BAMM!

This month is Blog About Malaria Month. I am going to blog about malaria. I am by no means an expert on the subject, as I have never had malaria, but I know a few things that I would like to share. I take mefloquin every ten days and I own a mosquito net. I have bizarre mefloquine dreams, such as the one in which I am eating dinner on the back of a llama.

Malaria comes from the French for "bad air." Perhaps once upon a time people thought air caused malaria. I'm pretty sure they've found this to be untrue. Although this morning I was biking into Kedougou and a cow had died on the side of the road. It smelled so bad, I thought I might catch malaria. You can never be sure about these things.

Then the English came along and began prescribing gin and tonics to fight malaria. This is pretty smart of the English, I feel. I know the English and French have not always gotten along. This makes me sad. We should all sit down and drink gin and tonics together. And toast to our health, free of malaria.

Perhaps malaria was something invented by the white man to keep the black man down, the way AIDS was. This is not something I'd particularly like to elaborate on.

If mosquitoes were lollipops, we might enjoy getting mosquito bites. It would be like one of those dismal but necessary chores you have to do with a reward at the end, like when you go to the bank and stand in line for a long time just to find out you're actually overdrawn, but it's okay because at the end you can take a lollipop for yourself, and one for your child waiting in the car, except you don't have a child waiting in the car and you're actually going to eat the second lollipop yourself.

If I tried to draw a picture of a mosquito, it would probably look more like a dragon fly. I'm not sure of the genetic differences between mosquitoes and dragon flies, but I know dragons can breathe fire, which is no match for a mosquito net. In fact, mosquito nets are probably fairly flammable and this train of thought is just a recipe for disaster.

In any case, my friend Karin says I should probably stop writing about malaria now. She would know, she went to Malaria Boot Camp. She may know a few more things about this than me. Read what she has to say at krnordstrom.wordpress.com. Also, go to the Stomp Out Malaria website. You know, if you feel like it.