Evening...

I got a call from the South African embassy this afternoon. The woman on the end of the phone was horrified by what i told her. She said she would phone me back in a few minutes because she wanted to conference call with her boss.

I explained everything to him, and he told me that without travel insurance, my case is a very difficult one.

I explained that i might be in danger of infection and that they are holding me here against my will. He said to me that this country is not like other countries. Here, the business needs to look after itself, and the hospital is a business at the end of the day. So, them keeping me here is an assurance that they will get some money from me at some point.

He said that his advice was to pay them!

I told him i didnt have money and he said that i would need to find some soon!

Then he said he would speak to my lawyer and call me back. I have not heard back from him. It is 9pm now.

Then the girls came back from doing some shopping for me, and said that they had spoken to someone they know who knows people, and that word on the street is that the driver (who has my colleagues death hanging over his head and is out on bail), and his wife, have left the country and escaped back to Italy, where she is from. He is Dominican. Apparently they paid the right people and disappeared!

I am not sure how true this is, but i will know in the next 4 days if our legal notice isn't answered!

I then spoke to to my lawyer, and he said that he spent 2 hours with the lawyer from the hospital this afternoon, and that they are no nearer a solution! Apparently they are having another meeting with her and the hospitals administration in the morning and hoping to sort something out?

Looks like its another night or 2 in Room 8 for me...

So, after much thought about my predicament, i have decided that the only option here, if the driver has fled, is to firstly, get the bill verified independently to make sure i am not being overcharged, and secondly, to put into motion a payment plan with the hospital.

I cannot pay their bill, but i might have a small income managing my dive centre's website. It might only be $200 a month, but over 5 years, if they knock the bill down, this will just about pay everything back. At least i am making some effort to pay them their money. They know i am broke, so i dont know how they can possibly refuse?

And, if all goes according to plan, and the insurance company at some point comes to the party, i should get most of the money, if not all of it back, at some point...

But most importantly, i can get out of here and into a medical facility that will look after me and give me a physio program so that i can start to mend myself.

My brain has been so preoccupied with all the things that have been going on that i have not been giving much thought to my recovery, apart from possible complications i might have to deal with.

The best way to get better is to get positive, and through this ordeal it has been very difficult to do that.

So, will see what the morning, and the meeting with the hospital holds in store...

Night all...