Unearthly hour

Apart from the blurry photo, can anyone guess what it's all about?

Yesterday Grant felt ill - feverish, shaky with aching joints so he went to the company clinic for a malaria test. Sister Jo-Anne had gone to El Doret with a patient and as she's the only one who runs the test, Grant was asked to return later on that evening.  At 6, I went along with Grant but Jo-Anne had still not returned and the technician on duty said he'd phone us when she did. Straight after dinner, Grant went to bed and when I joined him at 10, he was tossing and turning and very hot to the touch. By midnight his groans woke me and he was so hot that I offered to drive him to the clinic to see if Jo-Anne had arrived. He did what most men do: he refused. Resigned,  I turned around and tried to get some sleep.

At 2.25, I woke up again, Grant was sitting up and clutching his head (one of the symptoms is a sever headache) and this time he looked so ill that I decided to phone the clinic to see if anyone could help us. When I picked up Grant's mobile which he'd left in the diningroom, I saw there'd been a missed call from the technician at 11pm! I promptly returned the call and the technician answered, saying we should come to the clinic immediately. When we arrived, the technician told us that Jo-Anne had done the test when she returned at 11 and it was postive. Grant had malaria. Fortunately there is an anti-malarial drug which once you've taken the first of three large tablets, begins to work against the virus.

To get to the clinic you have to drive through a village which was very dark yesterday morning : no street lights, no security lights. Halfway,  we came across a flock of goats sleeping in the middle of the sandy road. They were very reluctant to move so I got out of the vehicle and trotted through the sleepy animals waving my arms and shooe-ing them softly. If the owner had looked out of his house and seen a fifty-something Mzungu (foreigner) woman dancing with his goats at 3am, he'd probably shake his head and go back to bed!  When we returned from the clinic, the goats were - you guessed it - asleep in the road. I got out of the car again and did my nifty little number again so that Grant could drive through without causing any injuries to Kenyan livestock. 

By yesterday evening, Grant got up, showered and ate his first meal since the night before. He's feeling much better today and has gone to work.

All's well, that ends well.