A strange thing happened to me this week. And it is something I have to write about it because I do not fully understand it. I had been reading about microorganisms in a high school biology book And with a nervous habit of touching my moustache when I am bored or nervous, I think I partly, psychosomatically convinced my body to incorporate some kind of virus or bacteria into my constitution. I inoculated myself through the nose or mouth. Somehow I got some kind of bug that the symptoms were very strange. Every time I would stand up from a seated position. I would practically pass out. The first morning I noticed this was when I got out of bed and almost fell flat on my face. Other than almost passing out, there were no other symptoms except for sneezing a few times a day for about 5 to 6 days. At one point I was trying to install a trap on a stainless steel sink that I putting in my basement. When I got up off of the floor, I almost fell on the concrete floor. It was a little scary but I passed out long enough that it reminded me of what life was like before I had this body. It was dark peaceful and pleasant. And I thought to myself if this is all that death is then bring it on. And it got me thinking about all of my near death experiences. The more experiences of this type anybody has had the easier that the big one is going to be. I never considered that this could be a virus or a bacteria. I thought it might be a heart thing. So I made a mental note to go see Dr.Bernacki about my condition. But since I had my blood work done, and my cholesterol was all good, I was less concerned about it being my heart. Then after a couple of days instead of almost falling on my face every time I got up, I just felt a little light headed. Eventually I figured it was some kind of infection that prevented oxygen to get to my brain. Maybe whatever it was attacked the blood vessels going to my brain or maybe my heart. This self diagnosis reminded me of when I was in the Peace Corps and went awol and hitchhiked to South Africa and applied to medical school. I figured where would be a better place to be a doctor than anywhere in sub Sahara Africa? At the school that I applied to they didn’t believe that I hitchhiked from Zaire to South Africa. I got all the applications but I never followed through. I had so many diseases over there I got into the habit of self diagnosis. Malaria, month long diarrhea, flu’s, colds, bad water, bad booze, woman – ‘tu pese beucoup mon cherie’. Anyhow hitchhiking in South Africa was interesting. There are a lot of porches and Mercedes with white people driving them. And they had the need to explain their political situation down there. Some wanted to know what do you want to teach them Kafirs? How to kill you? They considered Zaire the true Africa. And some of them were surprised that I had just come from there. Well I ate my ostrich at the restaurants that I visited, and I drank some strong South African beer and headed back to Zaire before anybody figured out that I was gone. One thing that I did in Zaire was dream big. There was too much going on around me. The idea to go to South Africa came from a Dutch volunteer that I met and he was a physical therapist. Since there was no leather in Zaire to help crippled people he started a very successful tannery. What started out a mission to help crippled people turned into tanning hides for big game hunters. He did this for six years then went to South Africa to medical school. But before he left he did implement leather for braces for the many hobbled in Kananga’s only hospital. He was a creative guy. He hand carved a big piece of wood into a commode that he placed over the hole in his w.c.. I went fly fishing with him on the Sancuru River. He was a hell of a mechanic. He diagnosed a problem on my motorcycle by just listening . The clash of cultures over there was really diverse. Besides all the African tribes, I met diamond dealers from Britain. Doctors from Belgium. big game hunters from Saudi Arabia. Businessmen from Portugal. Nurses from Ireland. Chicken farmers from Israel. Dam builders from Italy. Truck drivers from Greece. Tourists from Switzerland. Missionaries from France. Physical therapists from Holland. Optometrists from Canada. Just about everything from India and Pakistan. Civil engineers from South Africa. And in one way or another I either socialized with these people or I heard about them. And I learned a lot about the world.