So Monday was our last dose of Malarone, the anti-malarial we started 1-2 days before arriving in malaria-prone Sierra Leone and continued for seven days/doses after departing. It makes Bob have vivid dreams; I don't notice this so much.
But it's always sentimental, thought-provoking for me to take the last pill.
Malarone innoculates us against, prevents us (we hope) from the malaria experience, an experience that takes the lives of some 21.7 percent of SL children before they blow out the candles on their fifth birthday cake.
I asked 11 year old Janet this year, what does it feel like, how do you know you have malaria? She said, "you wake up and you feel lazy." Also sometimes a headache. (Tim and Doug might tell you it goes a tad further than that!)
I remember being amazed when I heard that those with sickle cell anemia have a natural immunity against malaria, due to the (pathological) nature of their red blood cells. (Well enough, since those poor folks don't need anything more heaped on their plate.)
But we short term missioners are (hopefully) spared that experience.
I wonder, those that have been, what else would you like to be (metaphorically) immunized against experiencing?
I wonder, what would SL folk coming to the US want to be (metaphorically) "immunized" against?
(Most of us saw less than a handful of Santas the whole of our trip....with only three weeks or so before Christmas. Most of us were amazed that official electioneering/campaigning starts only 30 days prior to their presidential election.)
How is it a simple prescription prevents us from becoming ill (we hope) and (more than) the continent of Africa is still waging war against malaria (something we in the US have thought little of since it was wiped off our radar screens in the late 50's/early 60's)?
And what bites us, here in America, insidious and unseen....has the potential to culminate into a "mal-aria" (bad air) that threatens us? Causes us to "wake up feeling lazy?"
Imagine no malaria....imagine.
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