Ouch! What did you say?

I am sure you understand where the ouch comes from. A few years ago I went to Kyrgyzstan so I am a bit familiar with the shot routine. However, the CAR is in the black zone in Africa. The black zone is the way Kaiser Permanente rates a country and its danger levels of disease. Black is the worse. Go figure! So, I think that means I have had eight shots and a prescription to take with me for malaria. I am covered for flu, pneumonia, yellow fever, typhoid fever, polio, hepatitis, mumps, measles, tooth decay, poor eyesight, back aches. Sorry, I get a bit carried away. Everything after hepatitis I made up.

The “What did you say?” came from the e-mail informing me that I would be bringing over my food. You know, one suitcase for clothing and another for food. Not usually how I travel. After thinking about it I thought this was pretty cool. That would mean no crickets, or snakes, or bugs for dinner. Someone asked me yesterday if that would be offensive to the Africans. In a typical American response I said, “Who cares! It beat eating bugs!” Even so, that conversation did not end and a rather provocative discussion ensued. I think people were trying to gross me out. I reminded them I have eaten sheep eyes, horse, sheep lungs with fermented milk, etc. Trust me though, I will NOT make any of those things a part of my regular diet!

Getting back to my list of food. I learned some things. Did you know that you can buy bacon that doesn’t need to be refrigerated? That’s right. It is pre-cooked and once you open the box, then you are to refrigerate it. Can’t eating swine not cared for properly mess you up. I called Kaiser to see if they had a shot for that! There was another item on the list; 4lbs of cheddar cheese. Once again, doesn’t this stuff need refrigerating? So I asked. The answer is that you buy the cheese and keep it in the refrigerator until right before you leave. Then you take it and pack it into a shirt or towel and put it into your suitcase. Did you know that it is cold in the luggage department of the airplane? I didn’t either, but that is supposed to take care of the cheese. You know what, those crickets are sounding better and better all the time. At least they will be fresh. It would be funny though if they have crickets in a can that are made in some other country and shipped to the CAR. The rest of the list did look fairly normal.