...uh, thanks I guess...

My housekeeper Raquia called me at work. She said she was sorry for interrupting but obviously couldn't contain her excitement. I asked her what the problem was and she just said she was excited about what she had done at my house. I asked her what she did, but she wouldn't tell me. She just said I needed to come home and find it out. So I finished the day and went home. Raquia had dug a MASSIVE new garbage pit for me. Can't tell you all that I was very excited because she put crocodiles at the bottom of it "to try and recycle." All I could really say was thank you for trying to recycle and pay her her month's wages. I was very confused when I went out and told some friends. Everyone was very excited about it except for my friend Anne. She just kept telling me "that's not how you recycle!" I believed her but didn't know what else I could do. She came over to help and all of a sudden the crocodiles started coming out of the hole and attacking us. Kuri, my dog, jumped in the way to defend me and ended up falling into the hole. I'll miss her, I thought as I ran away. You can't really outrun an African Croc though, trust me! Anne, who's always been braver than me, stepped on the croc, keeping its jaw shut while screaming at me to get something to beat it with. I woke up with my broom in my hand...

Oh I "love" lariam...

My drug habit

Lariam has struck again! Let me first preface it with some back story. My dog has been in heat. Dogs get that twice a year and it lasts for about two weeks, according to vet.com. So I've been keeping her inside at night. Mainly because I don't want to have to deal with puppies as I'm leaving in December. Last night, she woke me up at 3 in the morning whining like the dog in heat that she is. I let her out which requires me to be fully awake getting through 3 dead bolt locks and two doors. I'm saying this so you know the state of mind I was in.

Yesterday I was supposed to wait for the new print cartridge coming up from Maputo. Like everything in this country though, you don't know where its coming in or when. I think the bus driver thought I was stalking him. I don't really care though. :) But anyway, this cold got so bad yesterday that I just had to go home. I'm glad I did because I got to go to sleep really early. I missed the print cartridge though. My friend muhurube went to pick it up and he said he was going to leave it at his sister's shop in the central market but I never heard from him. So when I went back to sleep this morning, I was worried what would happen.

I went to the central market and the guy at the shop said I couldn't pick up the ink until I paid 1000 MT or $40. I didn't have it so he drained the ink and put it into this giant clear plastic container kind of like what you find from the container store. I couldn't lift the container to bring it back so magically some wheels showed up on it like you see on luggage at the airport. I spent the whole walk through the city worrying about not splashing too much of the ink and then wondering how I was going to get it into my printer....

then I woke up.

Apology

I just wanted to apologize for that last blog. It was written very haphazardly. I wanted to make up for it with another lariam installment.

DREAM

I was in Australia. It was on a trip back home that I decided to go back to Sydney to visit some friends that live there. Anyway, I was staying with the family that tolerated me for six months while I was at university in Australia. Except we were in a new house. It wasn't the house where I had stayed. I was excited just to see everybody while I was there. Then I woke up. For some reason I really felt compelled to check my email on my phone. It's normally slow and frustrating but I wanted to check it. The first email in the email box was from the family in New South Wales! They were just writing to tell me that they've settled into their new house in the central coast right on the water... eerie.

Maybe I should continue taking the lariam and become a psychic. I'll read your mins now. You are thinking that this has become a stupid blog....

More dreams

The past two weeks of Lariam dreams have been intense. Here are the ones I can remember from last night. In my dream...

I had gotten up and gone to the door between my two rooms. I opened the door and looked out into the living room. It was badly lit in the dream, but I could still see everything clearly. The room was covered in decorations of a deep purple and orange color. Everything was taken out of the room and my dog was sitting in the room looking up at me in a party hat with a poof ball on the top and one of those noise makers in her mouth. It didn't make sense!

The other part of the dream is much smaller but just as funny. I was turning on the TV and the newest soap opera from Brazil was coming on. It's title caught my eye. A familia de Hefele. The Hefele Family! Unfortunately I didn't get to watch any of it. But in my dream I didn't care. I just liked the fact that people were finally going to be able to spell my family's name and in Mozambique no less!

At war....

So as you know, I'm drugged out of my mind to fight against lariam by dear old Uncle Sam. The dreams that come out are crazy. Unfortunately now the other side effects of lariam are coming up, namely anxiety. I woke up this morning to one BAD case of anxiety because of my dream.

I was here in Mozambique in my dream, but watching TV. Apparently America had been bombing Moscow because of the Georgia problem. I thought, no problem! Maybe I was wrong though. Georgia was our friend, my friend Rhett lived there. Georgia the state, not Georgia the country. It gets worse though. In my dream Washington sent us all letters saying that because of the stupidity of the previous government, (whose?) they didn't have enough soldiers to fight Moscow. So therefore, DC was drafting all PCVs because they already did a background check on us. Saving money as always! I woke up this morning and ran for the radio thinking America can't bomb Moscow, America can't bomb Moscow, they are just not that stupid!!!!!! I then went onto my phone looking for prices for Maputo-Moscow flights.

Time to get off this medication?? I think so. ONLY 21 more pills to go.

Are you Jon?

So I have taken roughly 135 pills of Larium. (I will admit I've maybe missed a couple here and there) and I have 21 left to do. That's okay, because I haven't been hit too hard with the side effects of it. Malaria is bad enough while taking the pills, I couldn't imagine what it would be like if I didn't take the pills. It's surprising how many PCVs around here don't though. Basically everyone who hears that we are supposed to take it for our entire time here flip out and call us every name in the book to insult our intelligence. It basically makes people crazy and is only 90 % effective. As many of you know I've got malaria multiple times and still take the pills. But dreams like last night make it totally worth it.
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My friend Anne's brother Jon was back for a visit from the States. However, he was visiting us all in Homoine, not Maxixe. He was back though looking for recruits for the ultimate battle against the Galactic Empire! He was desperate for us to join up with him because "we were strong in the ways..." What ways I don't know! That's all he would say. I agreed with him, as well as most of my friends. Then we went into the back room of one of the Indian run shops here. We were brought into a secret room of a secret room of "one of ours." This Indian guy was a trusted member of the Rebellion and transported new recruits to and from the Space Stations for training. Just as I was about to step into my transport, I started YELLING at Anne asking why she didn't tell me her brother was Luke Skywalker.

I woke up mad... weird.