Vaccinations (ouch!) and New Photos

I'm getting ready for my trip to Burundi, Africa on July 23rd. One of the requirements for going on the trip is getting up-to-date on vaccinations. In fact, they won't even let you in the country without the yellow fever vaccine. So today I went to get yellow fever (a live vaccine!), Tdap (tetanus, diphtheria, pertussis), and my first round of Hep B. I also had the doctor give me a prescription for malaria pills and some typhoid fever pills. The doc went through the list of do's and don'ts - like don't swim there because they have parasites, be careful what you eat, drink only bottled water, etc. I've been to Haiti twice, so I try to take this seriously. I have known people who have gotten very sick in these countries, so it's not something for us weak immune system Americans to take lightly. I got sick both times I was in Haiti.

In case you are not sure where Burundi is, I included a map below. I'll blog some more as I get closer to leaving. By the way, the Tdap hurt the worst. My arm still hurts from the shot. The other two didn't seem to affect me. The good news is that I'm OK for 10 more years!




On another subject, I have a photo to share. The photo below is of Elizabeth (14), Joshua (8) and Andrea (11). Joshua is 44 pounds now and he is gradually gaining weight and getting taller. Andrea turns 12 next Monday.


Tomorrow I have 2 phone interviews with potential new hires, a third phone interview on Friday, and I have a candidate coming in for an interview probably next week. I'm trying to fill 3 positions in my group. I need people with solid programming skills and physics/math experience. The work involves developing real-time physics effects for game-based training applications and live training systems for the Army. It's all cutting edge, very exciting work. You can search our jobs here. My open jobs are CFD-120, CFD-126 and CFD-127.

Peace and blessings,
John