Malaria?

I’m feeling sick.

It started yesterday. It felt like I was about to get sick, you know, with my throat on the verge of being sore and my body feeling overly fatigued. I rested as much as I could yesterday, but I had a hard time falling asleep last night.

Today I woke up not feeling much better. I dragged myself out of bed at 6:05, and was so sluggish that I didn’t get to school until 7:40, when the kids were just lining up for assembly. I had two free periods before my first English class, so I came back to the house and rested. When I was walking back to begin teaching, I passed Sister Julie and explained how I felt.

“You should go to the hospital,” she said. “They’ll send you to the lab to get some blood tests done.”

“No. I don’t see the point. It’s just a cold. What can the doctors do?” I said. “They’ll just tell me to rest and to drink plenty of fluids. I don’t want to wait for hours just to hear that.”

It wasn’t until I was halfway through my first English class when it struck me that maybe this could be more than a cold or a flu. I was feeling so shitty I could barely teach. Somehow, I made it through Class 4A’s English class, but halfway through 4B’s, I had to leave. I stopped by the office to tell Sister Julie.

“I told you you should have gone to the hospital,” she said.

“Um, is a sore throat one of the symptoms of malaria?” I asked.

“Malaria can take on many symptoms. With mine, it started by not being able to raise my right arm,” she said. “Sometimes, it can be a sore throat, and tiredness.”

Oh, shit.

I’m supposed to be teaching writing to Class 4A right now, but instead, I’m in bed. If I’m not feeling better by tomorrow, I’m planning on going to the hospital in the morning.

PLEASE don’t be malaria!

Oh, those f***ing mosquitoes! So evil! I sleep with a mosquito net and the fan going to keep me safe. However, a couple nights ago, I woke up in the morning with over a dozen bites on my feet. I must have accidentally kicked off my sheet while I was sleeping. It’s so hot here that it wouldn’t surprise me. I’ve been taking anti-malaria pills every day since I came here, but I know they don’t always work. I’m reeeeally hoping that they have worked, and that I’m ill with some other less serious sickness. I guess I’ll know tomorrow.

What a bummer! Especially since, when I talked to Fred last night, he wouldn’t tell me what his plans were for my birthday, because he and Mavis wanted it to be a surprise. Whatever this sickness is, I really hope it’s gone by the weekend! This will probably be the only birthday I’ll celebrate in Africa, and I don’t want to spend it in bed. Whatever, who cares about 23rd birthdays? What I’m more concerned about is Easter vacation, which starts two weeks from tomorrow. I want to spend my vacation on a safari in the North, looking at elephants and sitting on crocodiles. (Yes, it’s true... there’s a park where you can go sit on a crocodile’s back! They feed it a chicken while you sit, so the crocodile doesn’t even notice you. Everyone talks about it and I’ve seen it on TV. I think it would be SO awesome to sit on a crocodile’s back!) But in the meantime... who will teach my students English?

Maybe this is just a cold, and I’ll wake up tomorrow feeling perfectly healthy. We’ll see! If you’re on speaking terms with God, say a prayer for me, please!