Liam in Africa

This is a blog dedicated to Liam Hanks' trip to The Gambia. Please feel free to leave comments! Be sure to check out the Archives for older posts so you can get the whole story!

Thursday, May 25, 2006

Malaria!

Yes, I am ill. We think I have malaria, so we went yesterday to have a blood test, and I met last night with a doctor who told me to take a couple of anti-malarials. I should start to feel better by tonight. Yesterday I was a wreck. I had a headache that felt like I had run into a brick wall, and I felt sick to my stomach, and I had a fever. I would be so cold I was shivering one minute, and the next I would be boiling hot and sweating. Not fun. My temperature in the evening was 39.1C, but I'm sure it was more than that earlier in the day. I spent last night and will be spending tonight wih the Shams, they have been looking after me, and really just letting me relax, watch TV, sleep etc.
It is not unusual for people here to get malaria, all of the Baha'i pioneers have each had it at least once since they came, and the treatments once you get it work extremely well.

Aside from that things have been going well. I bought a basketball - there is a court in my compound - and that has allowed me to interact with the youth and kids much more. One of the local Baha'is has started to teach me Wolof, the most popular of the local languages. The grammer is extremely simple, they use the same word for learn, learning, learned, teach, teaching and taught! Words go in the same order as in english, so I've been memorizing the new sounds for each word. Its been really fun.