Ouch

One of the drawbacks of going to a country like Africa is the presence of diseases widely unknown around here. So tonight was round two in "who wants to get a vaccination?" A couple of weeks ago I got anti-yellow-fevered. This time, it was polio, tetanus, typhoid, and Hep A/B. The latter requires another shot in a month.

I opted out of Rabies, which requires (albeit slightly less) treatment in case of a bite even with a vaccination. And I still haven't made up my mind on Malaria (well, to the degree that I don't like it, I guess I have). There is no vaccination, just prophylaxe, which is basically taking an antibiotic for the duration of the trip (plus a month afterwards). Taking an antiobiotic for 4-5 months doesn't sound appealing, does it?

So I think I'll go with stand-by, which means you only take it when you start having symptoms. Since there are a few apparently well-equipped hospitals in the area I think this is the better solution.

The disease is transmitted by the female Anopheles mosquito. Unlike me the Anopheles only eats at night, so generally there is no risk contracting Malaria at daytime. If you are really curious you can just read the wiki page

So tonight the travel doc tells me that the Rift Valley Fever has claimed two more lives in Tanzania. It spread from Kenya and for a while no more cases were reported, so I thought I was good to go. No vaccination exists and the disease is very severe, often fatal. Great. I'll monitor the situation. Maybe I need to bring my race bike so I can out sprint the local mosquitos.

I also took a first aid class yesterday (CPR is tomorrow). This was more to be prepared in case one of the students in the bike classes I teach doesn't listen, rather than trying to figure out how I can quickly stitch together myself after a mosquito- or lion bite. I don't know how this would work in reality, though. When I see someone else's blood I faint quicker than one can count to three at the anesthesiologist...

Weird blog address?

bjradab????

Well, bj is, yeah, good guess, the first two letters of my first name. And rad ab is a German expression that indicates someone has a screw loose ("Schraube locker")...
Rad in German is also the word for wheel or bicycle. And if you read this you very likely already know that I use my bicycle to go everywhere and that I have a "Rad ab" :)

How did it start?

Why the blog?

I thought it may interesting for others to follow along my journey from the comfort of California into the adventurous world near Kilimanjaro...

Starting the Master's

I am working as a software engineer, but was also always interested in the environment. I had read a technical book about it and realized it'd be better to take some classes.
I found the University of Koblenz in Germany where I could do remote studies. I ended up liking the classes that I am heading towards a Master's Degree. and I will be doing my Master's Thesis in Tanzania in the summer/fall of 2007.


Challenges of combining job and life

Working full time as a software engineer is a big enough time commitment. Plus, I was doing some local bike advocacy. I teach bike safety classes through the League of American Bicyclists.
But I managed to somehow balance it out and finished my last exam in the fall of 2006. But my thesis got delayed as the school added a new course ("economy and ecology") and I wanted to take this class, even though it is not part of my official master's. It was a good class to take and I had the exam last week.
As always, for the exams I traveled to San Francisco by Amtrak and BART (for Germans: the Bay Area Rapid Transit does not have anything to do with beards). I then wrote the exam at the Goethe Institut in San Francisco.


Why Africa?

I have never been to Africa. I do remember seeing a picture in a magazine somewhere many, many years ago. It showed a professional runner from Kenya training in his home country. And in the background, a giraffe was passing by...
Now besides that, I just happened to see that Prof. Dr. König was offering thesises (is that really the plural of thesis?) in Africa. This was early (3rd semester) and at the time the thesis I envisioned was already taken. But Prof. Dr. König said there would be other opportunities and he, another student and I met in January of 2006 in Mainz/Germany to discuss some more. The other student who went is already back. He spent time in Africa from August 2006 to February 2007.

Subject

I haven't decided on a subject yet. Initially, I wanted to do something with regards to the potential impact of the vanishing glaciers on Kilimanjaro to the local farmers and their irrigation system. Fortunately, there won't be much impact, as the melt water compared to the precipitation is very small. Unfortunately for me that means hunting down something else...

Status

With the exam completed last week, I am now on my way to start the more detailed preparation for the journey. Which brings me to my least favorite part of the trip. I am happy I found a travel medicine specialist in my area. Going through the insurance is useless. The regular doctors didn't have the necessary vaccination such as Hep A/B or rabies. But it's not really fun to think about what can happen. So let's just hope all the injections are in vain...

The current plan is to leave in June 07 and stay 3-4 months. One of the things I'd really like to do (naturally) is to climb Kilimanjaro. We'll see if that dream comes true...