Haiti is not Senegal

If it isn't obvious in my other posts, I'm constantly referring to my experience in Senegal to prepare myself for Haiti. There are certain similarities, for instance they are both francophone countries with another more localized language/dialect that is spoken in unofficial settings. Both countries are also developing nations with evident poverty. These two things, language and socio-economic state, are significant, but I can only imagine how different the experiences will be.

In Dakar I lived with a family and studied and toured with several other American students. My primary concerns were language/culture immersion and comprehension. For the next several weeks I'll be teaching at a music camp. This experience should challenge me in an entirely different way, as I don't have much experience in music as anything but a student. I'll be forced to articulate myself in a music theory classroom and in private flute lessons. I will also probably have to perform in various contexts. I've done an excellent job avoiding many performance pressures (I get stage fright), but this should push me out of my artistic and intellectual comfort zones, in addition to my geographic and cultural ones.

Anti-Malaria

I started to take my anti-malarial last week, and I thought that would be a good reality check. I've taken my two weeks of preventative medication and I still haven't grasped that I am leaving tomorrow. Chloroquine comes in a bright pink pill to be taken once a week and works to protect the body against the Malaria parasite. The malaria strands in Haiti are not the worst in the world, though only this specific drug works in that region. I am grateful that I'm not taking the kind that causes extreme sun sensitivity. That seems counter intuitive to me considering mosquitoes thrive in tropical areas where people suffer the sun anyway.

Larium, the anti-malarial I took in Senegal was an experience in itself. One of the prominent side effects is vivid and lucid dreaming, which a stoner friend of mine was particularly excited about before we left. I had the privilege (misfortune?) to experience these effects and enjoyed the added variety to my sleep, though it was disconcerting to wake up with ghosts in my wall (or so I thought) and memories of recurring meetings with a talking wolf.

All joking aside, I realized the importance of my medicine when my four-year-old host sister contracted malaria. My family there slept with nets over their beds, but it's not practical to take preventative drugs when they can also serve as treatments. Natacha (my sister) was out of school for a week with a fever though she recovered fully. Not every family has that fortune. I lived in an urban center, in a middle class neighborhood, with an educated family and we all had the resources to prevent or treat malaria.

National Geographic's cover story for July was about Malaria as a global crisis and caught my attention for obvious reasons. I went to a few fundraisers in Dakar "pour combattre le pilu" (to combat malaria), and now, for the first time in a few decades, the international community is taking steps to slow down this disease. The images and stories in the article were eye-opening since I didn't realize how wide spread, diverse, and resilient the parasite is. This powerful and invisible creature is killing in the third world, because more affluent nations can afford preventative measures (as evidenced in my weekly dose of chlorquine).

The article reminded me of the privilege that I'll carry with the rest of my baggage when I leave tomorrow, and I imagine that will be reiterated when I arrive in Port-au-Prince on Friday morning and though out the next seven weeks. I guess my anti-malarial did lead to a reality check about it's medical and international significance. With the chloroquine my body is almost ready to experience Haiti, though I'm still not sure I'm emotionally prepared.

Pressure to be Clever

I've now changed the title of this blog twice, and I'm struggling to find something witty and significant. The first title was "Everywhere and Beyond," the rational being that this is essentially a travel blog. This explains the heading for my first post. While I am traveling to many places this year, "everywhere" and/or "beyond" are both too exaggerated.

Title number two: Corners of the Globe. Title three: Here and There. I seem to be preoccupied with the theme of place. I nabbed the first for the URL, but "Here and There" was already taken. The idea is basically that, wherever I go, there I am and writing about it to keep people updated on my adventures.

I don't know how important the title is for my purposes, but since the only three blogs I read have interesting names I felt I should put forth a little more effort. I'm leaving for Haiti in three days and still reeling from the move back to Indy from school. While I should be preparing for my trip and sorting through all of my possessions, I'm only preoccupied with finding the right blog title before I leave, even though it will probably change several more times in the coming months.