The funny side of malaria, if there is one!

Being a SAcan I am trying very hard to think of something funny about malaria.  We are known to make jokes about the worst types of calamities or disasters in a wink….but really, I cannot for the life of me, think of one funny thing!  Maybe I have just been too long outside of my dear little country, or maybe I just don’t have enough jokers of my type of humor close by.  Well, not the last one, come to think about it – I have no others close by in any case, never mind of the joking type!

There really is nothing funny about shaking with a deep kind of cold, then burning up with a fever and then being soaked as your fever breaks.  No funny part when you have such terrible body aches that you think you will never be able to move again, I don’t want to even mention the headaches……Nothing funny about wanting to throw up the precious malaria medicine just after you had to swallow it with a glass of milk, because you cannot eat anything and the medicine needs some fatty (!!) substance to work properly!!  Nothing funny when you have nightmares of such realistic properties that you wake up in a terror!  There is also nothing funny about malaria when all the dreadful invaders are killed off (eventually) with more than half of your redbloodcells (who incidentally gave up their very lives for you).  Not much to laugh about there.

It might be considered funny that I watched an entire season of a paramedic guy during the height of the malaria and cannot remember even one episode!  Or that I had to “milk” my own finger for a tiny drop of blood for the malaria test (that should have given me an idea of what was to come re: my lack of blood!)

There are on the other hand, lots of funny happenings around me while I am still in bed!  J 

Yesterday my middle son decided to bake an apple pie, so I gave him a recipe and off he went!  Literally off – there was flour on the whole table top, flour on the floor, a few flour-ry footsteps on the living room rug and flour all over him!!  J  That was quite funny!  We did have a most delicious apple pie for desert past night, though!

Eggs have been dropped and the solution was ingenious and funny!  The little rug was ceremoniously carried out, the dogs called and all licked up and cleaned without much of a fuss!  A happy teenager and happy dogs!  J  I think the cat might have had a small part too in this cleaning up business!

The other funny thing was that my husband realized just how much his growing teenage boys eat – and sometimes a bit late.  Like making soup in a really small pot!  The last time he really had to cook for them with me gone for 2 weeks, they were 12, 10 and 9!  Things change in 3 years!  For one, they have grown about 1m each!!  J  He said last night “It doesn’t matter how much I make, they divide it into 5 regular pieces and the leftovers are then divided into 2 and it all gets eaten up anyway!!”  You definitely cannot count on leftovers in this house!

My new potholders have gone up in flames (gas stoves have fires under the pot, you know!!!) with the one holding the pot and stirring wondering where on earth all this smoke was coming from!  Haha!

I have quite a fun (and funny) family and sitting or lying on the couch, listening to all their jokes in and around the kitchen has been a great source of laughter and fun and has cheered me up greatly!  I guess, even if I can’t find anything funny about malaria, life still goes on and funny things happen.  Blessings happen.  Blessed by a family who cares for me and tries their best despite shortcomings.

They have been stretched quite a bit with me out of action, but it is rewarding to see how they have handled it all.  Don’t we all really grow when times are tough?  And it is good to see the funny side of things even in those tough times. 

And even though I couldn’t find anything funny in the way of malaria, there is a different kind of joy that must be considered ….James 1:2-4 says “Consider it pure joy, my brothers (and sisters), whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.

Bella, blessed.