A new adventure begins with a quandary...

There’s always a mix of emotions as I leave one place and set off on a new journey to experience a new home, job or adventure. This is a perfectly natural state of mind. You’re leaving stability, routine and established friends and/or family and heading out into the unknown. For some this setting off to explore the unfamiliar can hold trepidation, fear and insecurity (again, all perfectly normal), yet for some reason, I look at things differently. For me, the feeling of not having any idea of what the future holds offers great opportunity. There are new experiences to be had, new people to be inspired by and a wonderful chance for self-development. I suppose this is one of the reasons why I keep on moving and keep on challenging myself by diving head first into new adventures!

This time, however, there has been a quandary that I have had to seriously consider. Health is one of the most important things in life and one we all have to maintain and strengthen on a daily basis. As I am about to head to East Africa, one of the main concerns is malaria. I don’t want to get it, but I also didn’t want to take pills every day for close to a year (as I’ve never been a pill popper!) I’m the kind of person who has to have a headache develop to such an unbearable pain that it debilitates me before I’ll even take an aspirin. Getting the picture?

So….what does one do? Take lots of vitamin B, use citronella soap, spray insect repellant, eat garlic, keep myself covered from dusk to dawn and hope for the best? Take homeopathic remedies which haven’t been proven to function? Or take anti-malarial prophylactics that could cause considerable side effects?

Hmmmmm... to be honest, none of the above options are ideal.
So…after weeks of deliberation and discussions and having originally decided to not go down the pill route, the day before departure, I have changed my mind.

To appease my parents, the nurse and to some extent myself, I will be taking Doxycycline and see how I get on. This way I can concentrate all my energies on throwing myself into the new job at hand and not be paranoid about the first mosquito bite received.

Any advice or experience on this matter is most welcome. I will gain a better understanding into the situation once I’ve been there for a while, so any further insight I can share, I will duly do so.

This is it…new adventure about to begin…speak to you from Tanzania!  -x-

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