August: A bit of a let down

I had great plans for August.  I even wrote a list of goals I was aiming to achieve in the month… HA!

I lost 2 weeks, that I’ll never get back, to malaria.  The first week wasn’t too bad. The normal “get sick and take the treatment really quick” strategy worked pretty well as I was really only down for a few days until I felt a bit better.  But then the malaria fought back, and I think it was angry. I’ve never had a headache like it but the local hospital was actually pretty good and made a positive test that malaria was indeed the culprit and put me on some quinine.  I’m not sure if the quinine was the thing that got rid of the malaria or the second round of conventional antimalarials, but I do know that the quinine hit me for six. Another week in bed with side effect and ringing ears wasn’t fun.

Then in the middle of the month we collected the Falconers from Blantyre Malawi – a bright spot in the month.  Only, as we were due to travel back to Moz we heard the news that our close friend Dayanna has passed away in Lichinga.  Just gut wrenching and so sad.  We spent the next week travelling between Massangulo and Lichinga – going to the funeral, ceremonies and visiting, and just sitting with the grief.

So we’ve all come out of August pretty flat and a bit sick. Sometimes its all a bit hard. I don’t have any way of wrapping this up and bringing it to a nice, shiny conclusion where I can turn it around in a profound statement that is super spiritual. I can only share a song that says what I want to be able to say…