Being sick in Africa is a far different proposition for me, a prosperous American, than it is for the majority of Africans.  Still, getting sick here, even when I stay home, is different from being sick in the US.

I had a horrendous migraine yesterday - the kind that knocks you off your feet and has you throwing up and begging for mercy.  Which I did.  Both.

Anyway, I'm pretty sure that this is a result of the Mefloquine I have been taking, and which I will no longer take.  But because the medicine is metabolized in the kidneys, I hesitated to take Tylenol to help with the pain.  There wasn't much else to find by the time I realized I needed something - 24 hour pharmacies do not exist here.  I found myself weighing whether I could take the incapacitating migraine (my kids claimed that I was endangering them with the possibility of rickets by demanding all the curtains be shut tight) or whether kidney failure would be the better option.

Since I didn't have a ride to the hospital, I chose to play it safe, but it was a close decision.

The headache caused another issue - what to feed the kids.  Frozen food here, a staple in most American freezers in case of just such an emergency, is frighteningly expensive.  We don't have any.  Nor is there delivery - no Dominos here!  The kids were on their own with only ingredients in the house.  It was touch and go for awhile, but they managed with the pancake recipe I tucked into our "While in Africa" binder.

I can add this issue to the "Things I Didn't Anticipate" file.

Something that makes me smile every time we're out and about is the abundance of Zambian pride.  We buy bread based on the store we happen to be visiting at the time (we go through a lot of bread), and it comes in all sorts of names, like:

and

Then there is the milk we drink:

The biggest meat distributer here is Zambeef, there is a fast food place called Zamchicken, and one of the billboard advertisements I see around town tells people to be Zambitious!

I love it.