Last Thursday I went to get my vaccinations at our doctor’s office. (Jesse’s doctor happens to be one of the travel doctors in the area, so I didn’t have to go to the health center–good thing, too, because apparently some people are having to wait weeks for their appointments.) When he came in and looked at my itinerary, the doctor’s eyebrows shot up and he whistled and shook his head. I had to laugh.
I got three shots in one arm and two in the other and left with a prescription for malaria medicine and for an oral typhoid vaccine (lasts for five years instead of two, and it costs the same as the shot). So, all in all I got: the yellow fever and hepatitis A vaccines, a polio booster, a tetanus shot, and a flu shot (because some studies have shown it helps a little with resisting the bird flu–oh boy! I forgot about the bird flu!). This rounds out the other vaccines I got for grad school (meningitis and hep B).
The tickets have been purchased. We fly out March 9th at 6:00 a.m. from Raleigh, with stops in Washington DC; Addis Ababa, Ethiopia; and Kigali, Rwanda. From Kigali we will hire a ride to the Congo. We’ll leave Africa on March 24th, and we’ll finally get back to North Carolina on March 25th.
Here’s the group: There’s me, Ms. Scaredy Pants. And Robin, who lived in the DR Congo from 2006-2007 (see: Congocast). And Evan, who is Jesse’s boss. And Luke, who works with Evan and Jesse. Evan and Luke will primarily be filming. Robin will be following up on things she worked on while she lived there. And I will be listening, watching, absorbing. (Hopefully no parasites or germs or diseases will be part of the whole absorbing thing.)
It struck me last week that we are all in our 20s. There is not one single person above the age of 30 in our little band of travelers. I’ve been living away from my parents’ home for years. I have a master’s degree. I’ve been married for five years. I pay a mortgage and do my own taxes. But still, it seems as if we ought to have a “real” adult going with us. You know, someone a little more experienced, someone with a few wrinkles here and there, a gray hair or two, a wisened voice of reason and caution. I asked Evan where all the adults were, and he said, “We are the adults.” (…Eeep!)
7 Comments
Very exciting!
Sometimes I wish I could just feel like a kid again, but these days, I usually just feel like, whether I’m doing a good job if being an adult or a bad one, I don’t get to be a kid anymore.
It’s like a weird in-between. While some days I feel I could take on the world, there are other days when I feel like an impostor in the “adult” world. Maybe extra confidence will come with being 30 or something. But I’m loving my 20s, and am in no rush to get to my 30s (fear of death? more responsibility? children? I’m not sure).
I know what you mean. I finally just kind of accepted the feeling that “there’s no going back,” when an older friend of mine let me in on the “secret” that adults never get it together the way they’d really like to.
That makes me feel better and worse at the same time…
I went through a 2(?) week series of shots like this a couple of years ago–all of the above plus Japanese Encephalitis. Not fun, I feel for you. Well worth the piece of mind and your health, though.
I cannot believe the amount of vaccinations you had, especially all at once. Wow! But it is a necessity. SO I hope your body is dealing with them well.
Wow, two and a half weeks, and no adults! That is going to be quite something. But at least your friend Robin has her experience living there to help guide you all.
So far, so good. Nothing crazy short of some stomach upset with the oral typhoid vaccine.
I am very glad we’ll have Robin there. She knows all kinds of crazy things, like that we need to go to the bank before we go and special order brand new, crisp bills because if money has tears or folds or anything and is older than a certain date, it’s useless in Congo. Isn’t that wild? Apparently it’s way worse than those crazy Coke machines…