Several years back Upper Columbia Academy took a trip to Malawi to do some building and VBS. That year there were three different choices for mission trips; Africa, Borneo and Ecuador, and I choose to go to Ecuador. Like any group of high school students we seemed to have a silent competition going on between everyone. When all of the mission trips returned everyone was comparing their experiences, defending that theirs was the best. A few weeks after everyone returned we found out that those that went to Africa had to be tested for parasites and tuberculosis. The rest of us thought it was hilarious that they might have gotten parasites from Lake Malawi. We teased them for days, even after we found out that they were negative. That trip was known by everyone that didn’t go on it, as the one where their friends possibly came home with worms in their guts.
Well its now my time to be in Malawi, and exposed to strange African diseases. Guess who should be laughing now? My luck has run out. My first African disease is upon me. Over Christmas break we traveled several times to Lake Malawi. Our first location on the lake was kind of questionable. We got out of the water pretty sure we wouldn’t escape Balharzia (the parasite in the lake). Supposedly the parasite is wherever there are snails, and of course where we were was covered in snail shells. Lucky us! So here we are about 6 weeks after swimming in the lake and the parasites have decided our bodies are pretty nice homes. One of the symptoms is skin rashes and lesions. Well since I seem to have such great luck with skin conditions; out of all the symptoms, my body has developed this one. I feel like a walking blister. Since we are in Africa and medicine isn’t as controlled here as home, getting the treatment medication is pretty simple. Yesterday we walked over to the hospital and wrote down our weights, got a few signatures and the next thing we know we have the medication to nuke our bodies and kill any extra creatures inside. Welcome to Malawi, the land of never ending adventures.
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