I am so glad to hear this. I really hope his company is on top of things. We never considered the possibility of having a few small gifts just in case. We will think about that, and do a little research to see what might be nice. I wonder if some Made in Michigan, non food items might work. There are some unique items that aren't expensive like polished petoskey stones that are readily available.

Thank you. I will get the info to you as soon as he knows. It is a work trip, and the office manager books everything. He does not have a choice of where to stay. He is getting typhoid pills this weekend, plus covid booster, and Hep A/B next weekend. I am making a big kit of meds and first aid stuff, plus I will be sending him those little Kleenex packs. It isn't cost effective, but it is efficient because he can just grab a pack and keep it in his pocket. I will send a couple of rolls of t.p. in his checked bag in case they stay somewhere that does not provide it, and lots of hand sanitizer. We are working on getting an appointment at a CVS with a travel clinic so he can talk to someone about getting GI meds. Thank you!

This might be one of those rare times when his roughing it, primitive camping experiences come in handy.

😠😠😠 Someone could have been killed for the love of a nut from a tree. Too many Americans think being startled or frightened of something is an excuse to lose their brains and just start randomly shooting. I am pretty certain Life, Liberty, and General Welfare are just as important as 2E. The rights of the ammosexuals does not trump that of everyone else to be alive. My sister and brother in law are coming this summer for a month. They really want to take a sight seeing vacation, but bil is pretty scared. 49 mass shootings this year alone, and a cop that endangers people because he is too stupid to stop and ascertain some things before shooting like Elmer Fudd chasing Bugs Bunny is NOT helping. I told him there were all kinds of wild and beautiful places in Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota that we could go and avoid crowds and places that are targets.We can picnic to avoid restaurants; pay at the pump for fuel. I am fairly certain the only thing the powers that be care about is money. Therefore, nothing will get done until everyone is afraid to go to theaters, concerts, school, sporting events, shopping of any kind, etc. When the economy tanks and the only thing the majority populace uses is grocery pick up and drive through pharmacy, that will get their attention. Certainly when the NFl and the NBA cannot fill stadiums, and all the theaters go bankrupt, retail establishments all go under and Jeff Besos can buy the United States for a song, then and only then will they pay attention.

I am so very sorry for your loss! Hugs

Thank you! I am copy and pasting your advice to a document for him. I really appreciate all the help here. The hive wins again.

Wow! This is is so foreign for us. Dh went to Egypt without me (his conscience 😁) in 2019, ate some street food, and was sick by the tike he got home. Sick for six months. Lost so much weight it was actually scary. Saw 1 NP, 2 physician's assistants, and 3 MD's all of whom claimed it could not be parasites even though every one of them had been told he had been to North Africa, and had eaten street vendor food. They decided he had cancer, and ordered a colonscopy which was of course clean, then if was "you need to see the GI doc, and the first appointment available is 3 months away or you can go to U of Mi, Ann Abor, walk into the ER, and get seen right away." I was so mad I just about swore a blue streak at the doc. We went home, and I did the thing so never do...call our dear friend in Doctors Without Borders for help. (not always an easy person to reach given some of the locations he serves). He swore. Called in a prescription to our pharmacy, and bam. Cured. This is the kind of thing that keeps me up. Ds is super smart with a lot of common sense, but he is not a self advocate. I normally do not worry about him at all, but something like this for sure. I hate feeling like a mother hen. He isn't like his next oldest brother who is more of the, "Get off your ass and help me now" kind of person in the face of being shrugged off.

US docs seem to be pretty under-informed on things like "diseases you get when not going to Canada or Western Europe".

Score! I found a pharmacy that has typhoid vaccine/pills that is a reasonable drive for him. It was a needle in a haystack kind of thing. I called many CVS and Walgreens in his city (and there are a LOT of them) plus Rite Aids, Meijer Pharmacy, and some independents, and found the one and only Walgreen that had them. Since his city does not have an international airport, and apparently doesn't get enough requests for it, most of them do not stock the med. But yeah, we have that option now. They can also do a Hep A/B as well as covid, but not the same day. That fine. He doesn't need a shot up arm on Monday at work. So two weekends in a row works. I also found out that CVS has a travelers medical clinic thing where he can meet with a physician's assistant or something, discuss travel, get recommendations, and even be prescribed GI meds to take with him. Since he doesn't have a primary care physician, I think this might be the way to do it. He is one of these uber healthy young adults who saw the doc on his college campus exactly once in four years, and since then, the annual physical with the hospital clinic that his employer uses. He doesn't have a doctor where he has a relationship. I had been thinking about trying out the Amazon clinic thing. Just so he could maybe get some metronidazole. But, this seems like a better idea.

Agree. Another one of those space industry related reads "Failure is not an Option" was another hard slog. Okay, Gene. I love that you were a test pilot and all the things. But I do not need the minutiae of engineering in every single thing NASA and friends flew. I say this as someone who is pursuing a degree in Aerospace engineering. It was DRY and plodding. But Scott Kelly's book was great! I would have read it to my tweens, but I know not all folks would. Language and what not.

I don't feel like cooking a darn thing. Really. Tired of cooking. Told dh we are having a fried egg and piece of toast a piece for supper. If he wants more, go cook it. Inconsequential, but I am seriously off the clock right now.

I get ya! I tried the 800 gram challenge and it wasted my digestive track so I just pulled back to 7 servings of veggies/fruits a day, and not trying to hit that challenge. I figure it is still very healthy, and all the things are working nicely without drama. No point in living if one has to be Anne fly miserable!

