Viral Infections and Unprotected Connections

Getting sick when you are far from home and family really sucks. But I think having a fever and runny nose in the sub-Saharan savannas of Mozambique is worse than having it in the sub-Arctic scrublands of northern NY. Worse than ice and snow and stuffy heads and fever? Yes, because if you are burning with a fever in nothern NY in the middle of winter at least you can open a window to cool down. And in the summer? You can still find snow in the freezer (you didn't think we actually got snow on the 4th of July did you?).

Remembering my misery last time I had the flu in Mozambique, I brought drugs from home to dry up my nose. Last time, all my Mozambican friends kept telling me to use a handkerchief. Ick! I don't advocate using a forest to blow my nose, but carrying around a snot-laden square of cloth in my shorts pocket (that I reuse again and again) to wash out later is disgusting. Thank goodness for toilet paper.

The drugs work really well, but leave me unable to process coherent thoughts. I am surprised that a colleague agreed to meet me for lunch on Wednesday after speaking to me on Tuesday. I think I literally asked her, "What is lunch? Why would I need a lunch? Is lunch a good thing? Would my mom think a lunch was good for me to have?" Finally, I just ended the call by saying I was too confused to think and that I would call her the next morning. Fortunately, she speaks English and I had prefaced the conversation by saying I had the flu and was running a bit of a temperature (100F). I can only imagine my response in Portuguese. Actually, it might have been more coherent than I normally sound in a regular conversation. I really don't remember. If you talk to my husband Chris he'll tell you that I frequently use fevers as an excuse to make up bullshit stories. Maybe I used telepathy to ask her, but I do remember thinking those questions at the time.

After spending Tuesday in bed with a fever, I made the most of Wednesday by going out to lunch with my colleague that had called the day before, and cleaning a virus off my laptop hard drive. I do a regular security check once a month, but this was not a regular check. I've been having some trouble with my flash drive and printing at the US public affairs office. So I was aware that something weird could be on it. When I opened my flash drive at home Wednesday morning, to add another file for printing, there was an unknown folder waiting for me. Of course I clicked on the folder because I love spending an entire day debugging my laptop. Well, 17 hours 30 minutes later I was bug free (my fingers are still crossed). The UGA technology support webpage was really helpful - lots of links to free software. I would have eventually stuck the infected flash drive into my laptop's usb port, but I would like to think I would have been more careful with that file if I hadn't been under the influence of cold and flu medicine.

So what did I learn? Lay down, when I start talking incoherently and asking for my mom. Lunch is a good thing, but don't agree to anything or do anything under the influence of cold and flu medicine. Never stick your flash drive in an unprotected socket. And always use protection even in places you think you're safe - like a US government facility. Viruses are everywhere.

Zulu Love Letter

A tribute to my Dad, McGuyver's alter-ego in a strange parallel universe

Do you ever have one of those moments when you're really proud of something that you've done, that really isn't that spectacular, but you really need to share it and no one is around? Well, I just had one of those.

So my birthday is drawing to a close, I have "la gripe," I had 4 meetings with student research assistants this morning, and my shower was on the blink. The meetings with students went really well - mini-projects about ethnobotanic knowledge transmission, a study on the impact of REM on health and traditional medicine, historic climate change and bad weather, assessing the importance of plants in choosing home sites. My Portuguese is improving in leaps and bounds. The students and I are still speaking both, but mainly to make sure that what we are saying is completely understood by both parties. The percentage of understanding is rapidly increasing. Yay!

My second big score was having my family back home contact me to wish me a happy birthday. That really felt good. Thanks to everyone for the phone calls and e-cards. I also had friends here text me birthday greetings throughout the day.

But my proudest moment came when I fixed my damn shower all by myself. And for this I thank my Dad who turned 80 on 8 April. Since arriving, the water pressure from the shower head has never been great. I just assumed that it was just the way things were. But after not using the shower for the weekend (I was at REM, not just being gross), the pressure decreased even more to just a trickle. So, being my father's daughter, I decided to have a closer look. It was scaling caused by the extremely hard water. My guess is that by not using the shower over the weekend, any residual water crystalized up and there was no regular water flow to push out this new formation. I'm sure a real plumber could explain it better.

Scaling is something that I am used to, having grown up with well water full of stuff like calcium and iron and sulphur. I asked myself, "What would my dad do?" Well, take the damn thing apart and soak it in some sulphuric acid that just happens to be lying around the house (as my brother well knows). Or just soak the head if you can't remove it and pick at the scaling with a wire brush or toothpick or pin or something. I had found a small container and was prepping the head to soak it, when I discovered that it was screwed on. Even better.

So using acetic acid (aka vinegar), a Swiss army knife with flat head screwdriver attachment, a cereal bowl, a dental pick, and bubble gum, I have a fully operational shower head!!! Yay!! Now I feel completely silly for being so proud over something so simple, but I will be clean. Thanks Dad for teaching me some simple home and car repairs, letting me tag along when you fixed stuff, and for that old type-writer you brought home for me when I was 7 to tear apart and see how it worked. That's cool.

My dad is a big one for gadgets too. He gave me a hand-crank flashlight before I left for Mozambique that has been very useful - esp. this past weekend. My Mozambicans colleagues thought it was a little silly and really thought that the screwdriver attachments were over the top. However, the phillips head attachment came in handy when Sr. Jotamo wanted to fix a wobbly handle on one of the cook pots. When he saw how well the little tool worked, he set about fixing all the cooking pot handles. So, thanks again Dad for all the little tools and gadgets that you've gotten me over the years.

The bubble gum, by the way, was just to chew. ;-P I didn't actually use it for fixing the shower head. I only wish fixing my flu were as easy. I really hate being sick.