Its All Fun & Games Until Somebody Gets Malaria

(Spoiler Alert: that somebody was me)

Alright. After my third consecutive posts mentioning me getting sick, I feel obligated to change the title of this blog. Away with the “1000 Hills” nonsense and in with something a bit more realistic. How about A Boy Among 1000 Ailments? Thats a little more precise.

If you read the title of this and are now subsequently quite worried, (1) try to put yourself in my poor mom’s position when she got the “I have malaria” phone call last week and (2) I assure you, I am totally fine now. I purposefully left off writing this update until I could concretely say I am no longer infected and am cued for a full recovery.

If you have gotten past the whole “wow, Ive never heard anyone say the phrase ‘I have malaria’ before” shock and are thinking, “But Sam, what are you doing? They make medication to protect against that sort of thing. You are stupid.” I know – on both accounts. However, the risk of malaria in Kigali City where I spend most of my time right now is pretty low. And the vast proportion of people I know, both expats and Rwandans, are not on the daily pills. I actually know very few expats who have contracted it even after years of not taking prophylaxis!

So, unfortunately, when I started experiencing some pretty undesirable secondary health effects of my anti-malarial meds ( I was indeed taking them!), I stopped the regimen for a few days to let my body recover. And it did. But apparently I’m also a tasty mosquito treat. Because what do you know? Fever, chills, continual seasickness, body aches – I got the whole darn thing in the middle of last week and have only just started leaving my home and rebuilding my strength. 10/10 would not recommend. Moral of the story: take your antimalarials. I promise, malaria is one experience you really do not want to have.

All that to say, I was incredibly impressed with the care I received. A few friends helped me get to a clinic as soon as I started feeling feverish. And within about two hours, a doctor examined me, ran a blood test, saw I was malaria positive, and sent me out the door with a script. The pharmacy was even easier – malarial medication is an over-the-counter three-day course of drugs that kills the parasites quite efficiently and costs about $4. It is not pleasant. But it gets the job done.

It is crazy to chat with Rwandans about the disease – everyone who comes from a village has a malaria story from their younger days. Here, it is as ubiquitous as the flu. So at no point was I scared I would not recover. The experience really reinforced for me how different some of the challenges are that people face in this part of the world.

When we hear the word “malaria” at home it seems so foreign, so scary – a disease that claims hundreds of thousands of lives on a regular basis. And those statistics are true. It claimed over 435,000 lives in 2017 (WHO). But being forced to reckon with the reality of malaria, it makes the deaths that result from it seem all the more tragic. Yes, it is awful. I am not sure I have ever or ever will be more sick in my life. At least I certainly hope not. But the dangerous part, the fever, was gone within 48 hours of getting the low-cost treatment. It is mainly when it is left undiagnosed and untreated for a day or two that it leaves behind permanent damage.

Anyway, besides for my unfortunate encounter with a tropical blood-eating parasite, I am quite well actually. Still having adventures – both culinary and across the country. One key advancement two weeks ago was my discovery of how to make a vegan passionfruit curd. It has taken on a number of manifestations over the following weeks including mini-tarts (pictures at the end) and passion-custard filled banana muffins. I am really going to miss all the fresh fruit available on the street. Someone is going to have to start a secret passionfruit smuggling ring to keep me happy in the US.

Two weekends ago, I jumped on a bus an hour north to visit a friend from UVA, Sarah, who joined Peace Corps Rwanda and has been serving for the past year. Sarah and I have run into each other a number of times when she has been in Kigali. But this was my first time heading out to where she lives in Village. We had a great time! I got to see her market town and then we hiked back to a spot called Nyiangarama, a spot on the side of the road that has fresh potatoes and goat brochettes frying continually. One of my housemates refers to it as “Rwandan McDonalds.” After enjoying some potatoes, we set off on our chief concern of the day – a tea crawl.

African tea (icyai in ikinyarwanda) features strongly in Rwandan culture. There are tiny tea shops everywhere. Each village has a few. So we made it our mission to sample tea from as many of the shops Sarah frequents as possible. Some teas had notes of lemon grass while others were a little bit spicy with cinnamon. At one place, we dunked a dry Rwandan pastry known as an amandazi in our tea while at another, we ordered tasty omelets to round out our dinners.

It was so great to be able to glimpse what village life can be like. Sarah’s site-mate, Haley, joined us for part of the day too. And I got to meet a few of their students and many of their friends as we hopped from village to village hitching rides on busses to get the few miles between spots.

I will definitely head back soon to spend some more time getting to know their context and preparing for some of the work I will be doing in village settings toward the end of my time here.

But for now, this is where I leave you. I am sitting on my porch at present and am particularly mosquito-shy at the moment. So time for me to head in. But before I do, I will leave you with a few pictures, as always, to capture the parts of my week here I did not quite encapsulate in these few words. Stay tuned to next time though! I am headed to the Nyungwe rainforest this weekend to hike in the canopy and chase after some chimpanzees. More on that to come!