"Rely on It"

The title is what the Magic 8 Ball replied when I asked the question "Will I be packed in time to leave the country on Monday?" While it would be wrong of me to place any faith in the plastic source of answers... I believe that it is right. It seems like I have SO much to do before I go, with very little free time in which to do it.
What I will "rely" on, then, is the grace of God and your prayers to get me off safely and with everything (more-or-less) in place.
Now I'm going to go ask the Magic 8 Ball if I'm going to get any sleep on call tonight.

It's snowing in Africa

So, I suddenly realized that I am leaving the country in less than 2 weeks, and there are a LOT of things left to do.
Most of my planning at this point seems to involve not my Nigeria trip, but my little jaunt over to East Africa afterward. I am meeting my friends Megan and Brian at the foot of Mt. Kilimanjaro after I leave Nigeria, and we're going to hike the famous mountain. This involves some cold, potentially snowy and rainy conditions at the top, not to mention the very low partial pressure of oxygen.
I've been trying to get together the gear I'll need for this cold hike, which is a bit pricey and pretty comical when friends notice me packing my down jacket for my africa trip.
One of my attending surgeon's wife hiked Kilimanjaro last year and is graciously lending me her sleeping bag and trekking poles, and giving me a lot of advice!

Time for some shots-and I'm not talkin' about Tequila.

I have an appointment tomorrow afternoon with a "travel medicine" clinic. I made this appointment in anticipation of needing some vaccines prior to my trip to the exotic lands of Nigeria, Kenya, and Tanzania. I was slightly bitter when they told me that I would be paying out-of-pocket as travel vaccines are considered elective and thus not covered by my insurance. The friendly clinic nurse explained the breakdown of my fees as follows: $65 for the doctor's "consultation fee," the cost of the vaccines, and the fee for the "administration" of the vaccines, which is $38 for the first and $22 apiece for each additional vaccine. This bothers me on all kinds of levels. I am pretty poor at the moment, and the idea of paying someone to do what I am doing now, which is looking up the CDC travel recommendations, and then paying a nurse to jam a needle into my deltoid (which I'd rather not do, but am perfectly willing to do to save some money) irritates me.
In doing my homework on the CDC website and reviewing my immunization cards, (because although I'm sure that my $65 doctor is very smart, I'm not going to trust anyone with my immunity) I have found the following:
1) My previous travels have forced me to get immunized before, against all kinds of things, so my Yellow Fever, Typhoid, and Tetanus are all up-to-date. How many of you can say that? Now if I end up in a trauma bay in the next 2 years I will be able to say with certainty that my tetanus is within the last 10 years.
2) Nigeria is one of the few remaining areas where polio is endemic, much to the distress of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative . It does appear, per their recommendations, that I need an IPV booster shot to complement the polio series I had as a child. After getting my hopes up that I could skip the travel clinic appointment (I'll be going to this appointment post-call, and very sleepy. I'd rather be in bed), this information made me think I should keep my appointment. Otherwise I don't know how I'll get my hands on some polio vaccine.
3) As always, I am traveling to a malaria-endemic area and I will have to spend a lot of money on some Malarone, as the area is chloroquine-resistant and Larium makes me crazy.

Isn't Microbiology great?