It's August 8, and we are leaving for Uganda in two days.  A year ago, a admit, I blanked on what the capital of the country was--Kigali?  Kinshasa? Bujumbura?  Ah,  Kampala.

Back on June, I visited a physician to get a "travel consult", which is a polite name or it.  It consisted of warnings, very specific do's and don'ts, and an extensive menu of hypodermic needles.   Imagine 7-10 needles displayed on a velvet cushion:  "perhaps a little cholera as a starter?"

I settled on five vaccinations--yellow fever, polio, meningitis, hepatitis A, and typhus.  I also have a large bottle of Malarone--a drug that prevents malaria--and some Cipro, just in case I get sick with any bacterial infections.

As for sleeping sickness, dengue fever, and several other lethal and unpreventable diseases, these are carried by the tsetse fly, which is undeterred by insect repellents.  The best modern medicine could advise was not to wear the color blue and to carry a fly swatter.

Shortly after getting the injections, I was hit by a car while cycling.  I smashed through someone's windshield, feeling the glass crunch under my shoulder.  I was not hurt in any way, other than a few cubes and slivers of glass merely scratching my arm.  The next day, I was not even sore.

While vacationing in North Carolina, my son and I spotted a 4-foot bull shark wriggling around in a foot or so of water, within kicking distance of where we were swimming.  It completely ignored us, and splashed away, a white fin (which is so uncreative) disappearing beneath the waves.

I am considering the possibility that it was the shots--- that these vaccines have made me invincible and indestructible, and invisible to otherwise malicious and harmful creatures.

We shall see--the Tsetse fly awaits!