Just after editing this video, I found out that I had malaria. Since many strains of malaria, including the one that I contracted come on somewhat slow, you just start to feel more and more weird and look worse and worse over time. I realize now that I never actually wrote anything to go along with this video and that it is one of the poorest quality videos we have on the website. Since malaria attacks your brain and nervous system amongst other things, you have a really spacey feeling and sometimes cannot even compose sentences well. I would guess this is one of the reasons why the interviews I filmed had the wrong mic setup and were out of focus even though I have setup cameras like this hundreds of times before.
Later when we were visiting one of our friends in Pointe Noire, Congo (Where I got Malaria and edited this video), he had also gotten malaria. He speaks french natively, but also speaks nearly perfect English. However, the day we were talking with him, he could hardly form a sentence in English because of the Malaria messing with his brain. It is a crazy disease.
The video was actually shot in the village of Niono on the way to Timbuktu. Steve Bouey wrote a blog about this village with a bunch of photos as well. You can read it here: Everyone should have an Entourage. While Malaria is horrible, Africa still has some incredible things to outweigh its wrath, like these kids we were able to hang out with for a few days. The simple life of an African village…enjoy!
