Mt. Meru (Day 1 Cont: The Reckoning)

As some of you may know, there was a little bit of a mix up at the pharmacy before my trip to Tanzania, and I wasn't able to get a new typhoid vaccine. This might have made some other people nervous, but to me, it was no big deal for three main reasons.

First, hardly anyone dies from typhoid, usually it's just stomach pains and fever. Second, my previous typhoid vaccination "expired" this past April. But vaccines aren't like on/off switches and I figured I was still partially protected.Finally, typhoid is mainly contracted by eating food that is contaminated by human fecal matter. So in my mind, I was pretty much in the clear if I stuck to only eating fruits and vegetables that were cooked, boiled or peeled.

So here I am, exhausted while only halfway through the first day of my epic hike up Mt. Meru, and the ranger finally announces it's lunch time. I drop my pack and grab my lunch bag with a speed that no one had seen me demonstrate all day. The lunch was provided and packed by the tour company, who my friend had explained no less than 5 times to that I was a vegetarian. So I felt confident that I was going to be able to dig into a hearty meal.

Instead, when I ripped open the box, I found myself face-to-face with what could only be described as a typhoid sandwich. It was a typhoid lunch really. It consisted of a cucumber, tomato and mayo sandwich on white bread; an apple; and an unwrapped veggie samosa.

It's at moments like this that you start asking yourself questions you never thought you'd have to consider. Questions like: "has anyone really ever contracted typhoid from just half a sandwich?" or "what would feel worse the continued rumblings in my stomach now or having typhoid later?"

I went for the samosa first - it seemed the safest - and then eyed around for what my fellow hikers were eating. I gazed longingly at their hermetically sealed lunches - hard-boiled eggs and bananas, roast beef sandwiches in cellophane wrap.

And as I much as I wished that I had the guts to ask for a bite of theirs, I knew I would never do it. This left me with only one other choice: I crossed my fingers, and I dived right in.