A case of the Tuesdays

Most people hate Mondays, they have to go back to work and feel sluggish and something- in their minds- always goes wrong. But I seem to always have a case of the Tuesdays. My mom pointed this out to me as I recapped what happened to me two Tuesdays ago.

I was getting ready for a BIG event that I was putting on in a neighboring village. It was Tuesday and the event was Wednesday so I had a lot to do. I woke up did some yoga (typical Peace Corps volunteer right) and started to get ready for my day. I noticed my bike had a flat and I was
determined to fix it myself. It was the back tire which is always tricky and I couldn’t even unscrew the wheel. So as usual I asked one of my teachers to fix it but that meant I had to do all my running around (carrying chickens, buying maze, prepping the school which was 8km away) on foot. I start my errands and try to arrange transport for the chickens luckily they weren’t alive or I really would’ve had a problem.

First order of business, go pick up 10 chickens and the 3 gallons of beans, which I had already bought. I walked 5km (not bad) to Tazama where I bought the chickens, as I pass the fence I see a new dog in the yard of the house where I bought the chickens. The dog runs to the gate and I greet it- no biggie I greet all dogs. But this dog was evil and decided it would be a good idea to run behind me and bite me! So the dog bites me and just like it takes a baby a while to realize that its hurt after it falls, it took me a second to realize the pain in my leg was from this dog biting me. I look down and see blood and immediately start screaming at the dog and crying. I wasn’t
crying because it hurt, which it did, I was crying because I knew I was going to have to travel to Lusaka a good 8-10 hours away. Finally the owner comes and we go inside to do business over these chickens. My leg is still bleeding but I’m just worried about getting my chickens and leaving. The boys who were getting things together kept telling me to go to the clinic, 5k in the opposite direction. My leg HURTS now and I can’t imagine walking that far anymore. So I leave the boys to gather the chickens and beans as I start walking to the clinic, luckily a car passes and
drives me there instead.

It’s still pretty early so no one is at the clinic so I try getting a hold of Lusaka. I step outside and wait for medical to call me back and out of no where a puppy jumps in my lap. It was of course none other than Nikki- one of Hendrix’s puppies. She finds me every Tuesday because I have class at the Church where she lives that happens to be next to clinic. (Needless to say class was
cancelled that day). But since I’ve just been bitten by a dog, I’m out of it and not realizing that this is a nice dog, so I freak out. In the middle of my “freaking out” one of the clinic officers came out and got me. I FINALLY realize which dog it was a calmed down and the clinic officer starts to clean my leg. He couldn’t do much more than that, medical had called me back and told me that
I needed to get to Lusaka as fast as I could but since I had a rabies shot already I could wait a day and do my event (YAY!) but the only thing the clinic could do was help me clean my leg. While I’m at the clinic, my best friend in the village Julie calls to ask me a question. She happens to ask me where I was and once I told her what happened she told me she was coming to the clinic, 5
mins later she was there holding my and telling me not to worry. All while I’m getting cleaned up, talking to Lusaka and holding Julie’s hand, Nikki is waiting outside the door whining, making sure I was ok. That made all the Zambians laughs because they couldn’t believe that this dog remembered me and was actually concerned. After I got cleaned up, I went back to finding
transport for the chickens. Since I had missed my original transport I had to hitch with a bag of 10 chickens and 3 gallons of beans. Great. But it wasn’t so bad. I dropped those off at the school and headed back to my village. On the way to the school, several people stopped to ask me if I was ok, word had gotten around that I was bitten. It’s funny. People I didn’t even know well
were telling me sorry and trying to help me. My teachers saw the bandage on my leg and got really worried until I told them that I was sure the dog was vaccinated-which it was, and I had already had a rabies shot. I was never worried about rabies just and infection. Hard to keep a wound clean in the village especially since it was rainy season and the path to my house is just
one big mud puddle.

This was when my mom told me I had a case of the Tuesdays seeing as the Tuesday before I had fallen off my bike…trying to make sure Nikki didn’t follow me to the road. Typical.

If this would have happened in the beginning of my service I’m sure I would not have found humor in the situation. But since it’s at the end and I feel like I’ve been through everything. Just the night before while I was cooking dinner a bat flew in the kitchen, and I jokingly said it would be just my luck that Id get rabies and not being able to do my event. I am used as they say. The rest of the Tuesday was great through. A teacher bought me a Pepsi, I had a phone interview with the Girl Scouts to work at a camp this summer and I had a warm bucket bath.

My event was a GREAT success on Wednesday; I went to Lusaka Thursday and was put on antibiotics and got two post exposure shots. And I ended up getting a PC ride from Lusaka
all the way to my door! I’m fine now. The infection is going away and the wound is healing slowly but surely. Just another Tuesday in the Vil.