OH Mefloquine!

Yesterday was not such a good day.  For three days, I've been taking a medication called Mefloquine which protects my feeble little self from big scary mosquitoes with malaria.  Mefloquine, however, has some strange side effects.

For example, many people experience very vivid dreaming while they are on mefloquine or sometimes night terrors.  Many people have a hard time sleeping--some of the other volunteers didn't sleep more than a few hours over the course of three days, but still felt very energized every day.  I also met someone who experience bleeding of the eyes! Eeek!

My side effects were perhaps not as intense as bleeding of the eyes, but the first strange effect was a coppery, irony taste in my mouth all the time as if I had a penny hiding under my tongue.  The other sensation was a dull throbbing pressure behind my eyes that didn't really hurt but made it a little hard to focus.  However, yesterday, it really got to me!  Mefloquine can also play with your emotions and anxiety and that's just what I got.  By the middle of the day I couldn't sit in the session due to some pretty intense anxiety so I went to the nurse's ward where I was very loopy and feeling drugged without a way to come down.  After a couple hours, I felt better and I feel good now though I couldn't sleep much last night. Bah!


HOWEVER!  Today is a big huge day!! Let the awkwardness begin!! I will be moving in with my homestay family this morning.  My homestay family is a Malian family that lives in Bamako, and apparently my host dad is the chief of the little village outside Bamako in which he lives.  I"ll be staying in their house, taking meals with them, drinking tea with them, using the negen (hole toilet! it's really not that bad though!), and using their Malian-ness as a base for me to learn all about Malian culture, including improving my Bambara and French.  WooohoOo!

Also, this weekend is a festival called Tabaski! It is a Muslim festival (most of Mali is Muslim) that celebrates that story of Abraham.  If you are not familiar with this story, it's the same story as in the Bible!  Some may not know that Islam and Christianity share many stories, similar to Judaism and Christianity.  So, this story is the tale of Abraham's faith to God through his willingness to sacrifice his own son.  However, just as he was about to do it! Bum bum bum!
His son was saved and God told him to sacrifice a sheep instead, much to the joy of Abraham's son!



So Tabaski entails, I hear, eating lots of sheep, going to Mosque, big markets, music....all the wonderfulness of a festival!

So, most importantly to those of you who keep up with me and worry for my safety, I will most likely be internet free for a couple weeks, until Thanksgiving or so.  Don't worry!!  I'm not dead yet.

One other little story to tell....after my awful day yesterday, I went for a shower in one of the little cement structures outside of our huts.  I was pretty exhausted, freaking out a little, under the grey glow of the florescent lights.  As I closed the door, a praying mantis freaked out and began launching itself against all four walls of the little room in an attempt to get out, which also freaked me out, of course.  He finally settled down across from me as a started washing my hair and I took my eyes off him for a minute.  When I looked back, he also seemed to be washing his "hair,"  pulling his mantis-arms over his eyes, not unlike a cat, and not unlike me at the moment. 

Ok gotta go pack for homestay!

Lots of love, talk to you soon