My heart and eyes go missing in the Serengeti (Part 1)

Before I could fully comprehend where I was going we were in the land cruisers again (at 5am), packed to the brim with camping gear, food, and water for the next week as we bumped over the rough, dusty roads. I wasn’t in a good mood because my eyes could hardly open I was so tired and I had an extremely long day ahead. From the minute I woke up I could tell something was wrong because my eyes were bloodshot and slightly swollen, but I didn’t have time to deal with it (which I later deeply regretted).
Driving throughout Africa is an adventure in itself because it’s almost inevitable to not have your car break down at least once. The car rides that you think are going to take 3 hours end up being 6 hours. I have spent many hours sitting on the side of the dusty roads bathing myself in sunscreen, dripping in sweat, and discussing what of ice cream I would eat if an American grocery store magically appeared in front of me. Cold food is something I have forgotten the feel of… Anyway, after about 4 hours of driving through the Great Rift Valley we stopped at Olduvai Gorge, which is where the famous anthropologist Louis Leaky discovered that humans evolved in Africa. It has been known as the world’s hominid fossil treasure chest ever since. The ancient volcanic ash in the gorge preserved fossils better than anywhere else and has exposed many human bones from numerous time periods. It is places like these that give Africa the timeless, esoteric thrill that many people crave.
The Serengeti is a sea of grass that is so vast that if you squint your eyes it looks like you can see the curves of the earth. There are hundreds of species of mammals spread across these plains and the circle of life is more apparent than anywhere else. When we arrived at our campsite we had to scare a herd of elephants away so that we could set up camp. I could feel the energy of the wildlife in the trees around me and there was never a moment of silence. Huge birds were always calling and singing, monkey’s screaming, elephants trumpeting, buffalo crunching and insects humming. We set up canvas tents and were reminded that if we weren’t careful when we went to the bathroom we would probably be trampled or eaten. As the sun vanished over the horizon my eyes slowly got more and more swollen and blurry until I couldn’t see anything. I thought I just needed rest and I would get better…
That night I didn’t sleep at all. My eyes felt like somebody was squirting acid into them, and lions were roaring less than 20 meters from my tent throughout the night. At one point the whole camp was awake listening to them and nervously whispering. They night askaris did the best they could to scare the hyenas away, but they chewed apart everything that was left out. An elephant decided it wanted the fruit from our steel food box and made a ruckus trying to break into it.
The next morning our alarms went off at 5am because we were doing an exercise on carnivore interactions (they are most active at dawn). I tried to get myself up in the dark but quickly realized that I was completely blind and my eyes were crusted over with puss. The pain was overwhelming. Everyone was in a craze to get going as fast as possible so I was handed a water bottle and told to just lie down until they returned. I wasn’t able to sleep so I tried to distract myself by trying to identify all the sounds around me. After about a half hour I felt liquid drip down my face and tasted blood in my mouth. I sat up and blood gushed out of both nostrils all over my clothes. I frantically felt around the tent for wet wipes and eventually ended up taking off the shirt I was wearing to stop blood from getting everywhere. After a few minutes I found the door of the tent and got out. I called out in Swahili and English to see if anybody was around to help, but nobody answered. Frustrated, blind, covered in blood, and helpless, I sat down with my back against the tent and realized that I was perfect bate for all the lions that had been wandering around our campsite. After what seemed like an hour I heard another tent unzip and realized that somebody was walking toward me. The askaris and cooks were taking a nap while everyone was gone and were completely unaware that I was left behind. They helped me to the bathroom and continually asked me what happened. A few of them sat me in a chair by the fire and I tried to explain what was wrong in Swahili. One of them came over and opened one of my eyes to see if there were any insects in them. Luckily he didn’t find anything…
Everyone was completely shocked at what I looked like when they returned and told me I needed to get to a doctor. I was led to the land cruiser and blind folded because the sun made my eyes hurt even more. I overheard my professors say that the nearest clinic was 6 hours away but there was sometimes a doctor at one of the fancy lodges within the park. We drove for an hour over extremely bumpy, windy roads and I got so carsick from being blind folded and full of blood that I started vomiting. I was on my last straw. I could smell the blood and vomit on me (which attracted tons of biting tsetse flies) and my eyes were throbbing with pain. It felt like some sort of awful joke to be blindfolded as I drove across one of the most incredible places on earth in such misery. I was scared to death that the doctor was going to tell me that I would be blind forever and that they couldn’t figure out what was wrong.
After another half hour of misery we arrived at the lodge and I was taken into a dark room. The doctor forced open my eyes, scraped the puss away, and used a bright light to inspect them. He then dripped something in each eye that hurt so much it felt like somebody was taking out my eyes with needles. My arms and legs were shaking from pain and I could feel tears oozing out of my eyes as I clenched my mouth so I wouldn’t yell. He told me I had bad bacterial infections in my eyes that were spreading extremely quickly and that I needed to be put on antibiotics immediately. I was so happy to hear that it could be cured and that I would be able to see again.
When I got back to camp everyone was extremely sympathetic and did everything possible to help me. People had to help me eat, walk, dress, get in and out of the cars etc. My imagination went crazy during this time because all my other senses were working over time to figure out my exotic surroundings. It made me sad to think that most Africans don’t have access to simple medicine like this and have to deal with the horrible consequences of infections – like going blind.
This is one of the few times in my life where I have continually had to convince myself to make it through the day and have a good attitude. I got to experience the Serengeti through sounds and smells though, which gave me a perspective that I will never forget.