Despite warnings from Kennedy that the neighborhood wasn’t even safe for black people, Jessica spends the night in Kibera with Alice, the “house girl” of Jessica’s homestay host, Mama Rose. Jessica falls extremely ill at night: “The heaving racks my frame so violently that I let forth a cry for mercy—anything but this” (144). She calls Kennedy multiple times to come pick her up, but it is too dangerous to come at night; even Alice was too afraid to step outside of the house so Jessica could relieve herself in private. Kennedy rushes her to the hospital early in the morning. While in the hospital, Jessica overhears Kennedy admit that he loves her.

Jessica has malaria so severely that her spleen almost burst. She recovers and tells her mother she isn’t coming home at the end of her study abroad term: “Malaria has taught me to take nothing for granted: not time, not health, and not Kennedy” (148). She returns to Kibera, and Kennedy reveals that he has a job offer from the president, a man he doesn’t support, to help rig the elections. He is afraid that if he doesn’t accept the job offer he will be killed. Jessica is not equipped to advise him, but she asks about what she overheard him say at the hospital: “‘Say it then, tell me.