Oh yes. NO ICE! This one I learned the hard way when I was 17 and traveling with a group through the heart of Jamaica. We encountered a wealthier Jamaican who had an actual freezer and offered us ice with our bottled pepsi. We hadn't seen ice since leaving home 3 weeks before, and were most appreciative. Well. Appreciative for a few hours and the WHAMMMO. Whole group laid waste for two days while waiting for the GI meds to really kick it. LOL, I would probably say no to ice I'm Canada because of that experience! 😂

LOL, no. Single family owned, do business in 80 countries, and they farm out this aspect (when they offer anything) to a local clinic where the clinic doctor is not exactly up on foreign travel. They each have an annual physical and bloodwork (heavy metals, particularly lead testing) to make sure their PPE and precautions are working. Ds is an electrical engineer. Their "travel agent" is the office manager. So primitive. On the other hand, he is paid well, treated well, and has very nice benefits. That is worth a lot these days.

I count it from starting fresh. If I eat a cup fresh, I have eaten a full serving. So whatever it is when it is sauteed, is still a cup in my book. The water is lost but not the fiber, and the fiber is the bulk needed.

So I think what it sounds like is that he should have enough of everything to just not need to leave the hotel to buy anything, and have his breakfast and dinner at the hotel restaurant, take snack items and water with him to the manufacturing plant. I will make up a care pack for him of N95s, hand sanitizer and wipes, all of his personal care items (one quart baggie of 3 oz. bottles for his carryon, and then a larger amount for his checked bag, plus GI meds and standard first aid type things like Advil and bandaids, triple antibiotic ointment. Thankfully, this boy loves very spicy, heat foods. I will tell him to order it "American" or mild which should make it okay to eat. He loves veggies and rice, so my guess is even if it is 3 weeks of boring, same old same old, he should be okay. Sounds like I should send those detergent sheets in case he needs to wash clothes in his bathroom sink. He does like soda pop once in a while. Will a Coke or Pepsi be okay in country, or is there a chance that it was made there without filtered water? I did tell him that the big climate and food change would put his body under stress and make it easier to become dehydrated so he should mostly drink water. (We had a dear friend die in Nicaragua while helping to build a medical clinic. He drank nothing but diet coke the whole time he was there, and then went into cardiac arrest from dehydration. They were too far from a medical team to get him help. That has stuck with me ever since it happened.)

Thanks!

Thanks. I am going to copy and paste this content and send him an email. He is frustrated with HR. They just do not answer questions and act like Mumbai is the same as going to England! 😬 They aren't going sight seeing. So he figures he will spend evenings and weekends in the hotel since he has no intention of going out alone. I feel sad about that. Seems like it would be nice to see something. But if no one else wants to, going out alone is not an option.

Wow! I knew the hive would have good advice. He is getting his covid and flu shot Friday night at the pharmacy so he has time for his arm to get over it before work on Monday. Just in case. He doesn't react to vaxes like I do. I wonder if he can schedule a Hep at the pharmacy or if that will have to be at the county health department. Their day trips to the industrial plant will be just that. They go, they come back. No stay overs. I have told him NOT to eat street foods, only filtered water from reliable source. I will send GI meds just in case. Typhoid vax is very hard to get in Michigan. Limited number of health departments carry it, and only when someone makes an appointment 3 months in advance. So that ship sailed. The industrial plant is modern. Air conditioned, etc. They are installing some robotic battery thingie (really not sure what it is) and then training the team there on how to use it. My guess is maybe a work cafeteria for lunches? Hopefully he can find out. I could have him pack some nuts, granola, and energy bars to take each day just in case. Would polo shirts be better since they usually do not need to be ironed?

Okay, world traveling Hivers, our son, 24 and has never been more international than fishing in Canada and a stop off at Niagara Falls, is headed to Mumbai March 25-April 15 with his engineering team for work. Only 1 engineer on the team is at all forthcoming with information. Hr says, "Modern Hotel, drink only filtered water, and dress code is business casual." So far I have had him ask about vaccinations and whether or they recommend malaria medicine. They said no to both. I think it might be wise to get the covid booster. He has been busy and hasn't had it yet. His DTP was updated in 2018 so it isn't up for booster yet. He had an MMR booster at that time as well. I am thinking short sleeve cotton shirts and his usual chinos, khakis will work. Do you have other recommendations? I have never been to the region. He is adventurous with food, and vegetarian works for sure for him, but is there anything else he should know? We have an rfid scan blocking personal fanny pack type thing. Very thin. We wore them in Iceland under our clothes. We kept our ID, cash, and credit cards in them. So we will give him one to use. Since he will be gone 3 weeks, he obviously needs to do laundry or have it done. Any idea what it costs per load to have laundry done at the hotel and delivered back to his room? Appropriate tip size for housekeeping and laundry? Should he expect his employer to reimburse him for this? Mark had never traveled more than 8 days for work, so we are nor sure how to advise him.

I don't even know what to say anymore. There aren't words. I just try to avoid all the people who believe this should be the norm because 2E. Just coming off the sentencing of Ethan Crumbley's mother (Oxford School Shooting) and the memorial for the MSU shooting, feelings are raw.

This is so scary. Love to all of our Aussie friends! I am thinking of you.

😠😠😠 @#$$%&&&&%$$#@#$%%&&%$#@@$%&

You know, this is kind of a bummer. I mean this kind of thing is so common with many species, Komodo Dragons do it too. But still, we have so much nasty in the world, it sure would have been fun to have some sort of monster baby, sharkey sting ray that is has super powers. 😁

It is gorgeous. Lots of Michiganders call it "God's Country". It is the only place in the US that reminds me of the Atlantic Coast in Maine. Presque Isle Park in Marquette feels like some of the scenic turnouts we walked when I was a kid and we traveled all along the coast. I think we ended up spending a week in Boothbay. Some of my best childhood memories!