Some of you might have heard what happened to Kathryn and I between tuesday night and wednesday morning. Here is the story. Our water heating system doesn't work at home and so we usually heat water in a bucket on the stove if we want to take a bath. So on tuesday (July 11th) night i wanted to make a huge hot bath for Kathryn. I borrowed extra buckets from our workers so that i could heat more water. Our stove has only got two working plates, so i got a charcoal burner. It is traditionaly called a MBAULA. This is a very usefull item in any zambian household. We light char coal and use it for cooking. We heated the water, then after we were done heating, i put the burner in our room becpouse we were having some cold nights. After our bath, we went to be at about 10:30. We were very tired. But then both of us woke up at the same time at about 2 in wed. morning. We both had spliting head aches and so i tried to get up and get some tylanol and water. Still obliviouse of the deadly carbon monoxide gas that the burner had been producing. I was dizzy and had dificulty making sence of my bearings. Then something inside me said oen the window. Without really knowing why, I opened the window the realised that the room was filled with carbon manoxide gas! Kathryn wanted to go to the bathroom. She got up and staggered to the toilet I lay on the bed and heard her moen, so i got up! Wobbled to the toilet and heard a smack! kathryn had hit the floor behing the toilet door. I got to the door but kathryn had passed out and was leaning against the closed door. I was faint and weak at this pint. I tried to push the door open in a panic but i also passed out. Found myself laying on the floor and saw my cousin ( who lives in the house) cross the corridor. i called out to him. He aproached coutiously becouse he thought there was a theif in the house and i had been attacked. he helped me up and i started wher i left off, trying to push the door open. Eventually we opened it, kethryn was still out and i actually feared she was dead. I was frantic , on the verge of cursing myslef but then she came round. PHEW! By this time my brothet was up and help us set a bed in the living room. they opend all the windows . he called some one and we were advised to put our legs up while we slept. And so we took some tylanol( which didnt help) and went to sleep again. We woke up in the morning and through advice felt we should go to the hospital. We left and Kathryn was bout to have her first experince of Zambia's poor medical system. we went to the 'High Cost" section, in the hope that we will be attended to quickly. But it too almost 3 to 4 hours before Kathryn was in a bed ! It made us wonder what goes on in the "low Cost" section. But KAthryn was admitted on wednesday. A docter examined her and felt she should spend the night in hopital. I was doing a little better ad felt i didnt need a bed in the clinic. I n all this Kathryn and i had no capacity to run around the hospital and my best friend Whiteson was there! Tahnk God for friends that are there when you need them. that are willing to take the time to care and take care of us! There was one bed in kathryn's room and one chair. So i took naps on the cahir while kathryn slept. We were regularly inturupted my phone calls! From you! Thank you so much for calling and showing such concern. The truth is that we could have died. Thats a reality that sobers me. Thank you for you support! Concern and love ! Most of all , thank you for your prayers! Kathryn and i slet on the same single bed for most of the night utill i ended up sleeing in my sleeping bag on the floor. It was actually more comfortable.Oh! And whiteson's sister brought Kathryn really beatifull roses! We'll pst up pictures of all this later! Next morning the docter came and let Kathryn go home! So we are now slowly recovering. We hope t be able to travel on tuesday but we are having a few problems with kathryn's visa . but i expect things will work out! But thank you so much for prayer and calls and love! God is faithfull and kathryn and i both kboiw that He woke us up that night! He loves us and we know it is not our time yet! God bless you. Got this from a website.. Carbon Monoxide poisoning
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Vinjelu and Kathryn Muyaba
