well, i just spent 2 hours at a travel clinic in cedar park getting the low-down on africa.
for those of you that don't know, i (along with my dad and friend zach) will be going to ghana in september to work with the seatons. i had my hep a, hep b, and tetanus shots about a week and a half ago, and i must share with you that outside of childbirth the post shot pain of the tetanus vaccine is some of the worst i can remember experiencing. seriously. good thing i only need it every 10 years.....
anyway, so after leaving bible study (at my own house) early to drop the kids off at my moms, i head up to the church to meet dad so he and i can go get our yellow fever and typhoid shots. we couldnt get them with our other shots because for some reason our dr's office doesnt offer those.
don't ask, i don't know why.
our appt was at 11:30, so we got there about 11:20 because if i'm not a little early i feel like i'm late. if you're early you're on time, if you're on time you're late, and if you're late don't bother coming. i've heard that somewhere before. i digress.
we filled out the 3 pages of ridiculous and redundant paper work. and then we are called back (together, thankfully) by sandy. bright, cheerful, happy sandy.
if anyone could talk me out of going to ghana, it would be sandy. i thought we would walk in get shots and walk out. wrong. we sat with sandy, and heard a colorful dissertation on the perils of ghana.
"i wouldn't go if my life depended on it. they have guns. and children? you're going to be working with kids? kids spit on you. you might get polio. did you know there are 3 kinds of mosquitoes? 2 day biters and a night biter. mosquitoes like flowery smells and bright colored clothes, so you need to smell bad and dress drab."
i must admit, it was good information, but doom and gloom. at least she could have given us candy or a sticker or something before single-handedly wiping out any warm fuzzies we may have built up thus far. not much of a moral booster that sandy. they have guns in ghana.
i will give her this much-she gives good shots. i didnt feel either one of them.
so i guess thats the silver lining. that and the chik-fil-a sandwich i had on the way home.
4 comments:
"i wouldn't go if my life depended on it. they have guns. and children? you're going to be working with kids? kids spit on you."
That's classic... like we don't have those things here too.
So now we know to pray against, guns, polio infected spitting children, bitting mosquitos and crocodiles... oh wait that wasn't on the list. I think I'll just stick to the stories Wes shared.
So now I will pray for you and Zach to be protected from all those things....as if God doesn't already know that you are going to do HIS work and you already have HIS protection. Sometimes us moms think that He needs us to remind him. LOL OH and I will pray for your Dad's protection too.
Oh don't let a travel nurse scare you...Africa is AWESOME! Once you go you will always yearn to go back. I love the place. Besides, on the overall scale Ghana is relatively tame. Not even an active war zone. You'll be fine! Bring me back something cool - not powdered donuts cool, but Africa cool!
so excited for you to be able to go on this mission!!!!
I think I would have looked at her and said "do you encourage all your patients this way?" :)
My boys are going to Brazil this and have to get those shots...haven't told them yet...
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