Some of that Crowley-Buck Luck

So you know how our family is doomed to suffer the weirdest and worst things when we travel because somehow it makes a great story later? Well lo-and-behold Melissa's African Adventure has taken place. Thought I'd drop a line about it cause I think its pretty funny in retrospect and I'm sure you've heard about the results from Mom. And I'm terrible at keeping in touch.
So the reason I'm even near a computer right now and not off having fun African adventures in Etoshia National Park with the rest of the group. What's that? You think something went wrong with my collarbone? OF COURSE something went wrong with my collarbone! Lets go back shall we?
So for part of our time here we do a rural homestay in northern Namibia. The whole no electricity, running water, terra cotta huts work on their farm gambit (which actually I was really pumped for. So I get on my homestay and I'm having an amazing time. Other than having to milk goats and cows for the two hours before sunrise, build fires every morning at dawn that would last the whole day, kill and de-feather three chickens, help slaughter a goat, didnt have a shower for six days and the average temperature from sunrise to sunset was 94 to 100 degrees...I really enjoyed myself. Seriously I did, I loved the people who lived on the farm and the work was oddly liberating. But oh how these things change. Im not sure when exactly but my collarbone ruptured again. But I left it b/c I didnt want to worry my family/my Damara-Nama only works with me if your talking about farm stuff or pleasantries. But by mid-afternoon, it was making me really sick and someone finally noticed it under my shirt. So now the whole farm is involved and they've stopped work for the day to take care of this. They call in the only two donkey carts they have and put me in one and send the other to the next farm to see if they have a cell phone so they could call the program coordinators. Now I get to ride in the donkey cart, while getting sick over the side, at high noon so you know its as hot as can be and the only breeze is the smell of donkey butt wafting back to me. Dont worry, its only 11 kilometers to the nearest hospital. We finally get there after the bumpiest ride you could imagine and arrive at a place that is exactly what you would picture a rural hospital in Africa to look like. We get in there and they take me to the "operating room" and tell me (I think) That it is severely infected and they need to drain it and then open it to clean it from the inside. The call in the doctor and I am enormously relieved to find that he speaks perfect English, was Nigerian, and studied Medicine in Europe. But Im still in full on panic mode right now and do my best to explain that i at least want to wait for people from the program to get there. Two of my professors arrive (one of whom I happen to have a huge crush on) and start talking to the doctor about what needs to be done. Unfortunately the hospital ran out of packaged (a.k.a. clean) needles two days before and the Doctor did not trust the needles that he had access to but he made it my choice.......UMMMMMM NO THANK YOU! So now i get to have my little operation with out any painkillers or anesthetics. I wont go into detail about that, mostly because I passed out half way thru. But I wake up later on a bench in the hallway with my friend Anna and my teacher Romanos sitting on the floor next to me and little kids playing with my hair. (Little kids love white peoples hair and there were no extra beds, thus bench). But now i get to ride in a van back to my homestay. Unfortunately they have slaughtered another goat for me so I can eat properly and "rest". For the next two days I went back to get it re-dressed and the nurses and doctor we so kind and good to me. But on Saturday morning I woke up to find that one of my poor teachers drove her truck all the way up from Windhoek to get me and bring me back to the city so i could see a doctor there. Now this sucks for three reasons: 1. I had to leave before our camping Safari in Etosha National Park. 2. The truck broke down on the way so we had to hitchhike back and i spent 3 hours in the back of some truck that played "Will You Be There" by Michael Jackson on loop pretty much he whole time and 3. I now am on bed/couch rest for the rest of the week while my friends ride elephants and wrestle tigers in the North.
But rest assured that I am fine now and am in communication with Mom, my Doctor at home, and the best of the best in the city. The only bad part is that I'm going to have to baby it like crazy so it heals right. And we all know how much I hate that! Just Kidding.
But I still think it was a memorable experience and I was never at all in any danger, just discomfort. And one important thing to understand is that Namibians are very very kind. I always felt taken care of and safe. And hitchhiking is not only very safe, but is the main way of getting around for most Namibians. All-in-all, this continues to be an adventure.