the 5th of December. What causes restless sleeping, headaches, exhaustion, and gum deterioration? Again, I'm back to normal excluding the extra flem and a little less gum in my mouth.

12/8 - Nandi Rock Hike
On the 8th (A Saturday) a number of us went hiking up to the highest point around. Nandi Rock. Which isn't too high but it was a good day hike and good exercise in 85-90 degree heat. Got a good sunburn on some exposed white skin (left shoulder wasn't tan and got exposed for a bit and got nice and red. Now it's peeling)

One tale not in the pictures is that Ants don't like me. At one point while standing and waiting for some people to catch up I was attacked by rabid ants. Maybe I was too close to their home, I dunno. At first it felt like plants were tickling my foot which I just ignored as plants tickling your feet are common when hiking in sandals. Then suddenly it was dozens of little stinging pains all over my feet. I think my reaction was "Ow! HEY!" The ants weren't big enough to break skin so it was just them pinching me with their pincers but it was still a surprise and not something I could just ignore. Then for the next 5 minutes wherever I stood ants would still try to get me. I must have been targeted with the "bite me" smell.