Inoculation Card
“Passport?”
“Oui.”
“Visa?”
“Oui, it’s in the passport.”
“Inoculation card?”
“Hmm?”
“Vaccination card?”
“I don’t have it.”
“You must return to Conakry. You can’t enter Senegal without proof of inoculation.”
“It’s in the States. I mean, yeah, I have one, I just didn’t bring it with me.”
“Well, you cannot enter Senegal without proof of inoculation.”
“But I have the visa.”
“Yes, I have seen it.”
“That’s proof.”
“It’s not an inoculation card.”
“It’s better than an inoculation card. I can’t get the visa unless I prove I had the inoculations. I sent my card to the embassy so they would give me the visa. There is the visa.”
“Yes, I have seen it.”
“Do they give visas to Americans without inoculation cards?”
“No. Everyone must have an inoculation card to get a visa.”
“That is my visa, right?”
“Yes.”
“I can’t get that without having had the inoculation card.”
“That is right.”
“Can I go now?”
“No, you can’t enter Senegal without proof of inoculation.”
“But…”
“The visa is not proof.”
“Indirectly it is! Look, inoculation card is “A”. Visa is “B”. I can’t get “B” without having “A”, right?”
“That is right.”
“There is ‘B’ ergo, A exists.”
“You need to return to…”
“I am not going back to Conakry. Listen, I’m here for a long time. I’ve got my malaria pills and, God willing, a friend waiting for me.”
“But you cannot enter Senegal without…”
“Look, I’ve got shots in places I don’t want to show you but I will!”
“You look nervous. You are sweating.”
“It’s 112 degrees outside.”
“Okay. If you want to catch cholera, it is your business. I’ll give you a TIC, a temporary Innoculation Card. You have thirty days to produce your inoculation card or you will be deported.”
“You had that back there the whole time.”
“Yes, this happens very often.”
“YOU HAD THAT BACK THERE THE WHOLE TIME!”
“Everyone always forgets the inoculation card. Especially Americans.”
“Because it’s redundant!”
“Yes, I know.”
“I won’t catch any deadly diseases, you know.”
“Insha’Allah. If God Agrees. Insha’Allah.”
Bob Kunzinger is a non-fiction writer with five volumes of essays, and published in journals including Southern Humanities Review, Kestrel, and Best American Essays.
Picture copyrighted by Museum Victoria.
