Mon Coup d’Afrique

1 to 0 – Cote d’Ivoire scores on Guinea in the fight to advance in the Africa Cup. The t.v. blares in the background while I lay shivering, sweating, my temperature rising, and unwilling to break, in the next room. I have no idea it’s Malaria yet. All I know is that while soccer teams all over the African continent continue to battle for the championship, such as Ivory Coast and Guinea this night, I experience my own “Cup of Africa”, as which without Malaria, would not be the same.

One bite is all it takes….really. My first week here, if I recall correctly, I think my fifth day here to be exact, one little female infected mosquito flew up my pant leg and gave that ever so familiar prick (you all know it), right above my ankle bone. This has to be the most common and most annoying place to have a mosquito bite, and I admit I itched and itched and itched it until it bled. But all this itching would not stop the already traveling parasites in my bloodstream to my liver. It was only a matter of time that these parasites would mature and start attacking my red blood cells.

Now in my last blog, I ended with saying that we are always where we’re supposed to be. I said this because on the day I arrived back from the village, four hours later symptoms of Malaria began. If I had stayed in the village, I don’t know if I could have received the same care I received here in Ouaga. And if I had to travel back to Ouaga, sick as I was, I don’t think I would have had the strength to do it. So, within two hours of my temperature rising form the normal 98.6 degrees to 103, I was able to receive quick, sufficient care, medicine and all, costing no more than $60.

Lucky me, I only had fever and chills for one day, but spent the rest of the week sleeping, eating little and trying to regain my strength. The only thing I found that really sucks about Malaria is the fatigue. I felt as if I had been hit by a bulldozer and ran over again and again. Even more, all I wanted to do was get back to the village and start my work. But with a week lost, Emily so cleverly pointed out to me that in this week, I went from being constipated, to having Malaria, to getting diarrhea. My body had gone through some massive changes and yet I made a relatively quick recovery. So fully recovered I head to the village, with the reminder that I am not invincible to the diseases of West Africa.