sickness

Last week, all the volunteers got sick. We had fevers, chills, headaches...and yes, the typical stomach problems. On any given day, only two to three of the 5 volunteers made it to the school. (I'm proud to say that for once I was the first to recover!)

Anyhow, being bed-ridden and a hypochondriac, I took out my guidebook and started researching the diseases I could have possibly contracted. Cholera, Yellow Fever, Typhoid, Hepatitis, HIV (jk!)...

...and Malaria. Malaria is a huge problem here, as the heat and humidity is the perfect breeding ground for mosquitos. Furthermore, the mosquitos have become more and more resistant to the prescribed medications, and the strains are mutating at a significant pace.

That said, I haven't seen too many mosquitos. I was bitten on one occasion and that was while assiting a mass at the Keur Moussa monastery (north of Dakar). I was thoroughly devoured though and had to get up and leave... but I just thought it was because I was Jewish...you know, a subtle hint that I shouldn't be there... :)

Anyhow, the rest of the volunteers got better, except for one: Pierre, from Germany. As of today, it had been a week, and he had only gotten worse. So, after lunch, my host father and two other volunteers accompanied Pierre to the hospital in center-city Dakar. After seeing the doctor and getting his blood drawn (I was really impressed by the effectiveness of this hospital visit by the way) Pierre came out of the screening room. Diagnosis: Malaria.

He had been prescribed a medication called savarine by his doctor in Germany, but according to the doctor here, it doesn't protect you in the slightest. So even with his mere three mosquito bites, Pierre had gotten malaria. It is both surreal and scary.

I tend to fictionalize health risks, thinking the odds are so slim. But today I realized I couldn't.