Cipro or burst!

I came home from our trip to Africa with some kind of stomach bug. After four days of 'the trots', I finally gave up on the idea that it was just my body reacting to 30+ hours of transit, airline food, and the 10 hour shift in time zones... So yesterday I started taking the Cipro that my doctor prescribed before we left. In case you don't know about Cipro, it's the antibiotic that was in short supply a few years ago during the post 9-11 anthrax scares.

Yes, you read correctly- they use it to treat anthrax.

Anyway- the good news is that my stomach is finally settling down, so I guess it was something bacterial after all. Hmmm... I wonder if the symptoms of anthrax include diarrhea? So, now that I'm able to leave the bathroom long enough to write a post- I can start telling you all about our trip. I was pretty determined to avoid a LeeAnn story this time. Nothing happened to me personally, but we did have a couple odd things happen to our team as we traveled...

Our first flight was a red-eye to New York. A couple hours into the flight there was a jolt- it was like turbulence, but with only one bump. About 10 minutes later the pilot comes on the intercom and says something along the lines of "In case you were wondering about that bump back there, folks, that was not turbulence it was wake turbulence." In other words- we passed through another plane's jet wash.

Jet wash? Like in Top Gun?!! Great... I felt a lot better when I thought it was just regular turbulence- thanks for clearing that up!

Our second unusual event occurred on the 5 hour long, return flight from Dar es Salaam to Dubai. On this flight our team of 15 people were scattered around the aircraft, seated in groups of 2 or 3. About an hour before landing, a member of our team, D, came by my seat and asked me to pray for another team member, P. It seems that P was having a panic attack in her seat because someone on our flight tried to open the plane's hatch at 32,000 feet!

It turns out that D had witnessed the event and had ID'd the attempted-hatch-opener (AHO) to the crew after they investigated the door due to a warning light that was prompted by removing the door handle's cover. The crew quietly moved the AHO to the rear of the plane and isolated her until we landed. By that time, P was having an anxiety attack caused by the "what if's?" (She settled down quickly afterwards.)

We landed in Dubai under emergency protocol- they kept the plane far out on the tarmac, away from the terminal, and took us off there. D and P had to remain behind to give a statement to the local police and the AHO was taken into custody (her story was that she was looking for the bathroom). D and P caught up with us later inside the terminal in plenty of time for us to catch the next leg of our flight to New York.

So like I said- no personal LeeAnn story this trip. I was kind enough to share my moments with the whole team...

Anyone want to take a trip with me?