Saturday morning..... Another awakening in another hotel room, San Francisco. It's about 9:30 and too early to begin the day. We have to pack AGAIN! And somehow we always end up with way more stuff than wen we moved into the hotel room. Sil is moaning about us being "Bag Ladies" and I take that as a serious badge of travelling honor! Clearly we disagree :) Car full to the brim of various 'stuff' we head off to get our shots for the upcoming voyage to the Congo....
11.45am Sil is about to get her yellow fever shot.....the nurse has just told us that there is no treatment for yellow fever and since this is LIVE virus we need to be aware that one in a gazillions people actually die from the shot......at this point Sil is leaping around the room getting all excited - apparently this is called adventure to her! meanwhile i am starting to sweat since i have elected to have all four of my shots done at once...and I unlike Sil am not so enthused.
Sure enough Sil doesn't even feel her yellow fever shot....I however, sit and have four shots put into two different arms...and stand up afterwards only to hear my self saying in a very english accent- "hum I really don't feel so good!" At this point a wave of nausea and extreme shakiness came over me- Of course the dialogue in my head " See you are the 1 in a gazillion who is having the damn adverse reaction!" The very kind nurse named Joyce (35years experience of sticking needles in people) practically carries me over to the bed and lays me down and pushes my feet in the air. Let the blood back to your heart and head......two bottles of apple juice later i find myself walking very briskly up and down the hall way with Joyce firmly holding me by the and in a no nonsense nursey kind of way and saying- this will get the blood moving!!!!
Little known fact of the day- Joyce tells us that it is usually the macho men who have this kind of reactions since they cant admit that they are scared of needles- So apparently i might actually be more macho than i thought!!!!!
On this note much more to come- this is the beginning of much more to come as we prepare to leave on April 11th for Kigali Rwanda and then on to DRC (Congo).
EDL (Elayne Doughty-Lavado)
About Me
- Bright Beautiful Women
- Elayne is a Psychotherapist and Social Artist. She is committed to bringing her training in trauma and the arts to communities who are experiencing the ravages of war and mass trauma. This work in the DRC is clsoe to her heart and is a place where she feels useful, alive and able to learn fast - how to be of best service. Silvia (the dark one) is a Peruvian native who consideres herself very fortunate to have left her land when she was 17 to study in the US. She is currently living in Switzerland and enjoys spreading Peruvian joy on all of her various travels around the world trying to fulfill her longdream of being a modern Marco Polo.
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