Lariam is lame

Bonjour my readers!

I just finished the most amazing Thanksgiving meal ever! We had a turkey that was flown in by the US Embassy...very cool. Everything else was made with Cameroonian ingredients, but was better than anything I've eaten in 2 months!! We had sweet potatoes, amazing mashed potatoes, salad, green beans, fruit salad, biscuits, and stuffing. It was very American. I actually feel very very full! That's a new feeling...

I got out to the market to buy gifts today, and I got a bunch of things but it is such an exhausting experience (all that bartering in FRENCH!!!) that I didn't get as much stuff as I had hoped for. I will try to find someone to go out with me again tomorrow. At least the things that I have gotten are pretty cool :) The best gifts are for Kael and Chloe because soccer is huge here so I got Kael a Cameroonian soccer jersey and Chloe a Cameroonian soccer bag. Way cool.

Here is the deal with the Lariam...there is a lot of paperwork and bureaucratic crap required to switch medications. I have a meeting with my PCMO tomorrow to sign out officially and we will discuss getting on doxy, but I'm not sure if they will be receptive to that or not. If I had decided to stay in Cameroon they would have switched me. I actually asked them several times during stage if they would switch me for various different reasons, and I was always told "you have to be on the drug 3 months before we can consider switching you." I am very aware of the risks of the drug, as I did my own research as well. I know you're worried, and I'm not thrilled to be on it...but I'm not suicidal! Extremely wacked out yes, but it is super comforting to know that when I return to the US and stop the medicine that I will once again become a non-bipolar normal individual. When I had malaria I took artesunate and another drug that started with an A….big words.

See some of you in a couple days!!!!!