So it turns out malaria is a serious illness. I found this out first hand last week. For the longest time I thought it was nothing more than a more severe version of the flu or something along those lines. In my six months in Senegal, and in my first seven months here in Malawi, I’d been bitten millions of times by mosquitoes but nothing ever come of it until last week. And then all of a sudden everything caught up to me and my luck vanished into thin air. Malaria hit me harder than a punch from Manny Pacquiao and for a little while everything was looking a little grim – but I’m back now and everything is ok. I guess the good news is that I can’t get it again, so now I can let those little bloodsuckers eat me as much as they want without worrying.
I got back to work late last week and was thrown back into it right away. We had a two-day training for our peer health evaluators to help them in their Teen Club duties. A lot of them had been complaining about a couple of things so we decided to put together a training session to help them feel more comfortable and well equipped for Teen Club.
This week Rachel and I have been planning our first half-day VCT since after Christmas break. The tournament is going to be this Saturday and for the first time ever we’re inviting four different schools to participate – that way community members from four separate districts will come and support their schools (and hopefully get tested too!). As you can probably guess, the more schools we invite the more work we have to do to make sure everything is ready for the tournament. Rachel and I have basically been going from one school to the other to make sure that everything is in place for Saturday. We’ve talked to countless teachers, and embarrassed ourselves in front of four separate school assemblies (where there are between 500 and 800 people normally watching).
Before we started doing these school assemblies to sensitize all of the students before our VCT event, one of our master coaches, Godfrey, encouraged Rachel and I to use our "Malawian" names when introducing ourselves to the students. This may not sound like much but I cannot tell you the reaction of the kids when we pretend that we have Malawian names. All of the kids freak out and start screaming and jumping out of their seats -- "there is no way you can have that name"! Keep in mind these reactions are all in good fun, they just love the idea that we would have Malawian names because it’s completely unheard of for them. The way I see it now is that Rachel and I are complete comic entertainment for all students and teachers in Malawi. We’re there to lighten the mood and make everyone laugh, which is pretty awesome if you ask me.
The next couple of days are going to be pretty hectic and busy, but in a good way. Rachel and I are going to be running around like crazy people making sure everything is in place for the VCT and every afternoon from here until Saturday we’re going to be running practices with the kids to help get them excited for the big tournament. Without us they wouldn’t be able to practice because they don’t have soccer balls or anyone else around to organize them.
On top of all that my parents are coming to visit this Friday! I’m really excited because they’re going to witness one of our tournaments first hand. I haven’t told them the plans yet because I wanted to surprise them, but I’m pretty confident that they’re going to be completely overwhelmed. One second they’re walking off a 3 day flight that completely rocks your internal clock, and the next second they’re walking around a field with about 1000 crazy Malawians kids running and screaming. Should be pretty funny and entertaining, can’t wait!
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