Foaming at the mouth
Trip Start
Nov 02, 2003
1
35
70
Trip End
Feb 14, 2006
Antananarivo,
Madagascar
Thursday, April 8, 2004
bisky's autopsy came back positive for rabies. this means that i and anyone else who had contact with him need 5 rabies shots over the course of a month so we don't get the fatal, incurable disease. for some people this is no problem: the four peace corps volunteers (caitlin and sara came to visit callie and me) and rachel, an american here on a fulbright, can get treated through our american government connections. however, callie lives at the high school, meaning that pretty much every kid in the school played with bisky at some point or another. additionally, callie and i carried our dogs all over town, since they were too young to leave alone for extended periods, and all of the kids in my "posse" (about 20) played with both dogs every afternoon, meaning dozens more people had contact with them. peace corps is freaking out about the policy and image implications, and i've been terrified that my actions will contribute to the deaths of children (unlikely but certainly possible) - some health volunteer i am. fortunately, an institution in the capital will give free rabies shots, so peace corps is meeting with the medicin inspecteur (the hospital chief) at my site to decide how to work that out. i am not looking forward to going back to site to all of the problems that i've helped cause!
in addition, i've been in trouble with peace corps for not telling them about my original bite until bisky's death. they've even mentioned that my actions, if repeated, could result in administrative separation (peace corps' jargon for 'kicking you out'), which was obviously very upsetting to me. i've been meeting with the country director regularly, though, and he's been concerned but reassuring.
so i'm here until saturday getting shots and recovering from the strain of the incredibly insane and depressing last week and a half. my friends have been wonderful, though (caitlin coincidentally is here too, and i made friends with a bunch of environment volunteers who are also here), and seder at the country director's house was a tremendous bright spot - maybe more on that later.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
later:
yeah, seder. i was at the country director's house along with his family (his wife and kids are jewish), the USAID director and his kids (his wife, who's ironically both jewish and the director of catholic relief services in mcar, was looking at cyclone damage on the coast and couldn't make it), some people working for environmental agencies, and another volunteer. there were 17 people there, including lots of kids, which was great, but it was strange to me that everyone besides me was a member of a mixed jewish/non-jewish family. nothing wrong with that - they were all there having seder, after all - but different demographics than i'm used to. anyway, i followed my mom's recipes for peach kugel (a matzah casserole that tastes like bread pudding) and coconut flour-free macaroon cookies, and they were delicious, which made me wildly popular from the start of the seder. :c) it was very relaxed, especially given the number of kids and people unfamiliar with the seder, and everyone had a great time. i'm still astonished and completely awed that a seder happened without me organizing it, let alone how wonderful it was!!
i'll be in tana until at least saturday for more shots and then back basically every week for a month, so i'll have even more email than usual! hurrah! and i'll certainly let you know how treating many of the 28,000 people in my town for rabies goes....
in case you couldn't tell, i'm doing a lot better. :c)
love, jess
*****
And now, some legalese:
The opinions expressed and experiences described in this travelogue are those of one individual Peace Corps Volunteer. Nothing written here should be interpreted as official or unofficial Peace Corps literature or as sanctioned by the Peace Corps. I have chosen to write about my experience online in order to update family and friends; I am earning no money whatsoever from this endeavor.
