I'm going to Peru on Friday for the second time this year and I'm really excited about it. Partly because I'm hoping my Spanish is way better than it was in June (Segundo will tell me straight if it is or not) but mostly because our team will get to take a fast boat into the jungle in the middle of the week and go visit Flor de Ucayali, the Shipibo village we stayed at in June when we lived on the riverboat when there were more of us and we were building a church. This time around, we'll spend most of our time in Pucallpa, helping to repair a home for a needy family and sharing God's love with them, and they will be sharing it with us too.
But the not fun part of going back to Peru is that I get to welcome my old friend malaria pills back into my life for the next 10 weeks. I took the first one today. It would have only been six weeks except that then I go to the Dominican Republic while I'm still taking the Peru pills and my doctor thought since I'm already taking them, what's another four weeks to cover my DR trip as well. Awesome.
As I discovered the last time I took them, I am apparently one of the only people in the world who actually experiences their side effects. My June team had no issues with their pills, other than Jim not being able to remember if he had taken his for the day or not, resulting in lots of time spent counting pills every morning. Maybe it's because all of them took the daily malaria pill but I take the once a week pill, because I'm special. At least that's what my doctor says.
What side effects, you might ask. Well, mainly that I hallucinated. Twice. And then had lots of really vivid dreams most of the rest of the time.
The first hallucination may very well have been a dream too - it happened at night while I was in my bed on the first day of my new adventure into the land of malaria pills. In my hallucinogenic dream state, I sat up in my bed and proceeded to claw my face off. Because I didn't have scratch marks all over my face the next day, I'm inclined to think I dreamed it, but it was the most vivid, scary dream I've ever had.
The second hallucination came when I was wide awake a few weeks later and cooking dinner. I had a small pan sitting on the counter and when I went to pick it up, it turned about 180 degrees all by itself. I just stood there and stared at it, hoping that maybe it would start singing and dancing too, but it wasn't so inclined.
So who know what the next ten weeks hold in store for me. All I know is that by the time we hit December, I will have been on malaria pills for four out of the last six months, which I feel guarantees me an automatic "get out of jail free" card for any weird or erratic behavior, comments, and actions you may experience from me during that time frame.
I hope I really wrote this. I think I did. It feels real.
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