Mephloquin Dreamin'

Since I’ve been in Kenya I have had some really strange dreams and semi-hallucinations in my half wakefulness. Likely this is because of the medicine I take for malaria prophylaxis. For the most part I find them very entertaining (if not right at the moment, then later when I’m thinking back on them) so I’ve decided to share a few with you, so you too can be entertained by the randomness of my mind.

During IST, while we were staying in the conference center, I awoke one night under my mosquito net convinced that there was a baby octopus (yes it was orange) dangling from a web (like a spider would) directly above my head. In my half asleep state with my heart pounding, its more that I could sense that it was there then “see” it in the dark, but it really scared me. Before common sense kicked in, I grabbed my phone and had turned on the flashlight it has built in and was searching my net to make sure that the octopus was no longer inside… This is an example of one I find immediately funny. I laughed out loud at myself. Really?! An octopus dangling like a spider? Where did I think it would have come from? I find this is a recurring theme of my mefloquin dreams; things being inside my net. I have woken up convinced that a snake was inside my net, that cockroaches were crawling all over it, and all manner of other bugs joining me inside. These usually end in my searching every inch of the inside of my net to convince myself it was really a dream, although I’m becoming quicker at identifying the craziness and no longer feel the need to turn on a light.

Another dream I’ve had involved the other PCV at my site, Dan. Dan and I were at a party, I think it was like college party or something, drinking beers and hanging out. He really wanted me to go to another party but I wasn’t feeling it, I just wanted to relax and have a low-key night. He begged and offered me honey (just stay with me here, it gets even more strange and random…). “Just have some honey and we’ll go, its LSD honey.” I don’t know how to explain this, but in my dream it was not immediately obvious nor did I feel the need to be concerned by the brand name of the honey: LSD. So reluctantly, I gave in and ate the honey. While at the party I ran into friends I have rarely seen from high school, one of which was pregnant and drinking beer while smoking. I actually started having a good time and the next thing I knew it was light outside. I asked Dan what time it was and he told me it was 4. I had that feeling I always get when I’ve been up all night and see the sun rise – the simultaneous sense of awe and shattering of magic – and said, “its 4am already?!”. Everyone just looked at me like I was either crazy or maybe it was pitty…? Dan said, “no, it’s 4PM.” I was stunned, confused, and immediately panicked wondering what I was supposed to have done that day, what obligations I’d missed. I came to the realization that I must have blacked out, but I couldn’t figure out why. I was trying to put it all together when Dan said, “morning acid flashbacks are the worst!” to which I responded, “WHAT?!” He said, “you mean you’ve never had a morning acid flashback before?!” like it was the most normal experience to have and he was completely shocked at my inexperience. Obviously I started freaking out and getting angry as the implications of my unknowing drug use kicked in and I felt my life spinning out of control (common experience in my dreams, that I’ve done something I cant take back which will affect the rest of my life – I’m sure what a therapist would say is indicative of my need for control). So I got really mad at Dan who then explains that it was my choice and of course the honey had acid in it… Thankfully, this was about the time I woke up.

Another time I dreamt that my group of PCVs had to be vaccinated against snake bites. Not only did we have to give ourselves the shot, but we then (to solidify the immunity) had to allow ourselves to be bitten by huge python snakes. These snakes looked like something from the movie Anaconda and we were supposed to just let them bit us. Well, in the process as the rest of us are freaking out, Sonya and Dan W do get bitten... and then swallowed. We had to cut Dan out of the snake and luckily snakes just swallow you whole so he was just covered in slime. Dan's reaction to all this? Nonchalance... he thought it was no biggie and thanked us for cutting him out.