It is 4:30 in the morning, and I can't sleep, so what a better time to write a blog?
Yesterday was one of the longest days I can remember. We changed money, then went to a crafts market and a supermarket. I had almost forgotten what it is like to be a Mzungu (white person) in an East African market. "Come! Welcome! You student? I give you student price! You like? Take? Don't you want? I give to you reduce price. You say you be back? Just a kitu kidogo, (small thing). I have to feed my family. I have children. Please. Ok, bye then, you remember me you return?" They are excellent salesmen, and the market was actually much more organized than most I have seen, but walking off our bus in a huge tour-group like setting I was expecting the worst. It brings back memories of so many other markets and being mobbed with salesmen and marriage proposals and the general chaos white skin brings.
Later, we went for a run around the compound, and everywhere we went people shouted "Poleni! Poleni!" (I am sorry for you all. My sympathies!) We thought this was pretty funny.
So back to the 5:00 in the morning thing- The last few night I have been having super vivid strange dreams, and I have been waking up at four, even three o'clock in the morning wide awake and unable to sleep. Last night I dreamed that there was a 700 pound mentally retarded man living next to me who, quite innocently, loved hugs, but since he was so big he would squeeze people really hard, lifting them off the ground in a crushing embrace that made it so that they couldn't breathe, and also sometimes accidentally smothering them in his fat. I spend the night avoiding him, somehow completely terrified. I was faster than him, but everyone went he happened to show up. I don't have a driver's license, but I found myself driving down a freeway to escape him on a moped/van combination with gas pedals, a full steering wheel, but an open -topped frame, terrified that the police would pull me over for my bad driving or that I would crash. I never remember my dreams, but I remember exactly what every curve and bridge of that road looked like. People, books, and places I haven't thought of in years became vivid way only comparable to nightmares from the imaginations of my elementary school self. However, arguably the strangest part was waking up and not completely leaving the dreams behind. Lying awake in the darkness, the strange thoughts continued, but tied to my own world now. Everything from having the distinct sensation that someone or something was sitting quietly in the corner of the room, to seeing it was pitch black out and wondering if the sun had burned out, to seriously wondering if I was dead, to being terrified to turn on the light should there be bloody eyeballs on the walls (don't ask me why eyeballs in particular). I could talk myself out of it, tell myself it was ridiculous, but it wasn't until I forced myself to try to turn on the light, found there was no electricity, freaked out some more, and then finally turned on my flashlight and hung it from the ceiling that I was able to free myself from these near hallucinations.
According to the all-powerful Internet, really vivid dreams and nightmares, as well as inability to sleep are side-effects, although not common ones of Malerone, my anti-malaria medication. However, I have taken Malerone the two other times I was in Africa, each time with no problems. Strange.
Here is another picture of the monkeys here. You can't see in the picture, but one one of their most striking features are their bright red butts and bright blue balls. I'll try to get a picture later. Also, here is a picture one of the giant storks. Turns out these storks can be up to 5 feet tall with a 10.5 foot wingspan. Now that is a huge bird!
-Laura
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