Mosquitoes SUCK....And So Does Malaria

Sad news.  One of the volunteers came down with Malaria :( She is a 24 year old form Canada.  It’s quite a bummer because she’s only here for 3 weeks and malaria really wears you down.  It’s frightening because she was talking all of the necessary precautions and she still got sick.

Everyone here is on malaria medication.  Some you must take daily and some are only weekly, but both have an array of side affects.  Hoping to avoid nausea and sun sensitivity (for obvious reasons) I chose to take the once weekly medication.  The only unfortunate side affect of this medication (at least for me) has been the intense, vivid, and mostly unpleasant dreams.  Sometimes they aren’t necessarily scary or horrible, but they’re never good.

 For example, last night I had a dream that Grand Forks was being invaded by vampire zombies.  I got on an evacuation plane and it was attacked and had to land on I94 (because we were headed to the cities).  Somehow I ended up in the basement of a bakery with other survivors and we had to fight off zombies with bread knives.  The worst part was that most of the zombie vampires were people from my real life!  Eventually I was convinced by my zombie friends that if I let them bite me and turn me into a vampire they wouldn’t eat me.  As it turns out, I was immune to becoming a vampire.  I somehow escaped and joined a gypsy camp of survivors who lived in RVs. Honestly, the dream goes on and on, but I’m sure that I’ve weirded you all out enough and that you get the idea. Imagine having these types of dreams like every other night. It’s really not fun.

Even though I hate these vivid horror-filled monster dreams, it’s a side affect I’m willing so suffer to avoid malaria.  I also consistently roll about 2 layers deep in 30% deet mosquito spray and sleep with a net over my bed.  The mosquito spray sucks.  It really does.  I can always smell it and seems to aid the dirt in clinging to my skin even more efficiently.  However, I kind of like sleeping with the mosquito nets.  It’s really cozy.  Not only is it keeping the mosquitoes away, but I know that there are no lizards or spiders crawling over me as I sleep!   The depressing bit about all this is, that I still have gotten plenty of bites.  Not a horrible amount all at once, but spread out over the last few weeks they’ve added up.  

Not much I can do about it, but keep sending me good vibes people!  Comments please! I miss everyone!