It's just malaria!

After 9 months of life here I can consider myself a bit of an expert on diseases and infections that can be caught in this part of Africa. 

Let's talk about the most common one: MALARIA :)

And I say common now because from May to October is the rainy season in South Sudan: that means more humidity and more mosquitoes, of course.

I don't mean to scare anyone with this post, these are JUST every day problems in South Sudan; catching malaria in Torit is just like catching a cold in Europe: it's common, it happens all the time. No dramas!

So let me swipe away some of those urban legends that everybody thinks they know about malaria which are just not true.

One: if you catch malaria once you will have it for the rest of your life. Wrong, at least partially.  I mean it is true that if you catch it once it may come back anytime cause the virus stays in your liver but it also depends on where you are too. Once you go back to a malaria free zone blood cells will continuously change and renew themselves so the chances of getting malaria will decrease.. until they disappear.

Two: malaria is contagious like the flu. Wrong again! There is no way you can get it from another person who has it because you get malaria only if you are bitten by a mosquito. So kiss away, hug, touch that person..you're not getting it too.

Finally: it's NOT that big of deal. I know malaria is dangerous and could even kill but here they know how to cure it cause everybody gets it all the time. Once you have the symptoms it's almost mathematical it is malaria: you get tested and you have a response in FIVE minutes. The cure is simple: pills that kill the mosquitoes in your blood (as well as your liver cause I mean they are a bit strong)  and after three days in bed you're up and running again. Ta-dah! It's not that bad. 

The only complication might be when you catch something else together with malaria, like typhoid or one of those nasty boys that affect your body system: you could be in bed for more days and with more pills.. but that, my friends, is another post!!

To the market!

Once in a while we have to go and buy food (the Italian stocks unfortunately do not last forever) somewhere: the market.
The market is one of those typical African places you must have seen in pictures on the Internet; it's not far from the truth, not at all.  There's usually a main road and then you can just get lost in one of those small alleys which depart from the main one.
It's the pure definition chaos: weird smells, dust, people screaming, animals walking around..you have to be in good shape to go there, that's for sure.
Like yesterday, we had to go and buy vegetables but we encountered a few problems: first of all they had no bags so we had to carry 3 giant zucchini and some eggplants in our hands and then OF COURSE they did not have change. I mean just picture the scene: it's hot, it's messy, it's smelly and you have to carry around heavy groceries trying to avoid people who are carrying stuff as well (and by stuff I mean ANYTHING: animals, long pieces of wood, food,... anything).

So it's a challenge.

The payment of items is a lot of fun too: everything works with the bargain system. They obviously will not issue any receipt or some form of proof so in case you want to purchase something just name a price and see what happens next.
I found a nice skirt yesterday and i really wanted to buy it. The seller's initial price was 45 South Sudanese pounds (I mean it's not much for us but still for South Sudan standards it's quite a lot). So the bargain ritual started: "nope, i'll give you 25 SSP". The reply was "No no, let's make it 50 (yes I know it's more than the initial price but they don't really know what bargain means )' So I ended up not buying the skirt cause the price was still too much and I did not know where to put it anyways cause my hands were full!

I guess i like it better when prices are fixed and I don't have to scream and sweat over a pair of shirts and some zucchinis.

TIA people! (This Is Africa)