Malaria tropica

The most likely infection period for a malaria was before August 15th, while staying in Homabay and at Lake Victoria. On August 25th, I developed a high fever and was advised to approach The Centre of Inner Medicine, Department for Infections, HIV and Tropical Medicine of the Clinic of The Johann-Wolfsgang Goethe Universität in Frankfurt Main (Building 68, 1st floor for reception). The quick test immediately showed a positive result for malaria and the microscopy diagnosed a malaria tropica with a 0.6 % density of Plasmodium falciparum. From there is was only a short way, one floor down, where I spent 5 days in stationary treatment. I am not aware, I had more than three mosquito bites during the potential infection period, as I was extremely careful, using net and extra strong repellent at all time. And all of these three were during daytime (when the anopheles is not active). But I must have missed at least one. 

Treatment was with Riamet at 0, 8, 24, 36, 48 and 60 hours. Additionally, because the white blood cells shot up and there was a secondary infection suspected, I received 5 days of IV antibiotics. Malaria of this kind in a very draining experience. But I was surprised, how fast the symptoms faded and also the plasmodium count dropped. Be prepared for hot and cold sweat, fever way above 40 Celsius, attacks of trembling and hallucinations. To make it short: it's like in the movies. 

Well, I learned that in high risk regions it is better to take the malaria prophylaxis (even der side effects are strong). As my friend Erick said on the evening arriving in Kisumu: "Here you are just one bite away from a malaria". He was right.

Plasmodium falciparum (Copyright under Wikipedia Commons license).

"The gods must be crazy"

I was offline for a while and just returned from Kenya to Germany. We visited friends, drove from Nairobi to Homabay villages, then to Kisumu, and through Narok for a short visit to Massai Mara. Then returned to Nairobi for an appearance in Strathmore University. The main purpose of the visit was to support and get a closer impression of www.maklweta.org, which has been founded by Dr. Erick Komolo to support girl's education in rural Kenya, specifically in Homabay.

Students and parents engage together at a mentorship day in St. Mary's Kachar Secondary Girl's School.

This is a very extreme challenge. The region we have been to, has been also chosen by research centres to do field work on diseases and epidemiology. For that you cannot think of a "better" condition: highest HIV penetration in Kenya, very high malaria risk, cholera, diphtheria, typhoid, hepatitis of all kinds, rabies, tetanus. The list is much longer. Even very basic management of these, is rudimentary. Birth rate and teenage pregnancies remain high. So does the number of AIDS orphans. Antiviral medication is available, sometimes not applied properly and in other cases said to increase the spread of HIV, simply because the patients live longer and do not change sexual behaviour. Every village is full of children. Contraception is available, but not consistently applied. Domestic violence and alcohol go hand in hand, as everywhere, but on a presumably very high rates here. There are infrastructure challenges, like transportation and market access. But the lack of money seems more a constraint than a pure root of the problem. There are many things which could improve the situation with no funding at all, by just doing it. I was even joking: "What's a guy digging a well, while 5 drunk Africans are laughing that they found an idiot doing their work? It's a volunteer".

Classroom converted into a dormitory.

Erick has chosen to support girl's education first, because they are extremely vulnerabel. But also, they seem more reliable. Cash given into the hands of most guys on the street is likely to end up in a pub, brothel, or some self brewed spirits. If this vicious circle of Homabay can be broken at all, then it has to start from the girls and their education. It needs role models, mentoring and examples of what is possible. Erick himself is such a role model, making his way from a local school to the University of Nairobi and to his Law PhD at the University of Hong Kong, which is where we met first. Now he is practising law in Nairobi, is engaged with academic research and is committed to use his own example to improve his home province with www.maklweta.org. And I think, he has a very good strategy, how to crack this case by bringing a network of people and very targeted funding exactly to the point where it has to be applied. I would be happy if Erick finds soon a larger base of support. If you like to help, please take his organization's website (which is under construction just now) as first point of entry. It will be highly appreciated by the people of Homabay. This is not immediately a "feel good" or "baby hugging" exercise, though. Many of the faces you will see, might find their premature death within the next five years. This is a long haul project, not a low hanging fruit.

Dr. Erick Komolo revisiting the desk of his primary school classroom.

A left behind textbook in a classroom.

Zanzibar

In the book of the thousand nights and a night, also known as Arabian Nights, it says: "In my times no honest Hindu Muslim would take his woman-folk to Zanzibar on account of huge attractions and enormous temptations there and thereby are offered to them". Zanzibar is located between Mafia Island and Penbu and is a place which could not be more divers and exotic. The old stone city still shows the mix of Omanian, and Portuguese architecture and African elements. And so do the people. Zanzibar is a bright and colorful place, part of Tanzania, but still very distinct. This was the place where the early Africa explorers equipped their expeditions. One of them was for example Dr. Livingstone. Everything was traded here: spices, ivory, silk and the slave market reminds still today of one of the darkest chapters of mankind.

