TIA

I went to Abuko today with the intention of doing vegetation surveys with Katie. Christy went ahead to the Darwin Center and called 20 minutes later telling us that Malang, the director, was feeling really ill and was going to be helped over to the accomodations where we were sitting. One of the 2 workers at Abuko shows up to the "house" and we stand up to look for Malang. He was sitting crumpled on the ground at the edge of the forest in his best clothes (Friday is the holy day). Yusman unlocked the house and then went back and helped lift Malang off the ground. He collasped onto the concrete floor right after he got inside. Katie and I got an air mattress and Malang could barely crawl onto it. He had all the symptoms of malaria. Yusman even said it's malaria and he knows about every animal and plant in that forest so I believe him when he says something. It's really hard to watch a grown man writhe in pain. He didn't want to tell his family he was sick, just as he didn't tell them he felt bad that morning, because he didn't want to worry his kids. But Katie called his wife so that someone could bring his medical forms over to the park. While the kids were bringing the forms, Yusman walked out to the main highway to try and convince a taxi to drive up to the park on the unpaved sand roads. Three of Malang's kids showed up and they looked scared and it was terrible because the girls were trying not to cry. Malaria sucks. He told his kids just to go back home but they wouldn't leave or say anything. When a cab came we walked Malang out to the brick wall and helped him over it and got him in the taxi. But then the taxi wouldn't start so Yusman and the four of us tubabs were trying to push this taxi out of the sand. We kept pushing and pushing and finally it started. We gave him money for the cab ride and the clinic because otherwise I don't think he would be able to get treatment. All the money he makes from St. Mary's goes to his kids' education and he doesn't really have any left over after that.

After the whole two hour ordeal the four of us were just sitting there so exhausted in every way. We just locked everything up and went home without doing any research. Hopefully he gets better soon.