Let me start by saying that I love traveling, especially in Africa.
It's arguably the most diverse continent in the world and the beauty in the environment and its people is incredible.
I would say that the majority of the most important lessons that traveling has taught me throughout my life were learned in the 54 countries throughout Africa.
That being said, travel has broken me mentally and physically in so many different ways over the years, and some of the most difficult challenges I've overcome while traveling have been in off the beaten path places in Africa.
I couldn't possibly tell all of the crazy stories that have happened to me while traveling, but stick around to the end of this video for a huge announcement about where you will be able to hear all of my wild adventures from traveling to every country.
For now, I'm going to tell you guys for the first time about one of the most unique and honestly, pretty scary travel experiences that I've had.
I was 19 or 20 years old at the time.
I was traveling across West Africa and came face to face with the world's most dangerous animal.
The mosquito lays its eggs in wet places.
Within a few days they're fully developed and the mosquito then swells to burst out of its body, which you can see from this graphic documentary from the 1940s.
Male mosquitoes are usually vegetarian, and the females are the ones that seek out blood and transmit malaria to humans.
Malaria is the cause of death for around 500000 people every year, which makes this the world's principal parasitic disease.
Malaria affects around 100 countries, usually in tropical zones.
Africa alone accounts for 90% of malaria cases.
With tens of millions of cases between them.
Nigeria and the DRC are the countries in Africa which are affected the most.
Nearly everyone in these countries will have malaria at some point in their lives.
On the brighter side, death from malaria over the past 10 years has been cut in half thanks to prevention and treatment.
My story began when I was traveling in Senegal.
I was staying in a small bed and breakfast hotel outside of Dakar.
On the hunt.
On the hunt for mosquitoes.
I just killed one.
I was attempting to fall asleep under a mosquito net that was doused in bug spray when it started.
Mosquitoes had somehow infiltrated my mosquito net.
There must have been a hole in it somewhere that I didn't see, and they were swarming around inside and they were buzzing my ears.
Even when I was trying to hide under the blankets from them.
It was around two o'clock in the morning when I started feeling this extreme aching and tightness on my upper lip.
So I crawled out of bed in the dark, went into the bathroom, switched on the light and saw the most horrifying reflection in the mirror that I have ever seen in my life.
I was absolutely mortified.
I'm not sure if it was mosquitoes or a spider bite that was making this allergic reaction happen to my face, but either way, I was covered in mosquito bites.
This horrible thing was happening on my face.
There wasn't really strong enough Wi-Fi connection at this hotel to even Google what was happening to me or what I should do.
It felt like my lip was getting so swollen that I was afraid that my skin was going to rip open.
It was absolutely terrifying.
There was nobody in the hotel.
I went outside and it was complete pitch black no taxis, no people, which meant that there was absolutely no access to medical attention, or I didn't know where the nearest hospital was.
In case this turned into something worse than just an allergic reaction on my face.
This was by far one of the most terrifying, helpless feelings I've ever had in my life.
And it actually taught me how, in times of panic, where everything is just out of your control, there's nothing you can do but to calm your own thoughts and your own inner dialogue, to the point where I basically just had to meditate myself back to sleep because there was nothing I could do about it, until the morning came.
Unfortunately, I had to catch a flight the following morning from Dakar, Senegal to Abidjan in Côte d'Ivoire, which is also known as the Ivory Coast.
I was feeling so self-conscious because I had to go through an entire huge international airport and get on a plane with my face just so swollen still and I got so many weird looks, and it was definitely one of the more humbling experiences that I've ever had.
On top of that, I started having awful diarrhea, which honestly, I could give a TED talk on how many less than ideal circumstances that everything in my body has just turned to liquid, but I'll save that one for another video, maybe.
Moving on, I made it to my next hotel in Abidjan and I just started feeling so awful.
Thankfully, the swelling was starting to go down on my face and I just tried to sleep it off, but I could tell that my immune system was very compromised.
The next day it really started to set in.
It was blazing hot in Abidjan, but I was wrapped in blankets, experiencing these cold sweats and then hot flashes.
