Mefloquine Dreams

Mefloquine Dreams

It’s required for all Peace Corps Volunteers to be taking anti-malarial medication if that volunteer is serving in a country where malaria is common. It just so happens that malaria is endemic to Malawi, so all of us here are on strict orders to be taking anti-malarial medication. If we don’t take our meds and come down with malaria we get “administratively separated” (fancy term for sent home) from the Peace Corps. The first anti-malarial everyone was put on was a drug called Mefloquine. It’s side effects include vivid dreams, increased anxiety, and some studies have shown that it is connected with short term memory loss (even though the FDA doesn’t acknowledge this and the USA is one of the only countries that allows it’s citizens to take this drug for more than six months continually). Most the volunteers have switched from this drug to Doxycycline due to the crazy side effects. I, however, am holding out strong with mefloquine. Actually, I’m going to switch off of mefloquine the next time I’m at PC Headquarters because this drug sucks. First off, it makes me crazy anxious for no reason. I take my weekly pill every Monday (“Mefloquine Monday”) and for the next two-ish days my hands shake as if I have a gun to my head. My body is constantly on edge until about Friday when the effects wear off, only to began again the following Monday. I’ve just recently started to have the crazy/vivid dreams that the drug provides. At first they were just dreams that seemed very “real” but I had one turn South a couple weeks ago.

I was packing up my old house to move near the school the day before I was supposed to leave for an In-Service Training. My current house was ripped apart, but my new house wasn’t ready yet, so I decided to stay at another volunteer’s house and leave for training the following morning. When the time came I turned in for the night and I was out like a light. Then came “The Dream”. In this dream I started out sleeping, so first I woke up (in my dream) and saw this faintly illuminated figure standing in the door way. The figure was an outline of a man from the waist up that seemed to have been traced with a blue neon light that was brighter than the rest of his body. Once I realized this situation was a little abnormal I started to panic, but my body wouldn’t move. I was frozen solid to the bed. The figure slowly started to approach me and as it did the neon light outlining his body started to pulsate with the beat of my heart (which just so happened to be in pace with my real heart…go figure). At first I tried to sit up, but nothing. Then I tried to scream for Elvie (the volunteer whose house I was staying), but again, nothing. It felt as though I had just had the wind knocked out of me and I was still struggling for that first breath. My heart started beating rapidly in my throat and the pulsating figure kept pace. He reached the edge of the bed, near my head, and started to bend down as if to give me the “kiss of death” (this was the only time in my life I was glad Harry Potter was a work of fiction). When the pulsating outline of a head was just inches from my face I awoke from my dream “dry” screaming and pounding on the wall. My heart rate was through the roof and I was covered in sweat. It took me a good thirty seconds to get my bearings and realize what had just happened and where I was. This was definitely in the top two worst dreams I have ever had because everything seemed so real. Even recalling it now, everything was so vivid and clear. Most dreams I forget within minutes of waking up, but this one has stuck with me like a childhood memory. Come to think of it, I’m kinda glad that I couldn’t scream in my dream or I would have woken up screaming for Elvie. That would have been a little awkward to explain the next morning at the breakfast table.

On a lighter note, I had a sweet vivid dream about Chuck Norris coming to visit my village. Before I start you need a little background information on this topic of Chuck Norris is Malawi. So if you’re white, with blonde, light brown, or reddish hair and have a beard you ARE, or must be related to, Chuck Norris. I don’t know how Chuck went international but he is a huge hit here in Malawi. One of the volunteers from my group got taken aside by the headmaster of his school and seriously asked if he was related to Chuck Norris. Not to mention everyone in his village market calls him Chuck Norris. So long story short, Malawians love Chuck Norris. My dream started with me walking outside my house and greeting my life long friend Chuck, who has just arrived from the States. After chatting about the good ole times we headed into my market. First, I introduced Chuck to my Tomato Lady, who went through the roof crazy that Chuck Norris was buying tomatoes from her. She gave us mad maprizi (maprizi = free stuff you get when buying something in a large amount). Her excitement must have recruited every person in Malawi because the next thing I knew we were boxed in the market on all sides by screaming Malawians. What struck me the most (which is really funny because this was all in a dream) was that all the little kids were calling him by his name “Chuck! CHUCK!” and not by the obligatorily “A-ZUN-GU! Azungu!” .I mean come on, Chuck had only been in Mwanza for like an hour and everyone was referring to him by his name and I’ve been here six months and the same kids everyday STILL call me “azungu” (white person) like it was the first time. I guess that’s what just happens when you’re “Walker, Texas Ranger” and promote the Total Gym with Kristine Brinkley (Oh look, a shiny object…I digress). Out of nowhere, we had somehow managed to escape the market and we were running about ten yards ahead of thousands of screaming Malawians. I’ll tell you what, it was like Beatle-Mania all over again, but this time I was a Beatle and so was Chuck…Awesome. I awoke from this dream in a great mood and it inspired me to tell everyone about it. Now that everything is in words it doesn’t seem to be as funny as I originally thought…I guess you had to be there.