Interesting..... er..... gross news

There are a few things in the world that I dislike a whole bunch... fleas, ticks, lice, and intestinal worms. I hate these things because you have to take care of everything (the house, whoever you're living with, etc.) in order to get rid of them. I just found out last night that there's a good chance that I will come back from Romania with two of those things (lice and worms, as well as scabies which I don't fear as much). Yes, I know, go take a minute to throw up somewhere. I also found out last night that we are actually not giving immunizations like I once thought, but instead we'll be dealing with deworming everyone (since apparently word on the street is that everyone we will see will have worms) and providing vitamins and pain relief to probably hundreds of people. We're not 100% sure yet what my role will be. I might be just playing with the kids while they wait. Or I might be helping to take down names and ailments. We don't know yet and probably won't until we get there and see what the need is.

For those in my family who are worried about my well-being, do not despair! I have an array of natural remedies to prevent a lot of this stuff. I'm not a big fan of the toxic mainstream stuff that people use for these issues so I have been doing some research on effective natural treatmetns. Here is my plan of action:

Lice- My hat is going to become my new best friend. I plan on wearing one all the time in addition to having my hair tied back. In the event that I do get lice (ewww....), some raw apple cider vinegar and oil will take care of the problem.

Worms- Yuck.... I shudder just thinking about that. I'm going to stock up on garlic, cloves, and wormwood (all of which I can get in capsule form) which all prevent and/or kill worms. I figure if I take it as prevention at the start, I should be good. This is safe (I've done my research and talked to people about this) and I'm going to talk to our homeopathic people at one of the health food stores as well before I go.

Motion Sickness (which I mentioned in the previous post)- Ginger... a nice and simple remedy. I found out why the drive will be so bad and it's mostly because the roads are narrow and have huge potholes all over the place. This won't be helped by the fact that we will be traveling in the country in the pitch black of night.

If all else fails, I will be with a lot of doctors and nurses who can give me the deworming chews (or whatever it is) and can help with any other issues. I am also planning on making a visit to our travel clinic here to get a tetanus shot. I might also look into getting a Hep A and B shot. You're technically supposed to get those months before but if they are still somewhat effective now and not pricey, then I'll get them just to be on the safe side.

With regards to other new info., I found out that I should mostly be bringing toys and things for the kids and should not bring that much clothing. According to our contacts in Romania, showering is not all that common, so if we wear the same things a few days in a row, it's no biggie. Since I am part of the team, I also get to wear scrubs with everyone else so that we "stand out" as a group. So, I think I'll have probably 3 pairs of scrubs, 2 pairs of jeans, a lot of t-shirts and that's about it. Also, the hotel is pretty sparse which is fine with me because I'm used to staying in hostels so having a private room (Jacob's mom and I are sharing) is actually kind of a step up for my travel habits! One last thing is that apparently everyone smokes there. I am super not thrilled about this. If you know of any way to get the smoke smell out of everything you own, please let me know. I'm dreading coming back and reaking for weeks. Chances are, I might be packing a lot of clothes that I will just plan on leaving there.

I think that is everything for now.... The doctors/nurses are meeting again on Thursday and hopefully they will have more of the schedule for the trip.