My skin all over, my entire body was just starting to ache which, if you've experienced that sensation for me, that's by far one of the worst parts about being sick.
My whole body was fatigued, my muscles were weak and too tired to do anything.
It felt like my brain was moving really slowly and I was so dehydrated and I just did not want to get out of bed.
I ended up dragging myself to a hospital which was so difficult because of the language barrier.
My French was very broken and awful.
No one spoke English at all at the hotel that I was staying at.
I ended up thankfully finding this taxi driver who could understand and speak bits and pieces of English, and thankfully he took me to a hospital.
I think he felt really bad for me and ended up being a guardian angel of sorts, because he took me inside the hospital, tried to help communicate with the nurses there and even waited for me and then took me back to my hotel afterwards.
So I couldn't be more grateful for the kindness of that taxi driver.
It was actually so interesting to experience a hospital in Cote d'Ivoire versus a hospital like in the United States because within five minutes of arriving to the hospital in Abidjan, I was in a room, I had my blood drawn and I was just waiting for the results.
There was no paperwork.
In the US they have you stay in a waiting room, fill out a bunch of paperwork, then you go to a smaller waiting room and you have to wait for so long to see a doctor, and then it's just this huge bill at the end.
It's a really tedious process and it's always awful to have to go to the doctor in the US.
I couldn't really communicate with the nurses very much who were doing the testing, but once they got the results back they were able to match me with the correct treatment for that particular type of malaria and thankfully my symptoms were not severe like.
It definitely was one of the worst sicknesses I have ever felt in my life, but at no point during it did I feel like I was dying.
I was so grateful that they happened to have the treatment that I needed in stock at that particular hospital, because I've heard that if you contract malaria in some rural areas it can actually be very difficult to find the treatment for it.
As funny as it sounds.
Even though it was such a bummer to come down with this, I feel so lucky that my symptoms weren't as bad as they could have been with a different type of malaria.
And I feel so grateful that I was sick in one of the most developed, safe cities in West Africa, because Abidjan was definitely the best possible place I could have been in to recover during that trip.
Welcome to Ivory Coast.
No, you got everything, you got everything you want.
I recovered enough to continue traveling about two or three days after I went to the hospital, but I wasn't feeling 100 again for a couple of weeks.
I read in some places that it's possible to not show symptoms of malaria for a few weeks after you were bitten by a mosquito that is carrying malaria.
But it is kind of a strange coincidence that I was bitten so many times that night that my lip was really swollen and I started feeling sick afterwards.
But other than that I had been traveling in Sub-Saharan Africa for about two and a half months, so it could have really happened at any point during that trip.
I started off my trip in Africa taking medication that was meant to prevent malaria, but those had really rough side effects, the worst for me being nightmares every single night.
So that was not sustainable for long-term travel.
You're also not supposed to take anti-malaria medication for months at a time, because it can start damaging your body on its own.
So I'm not really sure exactly what the solution to this problem is, to be honest.
The only thing you can really do when you're traveling in regions around the world that have malaria is keeping a lot of bug spray with you, not going outside during the times of night, which mosquitoes are usually flying around, which I think is around sunset, potentially avoiding traveling in these regions during the rainy season, sleeping under treated mosquito nets and, after you've taken as many precautions as you can, just hoping for the best, like everyone else does who live in these places.
To be honest, when I was sick in Abidjan was one of the only times in my life that I've just wanted to go home.
This was definitely not the kind of travel experience that most people leave the comfort of their homes to go in search of.
But in my opinion, it's actually situations like this that truly shaped who you are.
They teach you how to remain calm and resilient in the face of fear and uncertainty.
They also give you a different perspective on life which, in this case, made me so much more grateful for my health.
I hope you guys enjoyed hearing about this story, even though it was from before I started filming my travel experiences and making videos about them.
Actually, most of my craziest stories weren't caught on camera, which is why I am so excited to tell you guys that I am Finally writing a book about my experiences traveling to every single country in the world by the time I turned 21 years old, including everything that I learned along the way.
You can sign up right now for my newsletter in the link in my description and receive a free preview of three stories from my book which will be released later this year.
Thank you so much for watching.
I hope you enjoyed it.
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