Aug 2008

We thought we would share a little story... something we witnessed Saturday on the subway. We were seated beside a young father and his 18-month old daughter. They were adorable together. Little daughter was curious, as little kids are, and was walking around the train as far as her father's grip on her shirt would allow. When little daughter was touching other people's things, father said, "Don't touch. You need to respect other people's things." Fantastic! When little daughter hit the man sitting beside her on the arm, father firmly said, "No! You don't hit people." Those words alone, wonderful. However, what accompanied that comment was father hitting little daughter's hand multiple times.

Why can't we as a human race see our own contradictions when they are staring us right in the face? We almost burst out laughing - the hypocracy was so evident! Yet it was saddening. It revealed a bigger picture about our world and the violence in it.

There are 24 countries in the world where spanking is illegal. Finland is one of those countries and has been since 1983 (only preceded by Sweden in 1979). In Finland, you don't spank your children. In Finland, in contrast to Canada/USA, teachers in preschools and nurseries are EXPECTED to hold and hug and care for the children (I know because I was a teacher in Finland for almost 5 years). And yet in Finland, the rate of violence is low and the military doctrine is based on the concept of total defence. That is, Finns don't go and fight wars outside of their country. They only believe in defending their own country from within it. We don't agree with any forms of war, but this is one step closer to no violence.

“An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.”
~Mahatma Gandhi

On Friday, we had an appointment at the travel clinic to get all the vaccinations needed for our 1-year retirement. The doctor was, of course, a genius in his field of work and enlightened us on all the crap we can be infested with and in which areas of South America ;o) In his office, he had his own computer screen which corresponded to two computer screens facing us. He brought up each country we plan to visit and informed us of all the vaccinations/prescriptions we would need. We left his office with pin-cushion arms and on our way to being immune to Yellow Fever, Typhoid Fever, and Hepatitis A&B. We also left with prescriptions in hand for malaria (3 months worth), altitude sickness (20 days worth), and antibiotics (I don't know how much). I sure hope my work insurance covers all this!? At $170 each for the vaccinations (we still need to go back for the second round of Hepatitis) and $5 per pill for malaria (that's $450 each for the prescription if we fill the whole thing), our medical bills are going to cost as much as our flight!?

Little did we know how awful we would feel. Jorge felt the side-effects that afternoon - sore neck, headache, and general malaise which lifted by the night. I woke up Saturday feeling fine, except for a sore back (which i thought was due to having slept 12 hours :o) but then i was hit with a 101 degree fever, muscle aches, lack of appetite (me?!), and a general shit-feeling.

If you didn't know, the Yellow Fever vaccine is a live vaccine, which is kind of creepy. It's brewed in an egg, so those of you with egg allergies should avoid the vaccination at all cost. And of course, those of you with a suppressed immune system... you don't want to be trying this either.

Brazil will now let us into their country with our trusty Yellow Fever vaccination card.