Suffering from Exhaustion

Just like the celebrities!

So last week I flew to Geneva for this meeting I had organized on closing the gap between mosquito net ownership and use. 15-30% of households that own a net aren't sleeping under it, so we wanted to look at why, and what we could do to change it. The meeting went ok and then I flew to Wisconsin for Claire's wedding.

Claire's wedding was great and so nice to see Kira and Jay and Aaron and to catch up with Bridget and Ben and Kevin and Sarah. Everyone got really tired about 8pm though and since Kira and I had early flights, we pooped out after the dancing was over.

Then I spent all day flying, and all night flying to Accra, where I promptly fell ill with my standard sore throat/congestion/fever/fuzziness Airplane Crud, which has now descended a bit and given me a nice productive cough. The first day of meetings was brutal; the second everyone else went on site visits, which I, fortunately, could justify skipping since I'd gone out to several on my last two visits, so I slept all night Tuesday night and more or less all day Wednesday, minus a few hours watching bits of "American Dreamz" (only watchable in a sick/fuzzyhead state) and "Grosse Pointe Blank" (always, always watchable).

Thursday seemed to be a little better but then the afternoon hit and I couldn't take it anymore. Intending to lay down for 20 minutes I quickly passed out for three hours. Managed to get up for our musical interlude/dinner thing, and then went back to bed, taking a Nyquil, which, I will warn you, is effective for over 12 hours. Do NOT expect to be awake anytime before your 12 hours are up.

I have my 4th transatlantic flight in less than two weeks tonight starting at 3am. Obviously not an ideal itinerary, but I felt guilty about making the cost too high because I was using project money to get myself to a wedding in the middle of my work trips, and so I didn't make them change it. However, since I'm routed through JFK I get to spend some time with some good people and also get to bed earlier than if I had stayed on the flight back to Dulles.