Zanzibar had a relatively peaceful past and was the place were the "shortest war in history" took place on 27th of August 1896. The immediate cause was, that when the pro-British Sultan Hamad bin Thuwaini died his immediate successor Sultan Khalid bin Barghash, failed to obtain the permission of British consul. After the ultimatum passed at 9 am in the morning. Then it took the British Navy 38 minutes to shell the palace into rubble, defeat the entire Zanzibar army and restore a more favourable Sultanate.

Zanzibar is for me a place where it is easy to get stuck in a positive way. And many people actually did, came for a vacation and then stayed and settled. Even it is still a long way to go, I have put Zanzibar on my list of places to consider when I retire one day - if I ever do.

East Africa

It occurred to me later after arrival here, that this travel will lead me from the Cradle of Mankind around the Oldovai Gorge, to the last locations where where men put their feet. It could have been interesting to follow just this line of thought and put the whole journey into one blog article. But it would neglect too many other impressions. Another remark to make here, is that my photos do not capture the full beauty of wildlife this time. The reason is that I later in this journey lost, beside other things, my primary Camera in an armed robbery in Peru and that I did not backup the pictures. But I stayed alive and so did my memories.

The first time I saw Mount Kilimanjaro was from Arusha National Park over Lake Manjara with thousands of flamingos in the water and flying by. This is paradise. Instantainously all the old childhood stories come back, like Hemingway's Snows on Kilimanjaro. But at that time the plots were set in a far away place and a long ago past - when men were still real men and women were still real women. The Arusha wildlife was introduced as an "appetizer", but at that moment I could not believe it can get any better. Only the armed ranger with a big game rifle was a reminder that we are not in a zoo. 

Arusha has comparably small wildlife reserves. But as the way passes via Tarangire, the Ngorongoro Crater into the Serengeti you will be taken away completely by the beauty of this land. There is not a minute you don't want to spend getting close up to buffaloes, wilderbeests, lions, leopard, cheetahs, zebras, giraffes, elephants and all the other wildlife from birds to corocodiles. For me two situations caught me completely. One was a peg of lions hunting buffaloes in the Ngorongoro Crater. The other was the big migration where thousands of animals come into the Serengeti and move towards water and green grass. Perhaps these are some instincts deeply engraved in the human brain millions of years ago, but to watch this is one of the most intense experiences you can have.

The closest was to leave the tent at night for a pi and walk strait into a peg of lions, just a torch in my hand and no gun. And even if somebody would have been awake with an AK47, I thought that being between him and the lions might even make it worse. As I am too small to be serious food, I slowly retreated to be also not be perceived as danger, but watched them carefully not to end up as a toy. 

This region is Maasai land and  they still roam around in a traditional way and live in clan based villages with a patriarch and around ten wifes each. Everybody are brothers and sisters in the genetically sense of the meaning and it is actually surprising to me that evolution did not wipe them out as a result of inbreeding. Another question, which they did not answer, was what happens to the men which do not find wifes in this system. I just could not match the numbers. But I was told that this ratio is natural. Maasai architecture is very much shaped by the building material which is cow shit. And sitting in such a cow shit hut in front of a fire place with no chimney and nearly no ventilation, explaining to my host that Carbon Monoxide makes you sleep well but perhaps not wake up again, I was thinking how good it was I did not study Anthropology when I was young. Later, when we had to leave behind a Rand Rover trailer with a broken axle in a Maasai village, I followed the bizarre picture how they dragged the trailer into the inner circle of the stick fences for a while until it disappeared in the cow herd. I found the Maasai are strait forward to talk to, but for me a bit hard to read the faces.

After weeks of wilderness and camping, the unpaved Serengeti airstrip was the point to take off again. On a pole hang the airbag flattering and a man with a walkie talkie and a binocular standing beside. This was the tower. A few Land Rovers standing around. This was the terminal. People with spears boarding the Russian plane. This was the security check. A sign that the axe is beside your seat behind the pilot was another reminder that this operator might not comply with IATA rules. We took off East and had another view from up here on Serengeti and the Ngorongoro Crater. Then the pilot pulled South towards Zanzibar.

Currently Out of Office

I am currenly out of the office. As I am roughly following the red arrows on the map above, please allow longer time for responding e-mails due to potential lack of sufficient infrastructure. Please also allow infrequent updates of this website, if at all. Later though, most likely at the beginning of the next year, I am happy to condense field book notes in some blog posts and also upload some photos. If you like you can subscribe to the RSS Feeds and you will not miss it when I am back to Cyberspace. I will try to feed the Microblog from time to time, which you also find in the left column or you can link to Twitter, which is the system via which I feed this section remotely. I hope you excuse, that I have pulled the contact form on this website into the "members only" section, as I will not be able to respond to website requests. If you have a login to this website, you will see emergency contact data and satellite communication features. I wish all you on the Northen hemisphere a good autumn and those on the Southern hemisphere a nice spring time. Some of you I might meet on the way. So far, take care and all the best.