Saturday (7/1) we held a Malaria Carnival at Doe Palace for the community. We were separated into groups and facilitated games regarding different topics of Malaria, for example, transmission, bug nets, facts vs fiction, biology... etc. My group consisted of Stephen (he is a LR6 meaning he has been in country for a year now) Melissa, Zack, Tom, Sarah, and Mike. We signed up to facilitate transmission, and decided we would play a version of duck duck goose, naming it mosquito mosquito malaria. Here is how we played: everyone sitting in a circle was a mosquito, the person standing was a human, they would go around and say, mosquito...mosquito... mosquito... until finally they assigned a mosquito sitting with malaria, that person would chase the human, if caught they would be out (aka was sick with malaria), and if they made it back to their spot they were safe, being they made it back under their “bug net”. We prepared all week for the carnival, well by prepared, I mean we made little hats that made them look like mosquitos (and wrote female names on them because only female mosquitos can transmit malaria), and hung out at Kems because prepping duck duck goose takes zero time. We were all allowed to invite family and our weekend club groups to the carnival, so I invited my sisters, Princess and Naomi, and was looking forward to having a great time.
Since Thursday of that week I had been feeling slightly under the weather, this nasty cold was running around all the volunteers, so when I started to feel sick I wasn’t so concerned/assumed I was just catching that. The morning of the carnival I woke up and felt like death. I had the worst headache I’ve ever had, I was running a temperature, my body was sore, my eyes hurt, and I was exhausted. Every movement felt like it took so much effort. Like a champ (sort of) I took some medicine and decided to go to the carnival. I got to Doe and clearly looked like death because I got asked like 10 times if I was okay, and then Becky (Staff member who deals with us volunteers) asked me if I was okay, I said no, and started cry/laughing. For those who are not aware what cry/laughing is, it’s when you start crying and mid ugly face crying realize your being dub and laugh, but can’t stop crying so you cry/laugh. I knew I just unloaded on her what she thought was a simple yes or no question, so I immediately apologized, and explained that I’m overly emotional when I’m sick. She told me to call the emergency medical line and talk to whoever is on call to let them know what’s up. I called and Dr. Stephen picked up, I explained what was happening and he advised I take a Malaria test. I took the test and it came back negative, he said that if it was viral another symptom would soon pop up, and when it does to call him. I told him I was just shaking in anticipation for that moment and when something came up id call again. I went back inside and basically sat in the corner of the air-conditioned room for the rest of the carnival, which was massively depressing being I was really looking forward to this event. Peace Corps drove me home that night and I basically got inside told Princess I didn’t feel well and went to rest.
The next morning (7/2) after a miserable night of sleep, I woke up and had a fever of 104, my fevers had been going up and down from 96-104 all night. I called Dr. Stephen and he had me take another Malaria test (negative). He decided he wanted me to come to Monrovia for some tests and started preparing transport for me, and a couple hours later a car was in the front yard and I was heading to Monrovia. Monrovia for those who don’t know is the city capital of Liberia and is about 1.5 hours from where we are. The car picked me up and transported me to Peace Corps headquarters, which is a pretty cool 4 story building (making it one of the skyscrapers -ha) in the middle of Sinkor. Dr. Stephen did a blood draw (I was poked 4 times- FOUR) and I stayed overnight, in a hotel near the office, until the test results came back the next morning (7/3). Results came back saying my body was fighting something off, but we didn’t know what, so we did anther blood draw, and I was sent to a different lab in Monrovia to do a strep test/ to run more tests. I’m assuming the lab I went to was a NGO lab, I make that assumption because there were more white people in the office then I had seen in all of Africa so far- ha. The test results came back relatively normal, so Dr. Stephen said, take Tylenol and Advil, get lots of rest, and I’m sending you home. He said that I basically had what seemed like mono, without having mono, because I had had that before.
My take away from my first (and probably not last) time being sick- being sick here really messes with you. There isn’t lack of support or people caring for you, but there is a huge lack of resources, and basic understanding. I can’t lay down in front of the tv and microwave some soup that I got from the store with saltines I grab from the pantry. For me to do that I would need a fully charged computer to play movies (meaning I need current or to have dropped off my device at a charging station), I need canned soup... let’s pretend I have that and don’t need to start from scratch, I still need to light a coal pot and wait for it to heat. They have butter crackers I could buy, but that would involve walking the 2 miles to get to the store, and 2 miles back because I’m not allowed to ride motor bike, and you don’t want to keep packages of food like that laying around because of the mice/rats. You could ask your neighbor or kids next door to help you, but then you need to explain in painful detail what is wrong with you and why. Yes, a tangible reason why your stomach hurts or why your head hurts etc. There were several times I thought while sick that I wanted to go home, I imagine it crosses almost everyone’s head here when they are feeling sick. There are none of the accommodations, or comforts, that you have grown accustomed to in the states to make you feel better, so you really have to dig deep and basically tell yourself to stop being a little bitch (stop being a little bitch was my official take away ha-ha).
