I only LOOK contagious!

I would like to describe to you the absurd situation I found myself in last night.

To begin, an uncomfortable condition called "heat rash" is a distinct possibility in Mali's unrelenting climate. Miraculously, last year I didn't get it at all. The hot season is on its way out, but Kayes is still the hottest place in Mali. Everywhere else it has rained quite a bit, which also means that it has cooled down. Not Kayes!!!

I will write about all of these things in the next post, but in the last three weeks I went on an AIDS awareness bike tour, spent time in the village I used to live in, and attended our PC "Close of Service" conference. I had red, bumpy splotches on my fore-arms and chest off-and-on for those three weeks. I was in and out of air-conditioning the whole time. The itchy bumps would disappear when I was in air-conditioning for long enough, and re-appear whenever I was outside for longer than an hour.

I took the 9 hour  bus (without air-conditioning) back to Kayes yesterday, growing increasingly more uncomfortable. By the time I arrived in Kayes, I had an angry, red rash on my hands and up my arms, on my shoulders, neck, back, stomach, upper thighs and face. If anyone has ever run into a patch of stinging nettle plants, that is what it felt like. It isn't a constant pain like sunburn, but it's triggered when your clothes shift, something touches you, or your skin stretches. Basically, I wanted to be completely naked and not moving. That night I didn't sleep, because everytime I moved in my sleep a large swath of my skin started stinging.

The treatment for heat rash is:
Keep cool
Take frequent showers and gently exfoliate the skin, because heat rash is essentially blocked sweat pores
Coat yourself in baby powder or Gold Bond to keep the skin dry and protected
Loose clothing
Oatmeal or baking powder cool baths

I have no air-conditioning, and the water that comes out of my shower is hot (and not adjustable), because wherever it is coming out of is hot (underground, in the sun, I don't know). Air temp is 105 degrees in the shade with a fan. To go anywhere, I have to bike. Biking= sweating! By the end of the day yesterday, I was so uncomfortable I wanted to cry. I tried briefly to do some yoga, but couldn't handle having the mat touch my skin.

At 7:30 last night, I started to fill up the bath tub. I grabbed the little baking soda I have and dumped it in. I also grabbed four frozen 1.5 liter water bottles and plopped them in the warm water. I dumped in some oatmeal and moved the fan to blow directly on me. I tried my best to submerge myself and willed myself to cool down. My face was still stinging, so I found myself mixing some oatmeal with water and rubbing it on my face. I didn't even know if it would help. I was just desperate. I did the same on my neck and shoulders. And then I sat, with the melting water bottles floating around me. I rinsed off, prayed, and went to sleep.

I still have heat rash, but today it is only annoying instead of screaming for attention. The oatmeal incident was worth it, and I'll probably do it again tonight :)

Less than two months until I'm back in the US, y'all!