okay...now really just one more week....

So, I jumped the gun a little..So, I am now actually only leaving in one week from now. But, at least my ticket home is booked, so it is “definite” that I am going home. The only thing that has changed, is that I will be coming back again to Nigeria, but it is not for a long time, just a short time, in order to hand over everything and hopefully find something else, somewhere!

But, in the interim, I will be home the entire month of July, and a few weeks in August! The perks of a job in Africa is you get lots of holidays, and when you really don’t want to come back, but will do so as a favour, you get as much time off as you want!

I have been doing lots of traveling since my last posting, and am really all over the place. As a reminder that I am in Africa still, and a bon voyage gift, I have malaria again, but I think my body is so used to it now, that really the effects have been relatively small, but it just makes for tiring days…but I will have lots of time in Canada to just rest and recuperate.

HINI Influenza A (Swine Flu) is keeping us very busy. While there are no confirmed cases in sub sahara Africa, we know that there are probably cases of it, but people just don’t go to doctors, and symptoms are so similar to malaria in some ways, that they will just self treat. If they die, no autopsies or anything are done, they are just buried, typically within 24 hours. But, we are ready for it here, and are preparing all countries around us for possible infections! Just a little note to most people who aren’t totally familiar with this whole “Pandemic level”…as I think there is a lot of confusion. Pandemic does not mean Pandemonia. WHO has raised the level of the infection to Pandemic 6, but this is purely for scientific purposes, and by no means implies that this virus is so deadly and out of control that everyone should be worried. It is a systematic process, where once the exact same strain of the virus (as is the case with HINI) has spread to beyond 20 countries, and because of this, it must be raised to level 6. It does not mean that people are dying everywhere from the virus, this is in fact the opposite. Very few people have died from it, it is no more serious than the regular flu season, which does in fact kill thousands every year (for us in North America). The other reason it is raised to Pandemic level 6 is so countries with strong pharmaceutical companies (namely Europe and North America) are mandated to work on an antivirus for the illness. So, bottom line is don’t get too overly crazed about this virus. The media makes it out to be the end of the world…like small pox and Spanish influenza all over again…this is so far from the truth. Just like in regular flu season, take precautions, like wash your hands as often as possible, avoid huge gatherings of people (especially public crowds of strangers), and if you feel sick, go to the doctor and/or stay home. There is no need to stop traveling, or stop eating pork (no proof that this came from pigs at this point). There is no real crisis at this point, so no one should be overly concerned by it!

So, enough from me for now. I will be home in a week’s time, and will be all over the place, so best place to find me, is by email or at my parent’s house. I am looking forward to many bbqs, and patio evenings with cold beer, and no malaria infected mosquitos!

Take care,
Andrea