Tuesday morning I was up at 7, took that cold shower, and arrived at the doctor's office for my  appointment at five to eight.  He ordered some blood work so I went to the lab.  So here I am, sitting there with a needle in my arm, filling up these little viles with my life's blood, and suddenly a mouse ran across the floor, up the wall, and disappeared behind a desk.  I mentioned it to the lab tech, but he didn't seem to care.  I guess we just live in harmony with nature.  I tried to visualize this scene at YOUR lab...but it was impossible to bring it into focus.

I waited around for a long time when the tech walked through the waiting room and told me it would be at least an hour more.  So I hunted up Eric and we went off to the canteen for breakfast.  This time I specified tea leaves with my eggs and bread.  I felt pretty smug about learning the local jargon so quickly.  But alas, my smugness was short lived when my tea leaves turned out to be Ovaltine.  Fortunately it was good, so all's well that ends well.  

Back to the waiting room where I found all my new friends, still waiting patiently.  Before long the doctor came along and told me to go back to my room and he would phone when the results came in.  So I did.  It was time for a nap.  Two hours later I woke up hungry and ready for a late lunch.  I phoned Eric and we went back to the canteen. I ordered cornchaf which turned out to be red beans and corn.  All corn here is what we call field corn in the U.S.  It's tough and chewy but you get used to it.  I had actually had cornchaf some years before but had forgotten what it was.  And this time my tea leaves turned out to be real tea made from real leaves.  

From there I went to see what had happened with my lab results.  The doctor had just received them so we sat down in his office to discuss the results.  They were inconclusive.  In the end he decided that I was getting older, and that was that.  All that way to discover that I am getting older!  Since I didn't agree with the diagnosis (I mean I AM getting older, but that does not account for the endless fatigue) so I decided to go back home and do research on the internet.

Guy and Marie had better results that I did.  They were given a program to follow and one more test to do in Yaounde.  We were glad we had gone to Mbingo for their sake.

We all met back at the canteen at 7 p.m. for our last meal.  Then off to bed with plans to get an early start in the morning.  We were heading back home.