Written on: 6/19/2014
The
doctors here installed the fear of God in me about getting diseases.
The sessions about diseases are not unlike the Mean Girls gym class
teacher's Sex Ed. classes.
*Dramatization*
Do
not forget to take your Doxy. Do not sleep without your mosquito net.
Do not go out without bugspray. If you do...you will
get Malaria...and die.
Do
not drink unfiltered water. Do not eat fresh vegetables at the
hotelys. Do not forget your Sur' Eau*. You will double dragon** in
your PO*** for days....and die. Do not eat in the missionary
position. Do not eat standing up. Just don't do it? K?
Alright...come
grab some Pepto.
*****
I
began to question everything I had eaten over the past week. Was it
safe? Did it contain feces? Did my host mom (Neny) clean everything
appropriately? WAS SHE EVEN USING SUR'EAU?!?
To
calm my nerves I ate about four brownies at snack. My stomach
unleashed its wrath further and began to gargle ferociously. It
could've been the four brownies I had just eaten...or I had developed
Guardia in the past 2 hours and was going to be the first trainee so
succumb to the most common disease for PCVs in Madagascar.
My
stomach pains worsened and I became extremely gasy - a sign of
Guardia. I panicked silently as I rode the PCV truck through the
bumpy dirt roads on the way back to my house. Once there, I picked at
my dinner...too nervous to eat much of anything my Neny set in front
of me. After going to my room I couldn't help but look up the Guardia
again in my Personal Health Handbook. In my notes I had written:
Sympts included feeling of gasy-ness and sulfur smelling toots.
My
stomach let out a minuscule amount of gas and I began sniffing the
air. It was free of sulfur, but yet my mind wandered through
everything I had eaten again. After tossing and turning in bed for
what felt like hours, I finally fell asleep.
When
I awoke, the pain was still in my stomach and had moved to the lumbar
part of my back. I felt awful. "Is malaise is a symptom?"
I wrote down the date and my symptoms on a piece of paper and slipped
it into my First Aid kit in case my condition worsened and I needed to
inform the doctors of the disease's onset.
After
my morning trip to the Kabone, I had a diagnosis for my "illness."
......
..........
.............
.................
....................I
had gotten my period.
The
only meds I needed to "take" were some chill pills because
clearly I was paranoid.
*Vocab*
*Sur'Eau
- chlorine used to kill germs in water. Tastes like bleach...yum....!
You can't taste it in food but sometimes you can in your water. Drink
packets like Crystal Lite help A LOT.
**double
dragon = simultaneously having explosive diarrhea and vomiting
(Thanks PCV Gabby).
***PO
= a bucket with a lid that you pee in at night when its too dark to
use the kabone**** outside. Can also be used to vomit into or used to
poo in when you need to examine your feces for disease.
****Kabone
= Outhouse. A hole in the ground with two foot rests text to it.
looks like this - []0[]. your business
goes in the 0 and your feet go on the []s. I'd be lying if I said I
actually didn't mind using the Kabone. It's supposed to be healthier
for your body to squat rather than sit while you do your business.
Plus i'll have calves and quads of steal soon.
No comments:
Post a Comment