It's been a while....

...sorry guys for not updating this blog but 3 weeks out of the four I was just too lazy. And the last week I've been sick.

But let's start at the beginning: In the last week of april we had the SA surf champs going on at Long Beach, a great surf spot just down the road from us, so the whole Southern Kwa-Zulu Natal Surf Team stayed at our hostel.
Full house, 16 surfers, a bunch of volunteers and other guests who all had different priorities (which could lead into huge rows, for example when one of the Lighties puts his board up on the kitchen table - while everyone around him is preparing breakfast - and starts waxing it for the comp...)
Due to various sponsorships you could see nothing but Rusty, Billabong, Lizzard, Quicksilver, Roxy, etc. on these guys. It was mad!
To be fair, it was a week of hard work cos I'm at the backpackers almost 24/7 and I realised I still have this "hotel mentality" where I'm willing to move mountains for the guests when Pierre is absolutely in "hostel mode" and is just like : "ah..they'll sort themselves out somehow..."
So yeah, lots of work but so much more fun! We went and saw the competition almost every day and really got into the whole thing which is fairly easy when you're around these surfers all the time. You have breakfast with them in the morning, checking the swell on the net, all amped waxing their boards and packing up, you sit with the SKN crowd at the beach, hooting and cheering for the one in the water and you're so stoked for them if they made it through their heat - or bummed if they didn't.

April 30th was Finals-day and the surfers left on may 1st so we had a great party into my 24th! Got lots of presents from them like hoddies, shirts and even a traffic cone which those crazy fuckers stole from a road block just around the corner...! :)
When these poor people had to take off at 4.00h in the morning, half of them were still pissed...!
In the evening Pierre (who owns this hostel) surprised us with a great roast dinner and shrimp salad for starters and Cat, Cat, Jo and Mark got me a scarf and a pair of gloves (which is great cos it's almost winter, 15 degrees C and I'm freezing my arse off!!!) as well as a birthday cake which made a great dessert for all of us. That was just so cool, it was absolutely unexpected and it was just great to chill and have dinner with a handful of people who just happened to live together during those couple of days.

So then Cat left (her volunteering project had finished) as well as Mark (see photo: marks last day) which I was really guttered about cos after living and working and surfing together I just got so used to him being around.
Plus, he was the one with the cooking skills which left the rest of us on a pasta&tuna diet....

At this point, I have to say, I had already been waiting for the medication my parents sent to SA. Remember when before I took off, I was talking about I was taking a 3 months supply (because this is how long I planned on staying in SA and that amount wouldn't give me any troubles at the customs) and if I needed more, my parents would send me some...?
Well, that's how I've been doing things since I started travelling and it has always worked out fine...until now.
Appearantly the med package was sent with Express, means it's not supposed to take longer than 6 days, counting from the last week of april...and here I was, in mid may, with only some Kreon and Tobramycin left....and no bloody sign of a med pac arriving!
I still hadn't fully recovered from the Cape Town bug I picked up like 2 months ago and honestly, had I been in Europe with medical attention, I'd probably considered an antibiotic IV at this point. Just to sort myself out and to not let things get out of hand.
But I'm far from home, South Africa was great, I was still surfing so I wasn't too worried and kinda expected the medication to arrive any day.

And you know what it's like when you think you barely have things under control, you're stumbeling but haven't fallen yet, you know it's not gonna take much to knock you off your feet but you're still on top of things, you've got all your juggling balls up in the air and you almost dropped one but you think : "ah....I'll be fine..." ?!
Well,that's what I felt like about my health and me staying here without my meds.

