In Which I Devise A Plan to Fool Tanzanian Immigration Officials

I have stepped up my trip research to frantic levels these past few days. We leave in less than a month and there is much to be done. Did I mention that I am also trying to plan my wedding? I am. Add that  to holding down two jobs, my own schoolwork (I am working on shaving the "substitute" off of "substitute teacher"), moving, and I might as well have thrown myself into a maelstrom. That actually might be preferable to the current feeling I have of being sucked out to sea in a Costa Rican riptide. Remind me to write about that little experience. Such a fun one.

Anyway, as you might imagine, there are several easily contractable diseases to be found in the Dark Continent. As I am a poor substitute teacher with no health insurance, the task at hand is to find which of these diseases I am most likely to become stricken with, and avoid them at all costs. Great plan right?! Yellow fever and malaria are my chief concerns at the moment, although the random physician I spoke with on the phone earlier today scared the heavens out of me with dire cautions about polio and typhoid. I told him that I was not interested in receiving either of those vaccines and he acted as if my obituary was already printed in the paper. He really should work on his bedside manner.

Yellow fever vaccine costs anywhere between $160-200. They always want to have a "consultation" which runs about $90 and lasts for 90 seconds. No thanks. However, my latest research has been conflicting. Many sources state that you cannot enter the country without a valid certificate stating that the traveler has been vaccinated. Our contact in country says that she has not heard of anyone being detained for not having it. A post from the embassy dating back to 2008 though, says you must have proof. Check the embassy website today, and it has now changed to only needing it if you are coming from a yellow fever endemic country. The US of A is not, but who knows if that will change again? I called the Tanzanian embassy today and the woman told me I do not need it, and in the next breath told me "there is no yellow fever there." Well, I must beg to differ after checking http://www.cdc.gov/ and finding almost the whole of Tanzania covered in yellow to represent...you guessed it....yellow fever!

So my current options are:
1) Pay the $200, get the shot and feed into the vortex of money thrown around for medical "consultations." I don't mind paying for the shot, it's the 90 second consultation that is really going to piss me off.
2) Skip the shot altogether
OR my ace in the whole:
3) Change that "4" to a "9" on my immunization card. You see, I actually had the yellow fever shot when I was 14, prior to heading to Ecuador. The proof is good for 10 years, starting 10 days after the injection. I had the shot in 1994, making it expired as of 2004. However, if I change the 1994, to a 1999, I am golden! Plus, apparently the vaccine is good for anywhere from 10-30 years, which I fully realize is a wide span of time. I am also not sure if that is entirely accurate as you cannot believe everything you read on the internet. Right? This though, I really want to believe. That way, I can have peace of mind about not getting the shot.

So here I find myself daydreaming and scheming to fool immigration officials while I am supposed to be focusing on the 6th graders in front of me. At least I waited until I got home to write about it, but I cannot promise that my mind was entirely focused on the lesson at hand. Rather, I am afraid that I was busily imagining myself sauntering up to immigration and confidently producing my forged documents. Oh dear...am I really plotting this? I should just get the shot.

Do you readers have any input? Better yet, does anyone have factual information about yellow fever in Tanzania??