I wish this was a story about an overnight flight to Kenya, but it’s not. I literally have red eye. It’s a bacterial infection of the eye which turns the whole eye red. The eye swells and it’s quite uncomfortable. And there is a bunch of mucus that comes out of the eye. Yeah, it’s really gross.

I’ve seen people around Dar with “red eyes” and my roommates warned me against shaking hands and making contact with people. I should always, always wash my hands if I touched anyone. I’ve been following their advice and using my antibacterial moisture wipes to keep myself clean.

But then my roommate, Cecy, caught red eye from a woman at work. She came home with it on Friday night. By Saturday both of her eyes were almost swollen shut. She kept glasses on and I kept my distance, but I wasn’t too surprised when Sunday morning my right eye started feeling uncomfortable. A few hours later the eye was swollen and itchy and red.

By Monday the infection had spread to the right eye. My roommate had some medicated eye drops to use and I cleaned the eyes with salt water (which is recommended). By Tuesday the eyes weren’t much better, so I went to see a doctor. She gave me new eye drops, in case the Cecy’s had been infected, and told me things should be better in a few days.

So, now it’s Wednesday. I woke up today and the eyes are not swollen by the whites of the eye are blood red. It’s hard to go out in public until my eyes return to white. People here believe that you can catch this illness by just looking at someone with red eyes so they avoid eye contact with you (reality is that you can only catch it through touch). I ventured out to a local internet cafe because after three days in the house I was going a bit stir crazy.

I’m hoping to be better by tomorrow and back to work!