Meds and Scheds

Capitol Travel Medicine in Arlington, VA is where I go for the shots and prescriptions needed for trips like these.  I’m already vaccinated for yellow fever, hepatitis A and B, meningitis, polio, tetanus, and probably a few other things.  I gave them a call early in the week.

“Hi, I’m going to Nigeria on Saturday.  Can you call in a prescription for malaria pills?”

“Nigeria?” the receptionist said, “Oh, that’s the worst.”  Lovely.  “We have one drug, but that makes you photosensitive.  There’s another, but that can make you paranoid or delusional.”  Gee, I can take them both and be scared of my own shadow.  “We’ll give you Malarone.”

Malarone is what I expected.  No side effects on me.  You take one pill a day, starting two days before arrival and ending seven days after returning.

It looks like my schedule is firming up.  I leave Virginia Saturday night, January 29.  I fly via Frankfurt, arriving Sunday night in Abuja, which is the capitol of Nigeria and in the middle of the country.  Monday morning I check out of the Hilton, go to the Field Office, have some meetings, and then fly off with the team to Lagos.  Lagos is a big port city in the southwest.  We leave Lagos Thursday night, February 3, for Onitsha, which is near Enugu and directly south of Abuja.  There are no return flights to Abjua on Friday evening, so we head back Saturday morning.  I hope I’ll have a chance to do some touring on the weekend.  The second week will be in Abuja.