Will and Ken's South African Big Adventure: November 2013

Sunday, November 3, 2013

These rock walls were made from President Mandela's prison, Robin Island. Pretty Awesome.

Oldest humanoid skull in the history of history.....very cool

Actual hangmens nooses they used up until the late 1980's unbelievable.

Amazing real quotes of the recent past.......really something

The first thing you see when you walk into the museum.

A good view of jo'burg from the apartheid museum

Well my friends there are few things worse than being sick while you are traveling. Oh wait, I think there is…if you are traveling over 10K miles away, AND you are in AFRICA!!! Well lucky for us we are in the beautiful and very sophisticated (1^st world) country of South Africa. If you have to get sick on this continent, this is the country with which to do it.

Ken, Don and I had just gotten back from the Apartheid Museum. Don is Don Agee the CFO with our JV partner AGES worldwide. We had planned to go to an area called “New Town” for some good local jazz music. Don and I were having dinner and we were waiting for Ken, but he did not show up for dinner. Once we realized he was 15 minutes late for dinner I thought he had fallen asleep….nope! He was violently ill, not to go into any details, but after multiple over the counter attempts to get it under control, we quickly realized that he had to go to the emergency room; he was loosing a large amount of fluids. The owner of our Manor, (Marnel) who is a delight, was just wonderful, she got her car, and Don and I helped get Ken to her car then we were off. Ten minutes later we arrived at a hospital that was first rate and well staffed. I had Ken with his arm around my shoulders as I was going right by the desk to through the “hospital staff only” doors and walked him right into exam room number two. At this point, I was not asking anymore and the nurses knew better to even ask, as I guess my look was one of ….don’t even! I helped get him down, we got his vitals, and the nurse agreed to give him an IV and an anti-nausea injection before the doctor came. That helped a great deal. We waited an hour, and finally the doctor came in and they did some blood work, and we had to wait another hour for the results. Meanwhile Ken’s IV was finished and he was starting to get nauseas again, so round two with the anti-nausea medication. Once the blood results came in we saw the white cell count was too high indicating a bacterial infection. The Doctor came back and said; “Now I am going to give you some Jet Fuel. (Not kidding)” It was another liter of IV fluids with about six different injections of a variety of vitamins, and by the time he was done the IV liquid was Pink, and all this stuff was going into Ken’s veins. Meanwhile I am thinking whoa…but at the same time, I figured these guys have definitely seen this before, because they knew exactly what to do. After that bag was done it was 3:00 AM, and Ken was feeling much better, and I called for our driver and he came to pick us up. Side note, our driver is from Zimbabwe, and I have advised the Manor owner that I do not want anyone but him…his name is Russell and he is and was fantastic, caring, and protective of us…the perfect person to have as a trusted guide in a foreign land. When we come back, I will stay at the same place with the same driver I cannot say enough good things about both. Ok, back to Ken, so now it is 3:15, Ken is totally spent and my adrenaline is running out, and the Doctor said that we need some prescriptions to pick up, we had to go to ANOTHER hospital to get them filled because the hospital where Ken was being cared for had a pharmacy, but it was closed, and the only pharmacy that was 24-hrs was some where else. The last thing Ken wanted to do was wait another minute, but if this was bacterial, we needed those drugs, ASAP, so off we go. Ken is not a happy camper, the pharmacy was extremely efficient and there was no wait. We made it back to the room at 3:45 AM and Ken fell fast asleep. One more side note: the doctor and nurses were so awesome, they wanted to give us their cell phone numbers and as we were driving to the manor, they kept on texting me “are you at home yet?” and “please advise us when you are home safe” Very cool. Now, I am not going to answer this question, but we obviously did not have RSA medical insurance, so how much do you think all of this cost? Remember, 3.5 hours in an emergency room, two IV’s probably no less than six intravenous meds, a complete blood work up, and three prescriptions and full retail price. What was the total cost? Please use the comment section to post your comments and later in the week I will let you know total cost.

I have lots of pictures that I will upload, so stay tuned. It is off to Rustenburg tomorrow, so stay tuned. Cheers,

Will