This morning I was out in a community doing a Water Committee Training for a couple of hours. It's Ramadan right now, so people don't eat or drink all day, when the sun is shining. Anyway, I
was showing these people how we will be doing water quality testing of some of their sand filters and rainwater harvesting tanks, and people were all standing around me watching. All of a sudden, towards the end of my demonstration, this one guy just falls (stiff as a board,
like in the movies) straight backward onto the ground. He fainted!! He didn't crumple onto the ground, no. He just went rigid, his knees didn't bend, his waist, nothing. He just toppled straight backwards and hit the ground so hard I think he bounced. He must have gotten a wicked goose-egg on the back of his head.
Anyway, he fell flat on his back, and was probably unconscious for about a minute. I was speechless, and sort of flailed my arms toward him and let out a little yelp. But the guys to either side of him sort of shrugged their shoulders, looked at me, and, as if it was a perfectly normal thing that just happened...said "Ramadan" as a sufficient explanation. He bent over, put the guys hands on his stomach and just kind of left him there til he woke up. It was just the weirdest thing!! He woke up after a minute, blinked his eyes a few times, and eventually sat up and we got him to sit back down. But yeah...this no-drinking-water thing in the middle of subsaharan Africa summer- it makes people pass out...Anyway, thought you'd enjoy the story :)
was showing these people how we will be doing water quality testing of some of their sand filters and rainwater harvesting tanks, and people were all standing around me watching. All of a sudden, towards the end of my demonstration, this one guy just falls (stiff as a board,
like in the movies) straight backward onto the ground. He fainted!! He didn't crumple onto the ground, no. He just went rigid, his knees didn't bend, his waist, nothing. He just toppled straight backwards and hit the ground so hard I think he bounced. He must have gotten a wicked goose-egg on the back of his head.
Anyway, he fell flat on his back, and was probably unconscious for about a minute. I was speechless, and sort of flailed my arms toward him and let out a little yelp. But the guys to either side of him sort of shrugged their shoulders, looked at me, and, as if it was a perfectly normal thing that just happened...said "Ramadan" as a sufficient explanation. He bent over, put the guys hands on his stomach and just kind of left him there til he woke up. It was just the weirdest thing!! He woke up after a minute, blinked his eyes a few times, and eventually sat up and we got him to sit back down. But yeah...this no-drinking-water thing in the middle of subsaharan Africa summer- it makes people pass out...Anyway, thought you'd enjoy the story :)
No comments:
Post a Comment