Preparing for UPeace- Part I

Prepping for the University for Peace has all the subtlety of a hurricane. The year-long programme in succulent Costa Rica, mandated by the UN for Peace Studies, has me just as amped up, albeit a little more prepared.

Figuring out where to park my truck for a year seems the hardest part.

Next: the whole Malaria muddle. After being poked by several needles including Hepatitis A and B ("Twinrix" is the name of the fun combo pack), Measles/Mumps/Rubella booster (MMR), and Typhoid, I learned that I will NOT have to get a Yellow Fever vaccination (joy!), as that is only affecting Panama and the rest of South America. Costa Rica, it seems, is safe from swooning, feverish ladies stricken with the nasty Yellah. But once you get Malaria from an over-eager mosquito, you get it for life. So I did what any tech-savvy modern lady would do:

Polled my facebook friends.

Torn about taking Malaria pills while traveling, cuz the last time I took them (India - 2000), it was Larium... and a few years later, Larium was pulled off the market because it caused "psychotic breaks". Flipside: You get malaria, you get it for LIFE. What to do?

THE ADVICE:

• Abby: drink a lot of gin and tonics -- apparently quinine helps prevent malaria. Could be a rural myth. . .anybody know?
• Sara: There are other medications like Malarone that have different and less crazy-making side effects. Larium is still available too. Where are you going?
• Shani: Malarone. no side effects and no malaria. i'm a frequent customer...
• Vishnu Om: selfless service cures all disease...~*~
• Carrie: Quinine works, but it makes your hair nasty.
• Hollis: life rocks. psychotic breaks could be real fun.
• Brad: quinine is the ingredient in some anti-malarials. I took chloroquine while I was in Costa Rica. (That was 10 years ago, though.) Gave me crazy dreams & morning gastro distress, but I didn't get malaria! I only had to take it 1x week.
• Greg: Take doxycycline. It's easy, cheap, & makes your skin nice too. For reals.
• Aras: haha...Hollis is too funny. fuck that, don't take em...gnarly. you'll be fine. just tell mozzies to keep away.
• Chris: Side effects...?? or LIFE side effects...? Do your home work.
  A: malaria virus. B: Side effects from pills = Easy answer!

I opted for a prescription for Chloroquine, as the nurse at the health clinic explained that some mozzies are becoming immune to Malarone and Doxycycline in Costa Rica and its environs. Combine that with the Vodka Tonics, and I should be glorious!