The one where I get the bubonic plague

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It happened. The very pinnacle point of your life where you invariably see the bright light at the end of the dark tunnel and crawl to it in an incoherent stupor. It happened. It’s called malaria. Despite the high fevers and cold chills, projectile vomit and diarrhea, abdominal and back pains, headaches and hallucination/dizzy spells, it was quite an amazing experience. Although I looked like the bride of death and was not in the mood for people visiting me, they still did. All of my Gambian friends came over every night, just to check on me, and see that I was alive. It’s through experiences like this that you see the human in every person. It also taught me an important lesson that I knew in theory, but not in practice. You are able to change the way you feel, physically or mentally, and you have a lot more control over your health and recovery than you may think. I once studied this phenomenon of positive thinking leading to healthy behavior. Although I thought it was a bunch of rubbish, I now know it most certainly is not. Malaria is also great if you want to kick a bad habit…like smoking.

I got to thinking about malaria more seriously. A year ago I was set on creating my own charity for prevention and education of malaria for women and children. I now can feel the pain, and relate to the disease that causes over one million people world wide to die every year. It was easy for me to get treatment and care (my roommate kicks ass), and even though I felt like I was going to die, I knew I wouldn’t. Why is it that malaria can be so easily treated, and even prevented, and yet ONE MILLION people die every year from it? I have a hard time accepting the fact that many people accept this as fact. Why do we have to make this fact, and merely accept it for what happens in the world? It’s not acceptable to let something that is treatable ravage families and lives in the developing world. We can sit home, watch our news programs and be made aware (a little bit- the news is skewed and F-ed up) and feel sadness for what is going on in our not so perfect world. Then we turn the news off and go on with our lives. It’s hard to believe that one person pursuing an international cause can be of any good, because there are so many problems in the world. It’s easy to say, “I can’t help. Besides someone else better equipped will do it.” But as we look at the world, study it, and take it in, it becomes apparent that in a lot of situations, these “better equipped” people aren’t doing anything. So when do we, as individuals, decide to take the wheel and drive?


Quote of the post:
“I just want to ask the question, who really cares to save the world in despair? Who really cares? There will come a time, when the world won’t be singin’, flowers won’t grow, bells won’t be ringin’. Who really cares, who is willing to try, to save a world that is destined to die?” -Marvin Gaye (Save the Children)

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