Vaccination Scars

Okay, only the title of the song has anything to do with this post.  My wife says I have a song for every occasion.  I can't let her down.


In preparation to go to Togo I have had to get all kinds of immunizations / vaccinations for a whole bunch of nasty viruses and illnesses.  I was referred to the London Travel Clinic for getting caught up on all of these shots.  Turns out, a long-time friend's wife (Dr. Ruth Benn) is a consulting doctor there.  I can now say I had a session with Dr. Ruth!  We had a nice chat about what I was going to do in Togo, visiting my sister and family, helping around the hospital construction site, travel in general.
Next thing I know, I have a nurse poking holes in me with injections for polio, hepatitus A and B and finally yellow fever (that one burns a bit when it goes in!).  Then I get prescriptions for meningitis, massive horse-pills for the dreaded 'traveler's stomach illnesses', malaria pills and a couple of other things that I'm not remembering.  I hoped for a cute, distracting nurse to give me the shots.  Well, she wasn't cute, but certainly was distracting!

I left the pharmacy counter $597 poorer, with two sore arms and a little baggy full of pills that would make a street junkie feel nervous!

Documents, please

Another fun part about traveling outside North America is filling out paperwork.  Add to that, when going to work overseas for a mission agency they also have their own stack of forms to fill out.
So far I have filled out:
- Visa application for the Ministere de l'Interieur of Togo in Canada
- police record check (I am not a serial killer, but a cereal killer)
- mission agency application form
- mission agency covenant form (basically saying I'll behave myself)
- mission agency release of liability (in case lions eat me)
- mission agency protection policy agreement (Health and Safety stuff)
- medical immunization form ( to prove the scary nurse actually did give me the shots)

Next steps?
- send away my passport to the Togo embassy in Canada to get the visa completed.
- get my second hepatitis A and B shots
- get travel plans sorted out (plane ticket, departure and return dates, etc.)
- travel insurance needs to be obtained




Since I'm going over to see my brother-in-law, sister and all of the kids I have been asked to take them stuff - or bring them stuff... depending on who's doing the asking.  I'm probably not going to have a lot of room for my own things.  I have a bunch of gear to take that my sister has ordered online.  I have food staples and treasures (Gatorade drink mix, peanut butter, chocolate bars, chips, sauce mixes, etc.).  And there's still almost two months for the list to grow.  I'm going to be a pack mule!

Update!

I just got off the phone with some guy at the Togo Embassy.  He didn't speak English very well.  I don't speak French very well. I don't speak Togolese at all.  The conversation between the two of us was priceless! 
I asked about who and where to send my visa application.  He understood my chopped up French.  I understood the answer. 
I asked about additional passport photos.  I think I only need one. 
I attempted to communicate to him, in hacked up verb tenses and improper combinations of French and English, that I needed to know about sending my immunization form to him.  What I understood he said was something about a zebra, a canoe and baking croissants.  That one didn't go so well, in my estimation.  I could be wrong.  I'll  have to call back for the recipe.

Togo Embassy in Ottawa

Oh, one more thing -
Pressing "1 for English" on the phone menu of the Togo Embassy is pointless.  The button must be broken.