My life is just starting to get back to 'normal', whatever that is in Burkina.
After IMS graduation and closure for the year, a few hectic weeks were spent in moving furniture, books etc into various storage options and a small office/library behind another missionary couple's house. During this time I was still battling with my balance and hearing issues as in my 19 July post and the expertise of local doctors and facilities had reached its limit.
So 1 Aug saw me arrive back in Australia for tests I thought might take a month.
Four months later I made it back to Burkina, still slightly under the weather due to an unexpected case of the shingles taking up most of my planned 'recovery time' at the end of my stay.
Back, yes, but with a lot of recommendations for change, since fatigue and stress had been said to greatly complicate my medical problems:
- cut down on workload
- make sure get adequate sleep
- make sure get adequate and regular meals
- separate work and living arrangements (I tend to work on the computer in the lounge and miss meals or bedtimes when something needs to be finished).
So since my return I've been resigning from some of my regular expected work, sleeping in, put on more help so I can delegating some household tasks (complicated and lengthy here in Africa) to free up time, slowly starting to exercise again, eating more salad (the long cycle of market negotiation - scrub - soak in bleach - rinse - prepare had put me off) and vegetables (thankfully available this season).
With IMS closed and teaching not starting until mid January for evening Bible courses, I've also had more flexibility in time also to host my niece and her friends when they come in from the orphanage where they're working for 2 months.
