“March Madness” - Rabies awareness month

Rabies.  The sound of the word sends a chill down
my spine. I have seen what this virus can do, and it’s very very frightening:  Hydrophobia, ‘foaming at the mouth’, psychotic screaming, savage agression, immunity to pain.  These are symptoms of a dark, terrifying Force - a Fury unleashed.

It astounds me to know that in this 21st century, such an ancient, Evil disease can flourish in so many parts of the world.  It truly is ’madness’.

Rabies is one of the ‘neglected’ diseases of our time.  It is 100% vaccine preventable, yet 100% fatal once symptoms are present.  No other infectious disease has such an unforgiving mortality rate.  Ebola, by comparison, carries at least a 10% chance of survival. 

Miracles do occur (see Jeanna Giese) but certainly not enough of them.  We need more miracles out there, especially for the 55,000+ people who die from rabies every year according to the World Health Organization (WHO).  The fear, the terror I’ve seen in children’s faces suffering from rabies haunts me.  I wish somebody would do something…

Saving the street animals in Bangkok

It was mid-April in Bangkok and I was visiting Thailand to help educate the public there about the dangers of rabies. 

I was thrilled to be going around this city with Mali - a friend of mine who worked in film.  What a far off place this was - exotic temple architecture, huge sky scrapers, amazingly good food, crowds of people everywhere.  Traffic clogged the streets.  The noise from tuk-tuks - small carriages with motorbike engines- buzzed through the air.  It was the hot season, but I didn’t mind, it just added to the mystique of this steaming metropolis, the gateway to beautiful Thailand.

Mali wanted to know all about rabies, since she knew it was a real danger.  There were plenty of street dogs in Bangkok.  You could see them roaming and foraging for scraps of food.  They appeared similar to the street dogs I’d seen elsewhere in Asia - a rather thin mangy breed.  There were of course other animals too, including a small elephant brought along one of the main tourist streets for the farangs to gawk at.

My friend peppered me with questions about rabies.  She was concerned about her sister, Pho, who loved street animals and was always trying to care for them.  Pho had actually taken in six cats.  She was constantly getting scratched and occasionally nipped by the street animals since she was taking care of them whenever she could.  I became somewhat alarmed to realize that Pho was at a real risk for rabies. 

Jewels of India – Mother Teresa and her sisters

When I arrived in Calcutta it was early June and the monsoon season hadn’t started yet.  That meant the air was thick and hazy blue with humidity on diesel.

 

I looked out the cab window, amazed at the India before me.  Never had I seen so many people – hoards of humanity.  Animals too seemed everywhere – boney cows, scruffy chickens, flea-bitten street dogs, dirty naked children.

 

Rickety cars, scooters, bicycles, push-carts, and other wheeled contraptions weasled through the streets.  In my weakly air conditioned cab, I could take it all in.

I’d be staying here for a month, after thumbing through a book called ‘Volunteer Vacations’ and deciding to work with Mother Teresa’s organization – the Sisters of Charity.  I was attracted by the description in the book – simply ‘show up and begin work’ with address of the Mother House.

 

Many of the other entries for ‘volunteer vacations’ had some sort of application, screening process or skills needed.  I liked Mother Teresa’s approach – simple, direct and no talents required.  She would take anybody who had a desire to help.  Her winning of the Nobel Prize led me to believe this would be an authentic experience.  I didn’t really expect this to be a vacation at all.