I've fallen in the Egouts and I can't (can?) get up!

pillow/bed where I lay to get the cast (that's the material all of over the place)
Plaster station at the doctor's office

So as always it's an adventure being somewhere like Senegal. The other day I had met a musician who told me he to come to his show later that night and when I went to the club (boite de nuit they call it)la Kaznak not only was he not there but no one was there. I couldn't even find the entrance. Some people laughed at me wondering aimlessly around this building until an older guy came out and unlocked the entrance and asked me what I wanted. Apparently people don't go out until at least 11:00pm-12:00 here in Senegal (it was about 8:30). Feeling embarrassed I told him I'd like a beer (I wasn't going to just turn around empty handed - reminds me of "fishing" in poker). The place was completely unlit and strange on the inside. We turned on a small interrogation light and he gave me the drink while we proceeded a little awkwardly at first to talk. It turns out this guy was Senegalese but had been in Guinea (Conakry) for like 10 years digging for diamonds, and it was a pretty interesting conversation. We also talked about the 4 wife thing in Islam, woman in general, and about happiness in life. Feeling like I had at least accomplished meeting this interesting individual I left and proceeded to go back to my hotel...but at this point I had gained some confidence and felt I didn't "have" to go back to eat like I always do at this same hotel (where I am staying) and decided to turn around and find something else (I had been warned about strolling around on my own at night...although it doesn't seem that dangerous here), but this was a mistake.

As I strolled around in the dark (the streets are not lit here really despite the fact that it's the third biggest city in Senegal) and walked the sidewalk to avoid being hit by a car my mind wandered aimlessly. All of the sudden I took a step forward and instead of feeling sidewalk fell 4-5 ft. straight down into a whole. This took me completely by surprise, I scraped the side of my body badly and landed very awkwardly, but luckily on my feet. I had to pull myself out of the dirty whole (so I guess "egout" is like sewer although that's not really a fair comparison) and tried to walk it off. But there are lots of these random wholes in the sidewalk, I had seen them during the day - I had just not seen it coming. I couldn't sleep later that night because of the pain in my knee and realized it probably was not just bruised.

The next day at the hospital I got x-rays and saw I had fractures (x-rays were about $75 - so strange just handing the doctor cash straight up). The man who built my cast was smoking a cigarette and hardly spoke a word of French. That didn't stop him from saying God knows what in Woloff to me even though he must have known I don't speak Woloff - and the hard cast he somehow built for me in like 7 minutes (pretty impressive!) has immobilized me (it covers my entire leg). So that kind of ruins a lot because I can't swim, walk much, get in cars easily, or go up stairs easily, but it could have been a lot worse I suppose. I've been told we don't even really build hard casts like this anymore in the U.S. The travel insurance company also told me it could be a problem getting on the plane in a few weeks, which is about how long I'm supposed to have it...

It's funny learning technical words like cast in French, and that's the nice thing about being in the country and also just getting to see a whole different side too. Obviously health care is not the same here but in some ways just paying $25 for the visit and the cast was so much easier. Although I did feel pretty bad passing all of the sick people and crying babies as the volunteer coordinator's sister-in-law is a nurse at the hospital and just saw me right away (white privilege). I've been told you can wait 24 + hours to see a doctor here. Again, this whole thing could have been a lot worse, I am at least walking