malaria II

so now that the cat’s out of the bag (you should work for the c.i.a., mom), i might as well post about it, because i have nothing else to report considering i’ve literally been in bed all week. i have malaria again. this time it was HELL. last time it was just tickling me, and this time it punched me full on in the face. my body hurt so much i could barely move, and i was so fatigued it took all my energy just to moan in agony. needless to say, i wasn’t able to make it to an internet café all week – i was barely able to make it down the hall to the pit latrine (i didn’t think squatting over pit latrines could get any more fun, and then i did it with malaria and a whole new world of excitement opened up to me!). the doctor i went to at the beginning of the week said that the malaria i had last time probably just didn’t entirely go away, so i relapsed. he said the meds i took last time were pretty weak, and boy did the meds he gave me this time make up for it. they knocked me flat. i don’t know how much of my agony was malaria-induced and how much of it was the meds. anyway, i’m FINALLY starting to feel better, thank GOD. i’m trying not to stress about the fact that i missed an entire week of research or about the really passive aggressive text message my advisor sent me for cancelling our appointments last week…. (“trying” being the operative word here).

so since i have nothing else interesting to write about, i’ll tell you what i did to make it through the week (other than sleep 20 hours a day). i watched titanic twice, little miss sunshine twice, v for vendetta twice, ocean’s 11 three times (I could rob a casino blindfolded by now), amelie twice, and Leonard cohen’s live in london dvd twice. i even resorted to watching ocean’s 11 and little miss sunshine with the director’s commentary on. god help me. and all of this from within my cave of a hotel room that only has a window out to the hallway, meaning no fresh air and no natural light. and my really weird alarm clock, which likes to announce the temperature at random intervals, reminded me throughout the week that the temperature in my room was usually between 85 and 90 degrees, so s don’t know how much of my fever was a legit fever and how much was due to the fact that i was in a SAUNA.

the moral of the story? – (1) don’t get malaria; and (2) bring more than 3 movies with you to Africa (titanic and ocean’s 11 were courtesy of my roommates).

i have a post in the works that’s going to knock your socks off. hopefully it will make up for the fact that this post was a major complain-a-thon. so give me a few days to do some research and then GET READY TO LAUGH.