Malaria?

Last week Sean was sick. He was fine one minute, and then next he was lethargic, had a fever, felt sick, had a head ache and shivery. The next day he went to the Dr and had 2 malaria tests done. Both of those tests came back negative, but the Dr was not convinced and put him on medicine to fight his horrible disease. Sean continued with the symptoms ~ fever, lethargic (napped most of the day), head aches ~ all weekend. At one point I walked into the house, the air conditioning was off and here Sean was in a sweat shirt and sweat pants claiming it was cold! He attempted to go back to work on Monday but was sent home, Dr's orders. By Tuesday he said he left 95% better and did not get another Malaria test done. A week later, Sean seems to be back to normal. Maybe it wasn't Malaria, but it is better to be safe than sorry.

Every day, for the past 111 days, we have taken Malarone. This is an anti Malaria drug. This does not prevent us from getting Malaria, it just makes the affects less if we do get it. We take Malarone every day, the kids take a pediatric version. Carter and Regan take 2 and Bailey takes 3. So in total, we have taken 999 pills. And we have not even been here 4 months!

So with Sean getting sick last week I thought a bit of Malaria information would be good for all of you reading this blog.



This next video is quite long, almost 10:00 minutes. But very interesting on how the parasites attack the blood cells.



This last video plays a few times. The actual cheer is only less than 2 minutes.

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School visit

All the grades at the school raised money to sponsor one or two orphan's schooling for a year at a local area school. I was able to go with Bailey's class as they presented the student with shoes, uniforms, school supplies, a cup and bowl and lunch money for the year. It was a wonderful chance to see a little more of Ghana, from the outside of the gate. The children were beautiful and full of joy and excitement and curiosity. Enjoy!

What was I thinking?

So you know how things always sound good in theory and you say yes to something. Then later, after the reality sinks in of what you actually said yes to, you start to wonder "What the hell?" That is where I was last night. No, I am not moving back from Africa. But that has crossed my mind many times! This time I was saying "what the hell have I done" because I had told some ladies last evening, as they were making delicious Mango Margarita's, that I would "love" (yes that was my exact word) to go on a 70 minute bike ride tomorrow. Monica assured me it wouldn't be fast, as this was the long endurance ride, not the short speed work ride. So I figure, I have been to spin class a few times, 50 minutes a class. 70 minutes is not much more than that. So great, we are to meet at 7:00 at the gate. That gives us time for the ride, home and off to teach yoga. The evening progresses, 2 very large Mango Margarita's later I walk my bike back home and proceed to ask the question. What have I done? 6:00 Saturday morning rolls around and I am still second guessing my decision, but there is no backing down. So I fuel my body (oatmeal with protein powder) and hold off on the coffee (no place to stop to pee). I get myself ready to go and head to the gate. Monica, Jo, Kim and I head off, and I soon realized this was not a leisurely bike ride through the country side. Sure 70 minutes may not seem long, but we were biking 20 Kilometers. I brought up the rear most of the way. I had issues with my gears, my brakes squeak, and sweat was literally dripping into my eyes, altering my vision. No one complained about me slowing them down, they were being polite I think. The hills were killers, but I would hear my spin instructors voice in my head (give it all you've got! don't quit on me now!) and I would keep "spinning". In the end I survived. I am glad I went and lived to tell. I'm taking it one journey at a time.

Italy 2010

This is our amazing trip to Italy.

We flew to Rome where we spent 2 fast paced days. Then took a train up to Florence. Spending 3 days there was not nearly enough. We took a day trip to Pisa, what is a trip to Italy without seeing the "Tipping Tower of Tortellini" as Carter called it. Then we took the train to Siena where we spent another 3 days. Finally back to Rome for one more day before flying back to Ghana.

The trip was filled with pizza, Regan ate it everyday! Gelati, the kids had it at least once a day. I, on the other hand, only had 2 the entire trip! We saw our fare share of nude males, making Bailey wonder why it was ok for a male to be nude, but not the female. Good questions!

For as much as we loved the trip it was actually nice to land back in Africa.