July 4th- Americas Independence Day. I woke up from a good night’s sleep feeling almost back to normal. This was a 4th of July miracle because my throat was bugging me the day I left, and Dr. Stephen told me I had a puss pocket (uhh...gross), and made a comment that it will most likely get worse- it didn’t, so the day was a win no matter what else happened! Everyone in Peace Corps was looking forward to the 4th because we prepared to cook an all-American dinner! Becky and the staff picked up food from Monrovia and brought it for us to prep/ cook and have a “proper” 4th of July celebration. We had coleslaw, mac and cheese, hamburgers, guacamole, fries, and cake- WITH frosting! Cooking for a large group of people in Liberia is interesting. They don’t have a stove, so we had to use the coal pots, which either cook too fast or too slow. There is no oven- Doe has a make shift oven that looks like a refrigerator, and Yamah (head chef) adds a cookie like sheet with water at the bottom, and coals or wood flame underneath, you close it and it bakes, well it bakes for Yamah- if any of us tried it would just burn things. There are no grinders, blenders, or automatic anything, no peelers, or clean drinking water coming out of the sink (running water is a luxury we only have at Doe), all our vegetables must soak in vinegar water, and the kitchen is half outside so you must make sure everything is covered. If you want fries for 56 people you hand cut every single one, every cake mix is made from scratch, and every piece of lettuce we eat has been cleaned and passed through 4 different cleaning buckets. Despite the rain (ALL DAY) we planned tournament style volleyball and soccer. This in theory/ practice was great fun/ great idea, in actuality, we ruined the field making it a massive mud pit (that is still not fully dried out and is now all bumpy), and people got so muddy that they were not allowed into the dining hall to get food -ha (just brought food out to them)! The amount of leftovers we had was insane, so I brought home a hamburger patty to give to my family and they were all OBSESSED. The 4th ended up being a lot of fun, and the food with the help of Yamah and her staff came out perfectly! This was the best 4th of July celebration I could have asked for – it was like we brought a little piece of America to Liberia.
Random funny story: I told my family I hate spiders, I was sitting in the dining room one day and the biggest spider I’ve ever seen was on the curtains, so Princess got the broom and was going to kill it. She lifts the broom and smack… NO DEAD SPIDER. We lost the spider! We looked everywhere for him and she was like, he is gone, he went outside. I said NO HE DID NOT... so, we searched, and searched, and couldn’t find him. In the meantime, Joe thinks this is hilarious and keeps showing me random spiders, and tells me they can’t hurt me. So, long story short I tell Auntie Maya that night the traumatic thing that happened and after she died laughing at me she went to look in the curtains, found and killed the spider!! The next day I leave my room and Joe has a spider the size of a quarter sitting in his hands, he hands the spider to Princess, she takes him by the legs and plays with him, and like spreads him out, and tells me he is a daddy long legs spider (told her I wasn’t afraid of those). I told her just because she pulls the legs out doesn’t make him a daddy long legs... hahaha... welcome to Africa!
Since Thursday of that week I had been feeling slightly under the weather, this nasty cold was running around all the volunteers, so when I started to feel sick I wasn’t so concerned/assumed I was just catching that. The morning of the carnival I woke up and felt like death. I had the worst headache I’ve ever had, I was running a temperature, my body was sore, my eyes hurt, and I was exhausted. Every movement felt like it took so much effort. Like a champ (sort of) I took some medicine and decided to go to the carnival. I got to Doe and clearly looked like death because I got asked like 10 times if I was okay, and then Becky (Staff member who deals with us volunteers) asked me if I was okay, I said no, and started cry/laughing. For those who are not aware what cry/laughing is, it’s when you start crying and mid ugly face crying realize your being dub and laugh, but can’t stop crying so you cry/laugh. I knew I just unloaded on her what she thought was a simple yes or no question, so I immediately apologized, and explained that I’m overly emotional when I’m sick. She told me to call the emergency medical line and talk to whoever is on call to let them know what’s up. I called and Dr. Stephen picked up, I explained what was happening and he advised I take a Malaria test. I took the test and it came back negative, he said that if it was viral another symptom would soon pop up, and when it does to call him. I told him I was just shaking in anticipation for that moment and when something came up id call again. I went back inside and basically sat in the corner of the air-conditioned room for the rest of the carnival, which was massively depressing being I was really looking forward to this event. Peace Corps drove me home that night and I basically got inside told Princess I didn’t feel well and went to rest.
