| caption: |
wet and foggy, malaria and dislike of hospital |
| text: |
During the night it poured and a dull, cloudy morning once more spoiled all hopes for an improvement in the weather. Low white clouds are hanging in the mountains and cover Wakching in fog. In between there are sunny intervals but towards evening it rains again. As I had tried in vain yesterday to get Metlo to go to the doctor, I visited him again today at his house. (42) When he admitted that he had had a temperature at the beginning of the illness I was almost certain that it was malaria. When he then went to see the doctor with me in the afternoon this was confirmed. His swollen spleen left no doubt. Now he stays in the hospital for a few days and is treated with quinine. It is typical of the attitude in Wakching that even he, one of the gaonburas and one of the most intelligent young people, suffers for weeks with a temperature and yet does not go to the hospital half a mile away, nor does he send for medicine. |
