Malaria illness sparks friendship and years of yoga classes

by Sherry Thomas

LW contributor

Iwas 59 when I discovered overlanding.

Americans are infrequent but sometime travelers on these trips. In 2011 I joined an African Trails truck in Morocco. We were scheduled to finish in lstanbul, 43 weeks later. We would travel all the way down the West Coast of Africa. In Cape Town we would turn north and head up the east side of Africa. We mostly bush camped, only going into cities for visas for the next country.

If you get sick, you get left behind. Fourteen of the 28 travelers got malaria. Seven got it more than once. Half of the 28 had been taking a prophylactic. Half had not. I tested positive in Angola. I probably got it in one of the Congos. Malaria is not an exotic disease in Africa. It is 100% curable. My problem was I couldn’t tolerate the cure. I needed a hospital with an IV of quinine. This old drug was once again being used.

The driver wanted to get me out of Angola into a hospital in Namibia. Namibians speak English and he thought it would be the best for me. We pulled into Tseumb, Namibia and I left the truck. I was in the hospital for five days and then my doctor drove me to a very fancy hotel with the instructions to eat.

At the front desk was Shareen. She spoke several languages and became my true hero. One of the side effects of large doses of quinine is muffled sight and sound. I was pretty weak and enlisted Shareen to help me. She and I became quite good friends and continued to correspond when I came home. I wanted to give back to her and also Namibia in some way. I knew that Namibia puts a high value on educating their children. That is wonderful. My friend Shareen now lived in Windhoek and was helping people get scholarships. Her Mom still lived in Tseumb and I wanted to go there. I also knew while it is a wonderful goal to have an education, there just were not many jobs available for the people.

I have done yoga on and off through the years. I know from personal experience that no matter what is going on in my life, yoga seems to make things more positive. I took a class to teach yoga to kids, and armed with my good intentions, left for Namibia in 2016.

When I told Shareen my intentions, she told me that there had recently been a YouTube video showing people being taken over by the devil when doing meditation. Yikes. We took the bus to Tseumb and stayed with her mom. Her mom had connections in the school system, so I was able to teach and tutor at the middle school in the morning and tutor English in an orphanage in the afternoon. I decided to call my yoga exercises “stretching and breathing.” It worked.

The teachers and I became friends. My last week I told them the truth. I gave them my yoga instructors books. Last time I checked with them early this year, they are still teaching.

Fourteen of the 28 travelers got malaria.