I’ve been reengaging my international brain lately, with an eye toward Burundi and surrounding countries. A few favorite reads:
Texas in Africa: Thoughtful analysis and useful links to other news.
Aid Watch: NYU Development Economist William Easterly’s blog. He and other writers have a definite angle but lay out their arguments well.
Wronging Rights: What might happen if the bloggers at Jezebel wrote a blog about human rights. Not frequent postings but well written and refreshingly funny when they do.
Sustainable Peace by Piece: A Burundi specific blog from a staff member at the Friends Women Association in Bujumbura.
Filed under: Burundi
As of last Thursday, I am happily, if partially, protected against:
Meningococcal Meningitis
Yellow Fever
Hepatitis A
Rabies
I’ve been sore and woozy for a few days – fortunately I got my polio updated when I went to South Africa, and Hep B plus Tetanus/Diptheria/Pertussis when I worked at MGH, so dodged some injections there. I have a typhoid vaccine in my fridge, prescriptions for 60 weeks of malaria prohphylaxis, some preemptive prescriptions for strong antibiotics in the event of diarrhea, HIV prophylaxis in the extremely unlikely event of blood exposure, etc.
I should note that the typhoid vaccine isn’t all that effective, and the malaria meds may not actually prevent malaria, and that if I get bitten by a wild animal I still need more rabies shots (although not immunoglobin, which is harder to come by). But I’m still both pretty fortunate to have access to prevention, esp since I’m entering an environment my body is going to find awfully weird.
But I feel sort of like a knight getting suited up and polished before battle. And I also feel like that awkward kid at the party whose mom dressed her up in knee pads and a helmet for a game of tag.
Who feels overdressed by vaccinations?
These are the concerns that have appeared in my addled brain since finding out I’m spending next year in Burundi. I should add that the primary emotions are firstly gratitude and secondly excitement but it’s really more fun to explore the multitude of ways in which my mind has freaked out, in roughly chronological order:
1) That it was all a mistake, and would shortly be revoked.
2) Death, dismemberment, disease.
3) That elections would go badly and I wouldn’t be able to go for security reasons.
4) Being so bad at my job that they send me home.
5) Tearing my ACL playing frisbee and not being able to go.
It’s comforting to see that most of these actually have to do with NOT actually going to Burundi, although maybe I’m cheating with the consolidation on number 2.
Now that my bosses and landlords and whatnot know, the official news is that I’m leaving Boston in July and (after a brief training/orientation in Palo Alto), departing to spend a year in Burundi. I’ll be working for Village Health Works, through Global Health Corps, a US-based fellowship program.
Preparations include reaching out to people I know in the region, picking the brains of more experienced professors and friends, spending a lot of time reviewing French (and buying a Kirundi textbook), tracking the local news (esp around the elections which stretch from last Monday into September), and being alternately terrified and encouraged by the advice I’m getting from friends and colleagues wishing me well. Also, ideally, writing up some basic info for you on where I’m going and who I’m working with.
So that’s the news. I’m going to go ahead and count this as #14.
