I remember as a kid begging my mom and dad to let me sleep under mosquito netting. It was a short lived phase, as they never acquiesced to my (admittedly) ridiculous requests. I wanted mosquito netting because it seemed so royal- and princess like- at the age of seven. The fine white netting tied in a ring above my bed (note: i grew up in a room with about seven foot ceilings. An NBA player wouldn't be able to stand up straight in there) , floating down around to tuck into my bed cushions to make me feel protected and important. My parents saw fine white netting to get dirty and torn and be one more thing to be a mess in my room. Smart Parents.
Flash forward 15 years or so: I now live in a country where i sleep under a mosquito net everynight. Not by choice, entirely, but as the best protection from malaria. Having just experienced my first bout with Malaria- i am even more a fan of my mozzie net then ever. Instead of being white and gathered- my mozzie net is blue and square, treated with insecticide, and hangs above my bed from a small wooden frame. One of my nighttime rituals has become to makesure it is properly tucked in. "pretty as a princess".
It is funny how used to seomthing to get- coming home to the staes, or sleping somewhere that there isn't a net- i now immediately feel a little exposed. The fact of the matter is- out here, sleeping under an insecticde treated mozzie net everynight is the best way- for us and the locals to protect against malaria. It is the principal Soft Power Health stresses every week when the go out and visit villages, selling their cost-subsidized nets to the locals.
My own bout with malaria (zero fun) has made this even more evident to me.
besides the malaria front, the past few weeks have been a busy time out here as the last of the summer tourism scene makes its way through jinja. Lots of birthdays and celebrations this month as well as lots of work on the river. It is just now starting to quiet down, and i think we are all a little excited about it.
Thats about all for the moment... its gone quiet and time to start some planning for some future missions.
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
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1 comment:
The maybe sad nature of our human condition is that we have to experience it ourselves to really understand. Perhaps this is why change is so slow and why some generations work so hard to make sure the next generation always remembers long after a traumatic event is gone.
Mamacita
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