Leaving Grace Baptist Church, Thursday, Dec 3

After 4 hours of playing with the children at Grace Baptist Church, we prayed for the pastor and his team then we were ready for the journey back to Addis. The pastor asked if we could take his cousin back with us. We agreed. The cousin was a young woman in her 20's. She had a baby with her. It was not long before we realized she was very sick. She said she had some sort of intestinal issue. Every 20-30 minutes we had to stop the car because she was so sick. The road was not like on many US highways where there are rest stops, fast food places or gas stations along the way. No, the road to Addis from Kombolcha is miles and miles of nothing. So, our traveler had no choice but to be sick on the side of the road. We gave her water and wipes to clean up a bit, we gave her Tums and Bonine but nothing helped.

A few hours into the journey she said she could not go on. She had an aunt in a village a few miles ahead, she asked if we would let her out at the village entrance.


Our driver stopped so they could get out of the van. I wondered how far would she have to walk to her aunt's home? Many Ethiopians walk miles each day but this woman was sick, she was probably dehydrated, she had to carry a baby.... Would her aunt be home? We had no choice but to let her go.

Our drivers were concerned about driving on the treacherous roads after dark AND were concerned that restaurants were not safe (sanitary enough) for westerners so we did not stop to eat. We enjoyed granola, peanut butter crackers and nuts for lunch. This was much more than many of the children at Grace Baptist Church would eat that day.
The journey to the guest house took a little over 9 hours.


Right before I went to bed Tom L. was talking to me. I said something to him that made no sense. I knew I wasn't making any sense so I headed for my room. I went to bed around midnight feeling very emotional. I thought it was from all we had seen in the last few days. Soon I realized it was something more serious. I heard voices in my head. When I closed my eyes I saw a wolf and a cat talking in my head, their voices would not stop. I saw alligator wallpaper that was not there. I opened my eyes and I saw little people in the corner of our room... they were as tall as gnomes. I asked Heather and Karen if they saw the little people. They did not. Karen quickly realized that I was hallucinating which was quite a relief to me. I knew something was wrong but couldn't figure it out. It was a side effect of the malaria medicine I was taking. Heather prayed that I would stop hearing the voices so I would be able to sleep. I slept fitfully but the voices were gone. I was able to switch to another malaria medicine (thanks to Pete) which did not have the same side effects. I was ready for Friday.