A fun afternoon

While Gretchen was entertaining this afternoon (I'm sure she'll have stories), I got to experience the less glamorous side of international travel. Most of my travel is within the developed world, so health (other than jet lag and maladies from stale air on planes) isn't a big issue. But in a few weeks I have a conference in Dakar, Senegal, which today merited a trip to the Tropeninstitut for shots galore. The conference organisers said I would need yellow fever, meningitis and cholera vaccines. The doctor told me I wouldn't need cholera ("if you eat raw fish in a slum, then you will get cholera"--I assured him that wasn't in my plans), but he threw in polio instead. Plus, I had to get a hepatitis A booster, so that was four shots in total. (Luckily I'm much better with needles than Gretchen, as long as I don't look at them.) Plus I get to take a couple of weeks of anti-malaria medication, although he assured me the kind I'll be taking shouldn't make me (too) psychotic. At least I now have my very own snazzy new yellow international vaccine card...