And this is when something just pulled the rug from under my feet and from one moment to another, things were spinning out of control.
Stop speaking in metaphors, I got really ill. I mean really. I got some fucking South African fever shit, which kept me in a drifting-i-and-out-of-consciousness-kinda-state for a few days, then my nebuliser broke down but I was too ill to organise another one. So my lungs got worse literally by the hour, I couldn't breathe or eat because I was coughing so hard that the food would come right up again. I had to sit up all the time, even while sleeping (or trying to), which gave me a bitch of a backpain but I couldn't lie down cos I just couldn't breathe.
Nice one, eh?!
Nah, really, I don't think I have ever been so sick whle being abroad but I still hate to make a fuzz about myself so I kinda kept to myself, only got up for my shifts at the hostel, smiled and told everyone I was gonna be fine.
very clever, I know...:(

By that time it was even obvious to me that the chances of me still getting the med pac from Europe were very slim.
So you probably think: Hey, she was smart enough to make CF contacts beforehand, now there are people to help - the thing is, I didn't call them. I didn't ask anyone for help even though I knew I couldn't do this one on my own. I had been thinking about changing my ticket and going back to Europe asap to get medical treatment but the truth was, I was too sick to travel.

Well, like I said, I haven't been "fine" for about two months. I wasn't always completely sick, but I always had to spend a lot of time doing my nebs and physio and stuff.
So now, with this infection totally knocking me off my feet, I was physically weak and mentally drained and I honestly thought: OK, life was great, but that's it. You're stuck in a 3rd world country without medical attention, no insurance coverage for CF and too sick to go back home.
Sounds scary, but for some reason I wasn't too bothered. Maybe it was the fever, but I remember lying in my bed, being just content with what I have been doing with my life, totally free of regret but very much in peace of mind.

And this is when Pierre came in with a cuppa tea, telling me he was gonna take me to the hospital cos I was "fucking sick".
Then Ali, the In-land coordinator from my volunteer organisation came around with another group of new arrivals and when she heard about me and my situation she picked up the phone and I had an appointment with a doctor who appearantly had contacts which could get my medication rather quickly. Lyndon came around to see how I was doing and I finally called the CF contacts here in CT to get a nebuliser pump and in less than 15 minutes I was taken to the pharmacy where they rent them out (and lucky me, I got the last one available!!). the ladies there were absolutely great, giving me all the plastic pieces you normally have to buy, for free.
So while everything was all hectic for like two hours and before I could even see any doctors....the med package arrived! So I cancelled the appointments, I wanted to try and get better just taking the normal stuff before going crazy on some heavy local shit...:)

...and that was a week ago, I'm a little better, walking the beach for an hour every day, which is my exercise at the moment. It's like jaanie said it in one of his posts, you can exercise and do all kinda of sports, be in great shape and all....once you've been completely knocked off your feet by an infection like this, you start back at square one. Very annoying but considering, I thought I was never gonna see Long Beach again a week ago, I'm doing quite well. Also, the weather is getting better now (it was raining every day of last week!) so it's nice just to spend some time outside.
Still far from having a joll in the water with my board though so I might go and see a doctor here anyways. i still haven't returning to Europe earlier ruled out, I'm basically watching myself and see how things are going day by day.

So yeah, close fucking call I'd say and normally my so-long-it's-hardly-readable post would end here, telling y'all not to worry....
...but I just have to add these few lines...

I know I've been quite lucky that since I arrived in South Africa not a single thing has been stolen from me. Especially considering that I haven't exactly lived in the safest areas. But the other day, this luck just ran out.
A guy came up to the hostel, desperately in need of a lift to the next village. So after I had invited him for a coffee, I took him there in my car.
Not 2 mins later, I'm standing in the pharmacy, wanting to pay fro the nebuliser rental - my wallet's gone. That bastard!
And what's worse: as soon as this bloke had walked up the stairs to the backpackers, I'd had this feeling about him not being cool. But I had told myself that I was being paranoid and that it was absolutely not pc for me white chick to chase this black guy off the property....
Anyways, it's just such a hassle now cos my bank card was in my wallet (only cos that day I wanted to get some cash out to pay for the car I'm renting!) and I had to get it blocked and now my dad has to wire money into Pierre's bank account.....argh! What a fucking pisstake!

But then, reading through this post, this is really just a minor thing that's happened and hardly worth mentioning...:)