The next morning (7/2) after a miserable night of sleep, I woke up and had a fever of 104, my fevers had been going up and down from 96-104 all night. I called Dr. Stephen and he had me take another Malaria test (negative). He decided he wanted me to come to Monrovia for some tests and started preparing transport for me, and a couple hours later a car was in the front yard and I was heading to Monrovia. Monrovia for those who don’t know is the city capital of Liberia and is about 1.5 hours from where we are. The car picked me up and transported me to Peace Corps headquarters, which is a pretty cool 4 story building (making it one of the skyscrapers -ha) in the middle of Sinkor. Dr. Stephen did a blood draw (I was poked 4 times- FOUR) and I stayed overnight, in a hotel near the office, until the test results came back the next morning (7/3). Results came back saying my body was fighting something off, but we didn’t know what, so we did anther blood draw, and I was sent to a different lab in Monrovia to do a strep test/ to run more tests. I’m assuming the lab I went to was a NGO lab, I make that assumption because there were more white people in the office then I had seen in all of Africa so far- ha. The test results came back relatively normal, so Dr. Stephen said, take Tylenol and Advil, get lots of rest, and I’m sending you home. He said that I basically had what seemed like mono, without having mono, because I had had that before.
My take away from my first (and probably not last) time being sick- being sick here really messes with you. There isn’t lack of support or people caring for you, but there is a huge lack of resources, and basic understanding. I can’t lay down in front of the tv and microwave some soup that I got from the store with saltines I grab from the pantry. For me to do that I would need a fully charged computer to play movies (meaning I need current or to have dropped off my device at a charging station), I need canned soup... let’s pretend I have that and don’t need to start from scratch, I still need to light a coal pot and wait for it to heat. They have butter crackers I could buy, but that would involve walking the 2 miles to get to the store, and 2 miles back because I’m not allowed to ride motor bike, and you don’t want to keep packages of food like that laying around because of the mice/rats. You could ask your neighbor or kids next door to help you, but then you need to explain in painful detail what is wrong with you and why. Yes, a tangible reason why your stomach hurts or why your head hurts etc. There were several times I thought while sick that I wanted to go home, I imagine it crosses almost everyone’s head here when they are feeling sick. There are none of the accommodations, or comforts, that you have grown accustomed to in the states to make you feel better, so you really have to dig deep and basically tell yourself to stop being a little bitch (stop being a little bitch was my official take away ha-ha).
July 4th- Americas Independence Day. I woke up from a good night’s sleep feeling almost back to normal. This was a 4th of July miracle because my throat was bugging me the day I left, and Dr. Stephen told me I had a puss pocket (uhh...gross), and made a comment that it will most likely get worse- it didn’t, so the day was a win no matter what else happened! Everyone in Peace Corps was looking forward to the 4th because we prepared to cook an all-American dinner! Becky and the staff picked up food from Monrovia and brought it for us to prep/ cook and have a “proper” 4th of July celebration. We had coleslaw, mac and cheese, hamburgers, guacamole, fries, and cake- WITH frosting! Cooking for a large group of people in Liberia is interesting. They don’t have a stove, so we had to use the coal pots, which either cook too fast or too slow. There is no oven- Doe has a make shift oven that looks like a refrigerator, and Yamah (head chef) adds a cookie like sheet with water at the bottom, and coals or wood flame underneath, you close it and it bakes, well it bakes for Yamah- if any of us tried it would just burn things. There are no grinders, blenders, or automatic anything, no peelers, or clean drinking water coming out of the sink (running water is a luxury we only have at Doe), all our vegetables must soak in vinegar water, and the kitchen is half outside so you must make sure everything is covered. If you want fries for 56 people you hand cut every single one, every cake mix is made from scratch, and every piece of lettuce we eat has been cleaned and passed through 4 different cleaning buckets. Despite the rain (ALL DAY) we planned tournament style volleyball and soccer. This in theory/ practice was great fun/ great idea, in actuality, we ruined the field making it a massive mud pit (that is still not fully dried out and is now all bumpy), and people got so muddy that they were not allowed into the dining hall to get food -ha (just brought food out to them)! The amount of leftovers we had was insane, so I brought home a hamburger patty to give to my family and they were all OBSESSED. The 4th ended up being a lot of fun, and the food with the help of Yamah and her staff came out perfectly! This was the best 4th of July celebration I could have asked for – it was like we brought a little piece of America to Liberia.
Random funny story: I told my family I hate spiders, I was sitting in the dining room one day and the biggest spider I’ve ever seen was on the curtains, so Princess got the broom and was going to kill it. She lifts the broom and smack… NO DEAD SPIDER. We lost the spider! We looked everywhere for him and she was like, he is gone, he went outside. I said NO HE DID NOT... so, we searched, and searched, and couldn’t find him. In the meantime, Joe thinks this is hilarious and keeps showing me random spiders, and tells me they can’t hurt me. So, long story short I tell Auntie Maya that night the traumatic thing that happened and after she died laughing at me she went to look in the curtains, found and killed the spider!! The next day I leave my room and Joe has a spider the size of a quarter sitting in his hands, he hands the spider to Princess, she takes him by the legs and plays with him, and like spreads him out, and tells me he is a daddy long legs spider (told her I wasn’t afraid of those). I told her just because she pulls the legs out doesn’t make him a daddy long legs... hahaha... welcome to Africa!