Public Enemy #1
This “little” fella is your basic East African mosquito. Sure he looks harmless enough, but he’s got a dirty little secret that he’s all too willing to share. He can’t help himself, he gets hungry, like any other creature might, and he goes on the hunt…for blood. In the process, unbeknownst to him, he ends up spreading the “M” word to those from whom he feeds. Yes, that’s right, malaria.
So it’s been a while since my last post. Someone pointed out to me the irony of my ending statement that I have been “in good health so far, just fighting a bit of a cold.” Wouldn’t you know it, a couple of days later, I come down with malaria. For general consumption of this tale, I will omit the graphic details of what malaria can do to a person. I’ll just say, those were a few of the longest days I have experienced, but I am thankful that it was detected early on and that I am blessed to have the means to pay for the doctor visit, lab fees, and treatment. (All in all, a total of about 23 US dollars.) At the time I didn’t want to alarm anyone and now that it’s behind me and I am fully recovered it’s okay to put out there. I remember one other missionary’s mom saying “Don’t blog about that scary stuff until you are okay and it’s in the past.”
I will share a few other things about the day I went to the doctor, because I can laugh about it now. So there I was, having been up for about 36 hours and doing the malaria mambo for a greater part of the night (see wikipedia “malaria mambo”). And with a delicate system, boarded a crowded matatu for the “half hour” trip to the doctor. Mind you, anywhere you go, people will tell you it’s only “30 minutes.” By the good Lord’s grace the trip was incident free and made it to the doctor. No insurance forms, short wait-time, pay-per-service…nice! A quick blood test showed signs of malaria and they loaded me up with about 30 tablets to take and needle shot for the road…this is where the story really starts to take off…hang on.
On the way back home, the fever was starting to kick in. I was sitting in the matatu dripping in cold sweat. Little did I know the driver was in a bit of a hurry this day and he ends up cutting off a couple other matatu drivers in the process. Usually this is not a big deal, but on this particular day, one other driver would have none of it and he succumbed to road rage. We were taking a right turn around the bend when the one who had the rage building in him took his vehicle up to ramming speed and smacked us off the road and into a pole. Thankfully it ended up being more of a glancing blow, and no one was hurt. At this point everyone is piling out of their respective matatu and yelling at each other. I just sat there, not really being able to process what had just happened. To make a long story less long, I hopped on another, less dented matatu and made it home, cooked up a couple of big pots of water for a much needed bath and slept the whole night through, feeling 300 percent better the next day. Three days later I was back at it, preaching and teaching on Sunday.
So while this story may be humorous and I can laugh about the idea of having a parasite in my liver to keep me company the rest of my days, there are many who are affected by malaria that simply cannot afford the treatment. A pastor friend of mine, Allen, recently informed me that his youngest son has malaria and is struggling mightily in the hospital. As you pray, please remember him and all those affected by this widespread disease in this part of the world. One of the easiest ways to aid in prevention is by continuing to provide mosquito netting to the children here in our school and others that we come into contact with through Emmaus Milimani Church. These nets are approximately 400 Kenya schillings or roughly 5 US dollars. It may seem overwhelming, what we can aid with is so small in comparison with the need, but we have this opportunity, here, and at this time.
So again I sign off, once again back in good health, sifa kwa Bwana, praise the Lord.