Vaccination Time

Yesterday was one of those days on our mission adventure as a family that I'd like to be able to skip over or not have to include at all! However it was a non-negotiable.

When we've been preparing the girls for life in Tanzania, Abigail especially, we've been 'big-ing up' the warm weather, the new school, the African animals, being able to swim all year round and all the exciting things. One very unhelpful 'friend' recently said to Abigail 'You don't want to go to Africa do you?'. I was very proud when I heard she had responded very enthusiastically with, 'Yes, I do'!

Yesterday though, was one of the blips on the journey ... vaccination time! Getting a four year old excited about the prospect of having not 1, not 2, not 3, not even 4 injections but 5, was most definitely not something I was looking forward to. The reality was though, that it was just one more step in our preparation for the excitement that will follow.

On the drive there I was concentrating on the amazing Autumn colours, not knowing how either girlie would take to being treated like a pin cushion, I chose not to think about it. On arrival at the health department we were greeted by some stunning vistas, just a shame it was a little overcast!

But the real job in hand, was what took place in the two hours that followed. 2 injections for Mark, 3 for Naomi, 4 for me and 5 for Abigail. Unfortunately the girls were both of an age where their regular shots/jabs were due on top of the ones we needed for Tanzania ... so we rather proudly exited at lunchtime with a total of 14 injections between us!

In an attempt to make it vaguely exciting, Abigail got to chose her favourite 'Hello Kitty' plasters (UK)/bandages (US) to take with her and use, once it was over. We also took some yummy chocolate for them both to have and then let Abigail choose where we would go for lunch to 'celebrate' a successful morning!

In the end it was all pretty straight forward. Obviously the girls didn't really enjoy the whole experience but we got through it with no major problems, thank goodness. This morning Abigail went to pre-school as normal and when she got back she totally crashed for several hours. I guess her little body was coming to terms with everything that was pumped into her. If that's the only side effect, it was a relatively successful experience all-in-all ... but to be honest I'm glad we don't have to repeat it again in a hurry!