It was sunny to partly cloudy arriving at Dulles. Thirty minutes later a blizzard struck causing white out conditions. An hour later the skies converted back to partly cloudy. I was frankly a little anxious on my first TDY trip. I have yet to have a successful international trip solo. Kelly is my guide, rock, navigator, reminder, and general life preserver when traveling. For some reason I tend to loose sight of the big picture on trips and often focus on a few minor things within my grasp of control. So, focusing on where my passport, phone, wallet, and ticket are at all times pretty much consumes 95% of my available brain capacity. Details like vaccinations cards are sometimes omitted and can turn into real disasters.
I was discussing the various forms of Malaria vaccinations with my colleague and it suddenly occurred to me that I’d forgotten my yellow vaccination card. The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has been enforcing strict yellow fever entry requirements, and I’ve heard they give you shots at the terminal when carrying no proof of vaccination. Since HIV was discovered in the DRC, the thought of customs officials sticking me with a needle of who knows what was quite unsettling.
I had ten minutes until boarding and my mind raced for possible solutions to the sticky situation. Thankfully, I had scanned the card and emailed it to my personal account. I asked the receptionist in the waiting lounge for access to a printer, and she could only accept faxes. Thus I was left with a seven-hour flight to ponder my predicament.
Arriving in Paris for a five-hour layover, I was quite hopeful a business center would be available for printing. Shockingly there was none. Even the Air France Business Lounge had no printer. I tried the ticket gate and they had no printer either. The agent did at least offer to print the document and bring it to me at the gate after I emailed it to the front office from my Blackberry. She wasn’t very proficient in English so I wasn’t 100% confident the urgency of the need was properly communicated as she mentioned more than once that I didn’t need the card to enter the Congo.
I headed back through security and settled in the lounge when over the PA, “Madieu Waaa,” was summoned. I quickly headed to the counter were I was informed I would have to get the shot in the DRC. I was on the brink of loosing it when thankfully my colleague, who also was a native French speaker, arrived on the scene to fully explain the situation. He had already asked when we first arrived for access to a printer so I was quite surprised when she advised she would allow me to use the office printer within the lounge. After studying the French keyboard a few minutes I was able to access my personal account and print the documents. I thanked the staff and settled back in to my seat relieved my appointment with Doctor Congo was avoided.
p.s. After boarding the plane the ticket agent brought me my printed documents.
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