Planning my Return Trip to the Democratic Republic of the Congo

As I sit in front of my computer, I am keenly aware of the fact that we have eight orphans assigned to anxiously awaiting families who desperately want to bring their children home from the Congo.

Three of these children are in Kinshasa with Pastor Didier and Mama Angelique jumping through their final hurdles with the American Embassy. They will soon be ready to travel to the U. S. and will be with their forever families. 

Families in the U. S. are buying plane tickets and awaiting their visas from the DRC Embassy in Washington, DC.  For those of you who are in this process the information I want to share is probably too late.  You are too far advanced in your travel plans.  You have already made some of the decision that I was making when I planned my trip to the DRC. 

It seems like it was such a short time ago, that I was praying and planning my trip to Africa.  Now I am beginning to work on my next trip and dealing with some of the same issues but from a different perspective. 

If you are a future adoptive parent and are weighed down with a home study and paper work, you may not be prepared to think with me about some other issues which are important such as passports, visas, plane tickets and vaccinations.

Vaccinations (Disclaimer)

I want to share my history with you in hopes that it might be helpful. I will give my past history and my present approach after having done much research and asked many questions.

First, recognize the fact that you will not get out of the country without a CDC 731 which is an official International Certificate of Vaccination.  You will not get into the DRC unless it shows that you have had a Yellow Fever Vaccination.  This is the minimum requirement to get into the Democratic Republic of the Congo. According to the Center for Disease Control.

Historical Study

Being a student of history and valuing the opinions of others who have had a recent history, I needed to make contact with someone who had been to the Congo. 

Some way or another I was put into contact with a retired policeman—Ray Hill-- who had just returned from the Congo.  He had gone to our Mission: Compassion for Congo (compassionforcongo.org) with the plans of spending forty days there.  He was going to update the electrical wiring on the missions’ building.  A local doctor ordered him out of the country ten days later lest he die in Africa.  Ray was so sick that as he described it, “that I could hardly hold my head up.”  He flew home to recuperate and still has/had some residual problems which his HMO  has not been able to resolve.  He has not had a reoccurrence for several weeks so maybe this is now in his past. 

Center for Disease Control

I love to get free information from experts so I visited their website to find that you can get information about travel to two hundred different countries from the website.  Also they have a 1-800-232-4636 number which put me in contact with a live female voice in Atlanta.  After I explained my plans to travel to the DRC, I was told that I would have to have Yellow Fever vaccine.  It was also recommended that I have Hepatitis A and Hepatitis B; the latter being based on the fact that I might have sexual activity in the Congo.  I decided to not have the Hep. B shot.  The voice also told me that I would need to have some sort of Malaria prevention.   That I listened to heartily since I had read many missionary stories of suffering and death as people labored in tropical areas. Plus having studied the history of WWII and how soldiers suffered from Malaria and had to take quinine.  They said the taste was so terrible that they learned to throw it in a curve to bypass their taste buds.

Research as to Where

I wanted to limit my vaccinations as I learned they were terribly expensive, but also did not want to bring back some lingering disease.  I found that many drug stores and even some grocery stores will vaccinate travelers.  Also those of you who have an HMO may be able to get free shots.  I am covered by the Veterans Administration so I made an appointment with my primary care doctor—a delightful lady who is my friend.  She strongly advised me to not go and when she found that I was going anyway, she almost wept.  I was rescued from her tears by a ringing phone. 

I ended up at a travel medicine purveyor in Folsom, CA where I received my meds and much good advice.  I learned that if I did not have the Hepatitis B vaccination then I should never allow a medical practioner  in Africa to break my skin due to the possibility of a dirty needle.  At that time, my thought were that if I became seriously ill, I would just leave the country as did Ray Hill.  I did not think about the fact that all planes might be filled up for some time or that I might get dropped off in Ethiopia for twenty seven hours as I did on the way home.  I cannot imagine what it would have been like to be so sick that I could not hold my head up and then to have had to go through the process of getting an Ethiopian  visa, being taken to a hotel and spending more than a day in a foreign country.  It was difficult enough for me when I was feeling well. I say all of this to tell you that I am in the process of reconsidering issues as I plan another trip to the DRC.

This Time—Good News

I have made two recent trips to the Veterans Administration Hospital and have learned that the VA now considers it to be less expensive to prevent travel diseases than to treat them after the fact.  I have gotten my flu shot and a typhoid shot.  I have had lab work done to determine if I need Hep. B.  My lovely lady doctor has told me that I may have immunity to it.  If I need the shots then they will come in a series of three over a four month time period.  All of the shots are at no cost to me.

The VA has a travel medicine specialist.  She warned me very sharply about the possibility of Malaria in an approximate five minute lecture.  Rattling off information which I cannot remember she said, If you do not follow instruction and take your pills and a certain common mosquito bites you with a common form of Malaria “I guarantee that you will die within 24 hours.”  My Malaria pills have been ordered for me.  A thirty day prescription will have only a very minimal cost. 

Before you leave for the DRC, please see a  travel specialist.