So I know there are some blog posts that are simply expected from missionaries in central Africa. You may have been wondering when they will show up. Well, wonder no more. Here they are…

The one where they get malaria

Thankfully, I have been the only one to come down with this illness. I don’t think it’s any surprise that of the four of us here I am the worst about remembering to take my daily malarial prophylaxis. I skipped a couple days about two months ago and paid for it. Sam and I were walking to church one Sunday in late February and I noticed by the time we arrived that I was no longer sweating. I also happen to be notoriously forgetful about staying hydrated so I figured I just hadn’t drank enough water before heading out the door. Half an hour into the service, though, I started getting chills. Not a good sign. I figured that I would just wait until the end of the service and take my temperature when I got back to the house. I thought it might be malaria, might be dehydration, might be something else. But by the end of the service (two and a half hours later) I was not doing well. All I wanted was to get home and drink a huge glass of cool water. When I got back I got my wish but it did nothing. I sat on the couch just trying to cool off. Michelle claims I was “cranky”. I probably was. She got the thermometer and took a reading of 107 degrees F. At that point we both started worrying a bit because that’s a bit too high to be anywhere close to healthy. So I took a cold shower and started on an anti-malarial medication we had in the house. Within two days I was good to go. I take my prophylaxis a bit more regularly now. Lesson learned.


The one where the snake gets in the house

One afternoon last week we had just put Soleil down for her nap and were bringing the laundry in off the line to fold it when I spotted a snake inside our doorway. It looked like it had gotten into our hose from who-know-where and was all bunched up trying to make its way out the front door. I grabbed my machete and pinned the snake against the wall with the point. I wanted to cleanly lop its head off but it was busy sliding behind the couch at that point and didn’t present itself well enough for that. So instead of a smooth strike I ended up standing there with my legs spread out with this snake thrashing around trying to get away or take a bite out of somebody. Michelle was in search of the Snyder’s machete by this time. After a while I gave up all hope of a clean kill and just started hacking at it. That did the trick, of course, and we brought it outside, chopped the head off and buried it. A neighbor kid took the body. We were told it was a venomous snake whose bite would hurt like crazy but most likely wouldn’t kill you. Good to know.