Amongst all the extras that I packed to come here (extra socks, extra tampons, extra vitamins, extra hair ties)... extra antibiotics were not included. Why? Because I'm tough, and I almost never get sick... not until I got to Juba. I never take malaria meds, I use a filtration water bottle, and my stomach is made of iron - well, until I got here. That's when I discovered if you are healthy one day, you'll most likely be sick for the next two. Don't bother with preventative vitamins, they have little effect.
Part of the problem is that you never know where you are actually catching this or that bug from. When I first arrived, it was from rinsing my toothbrush with sink water (that was dumb, I admit it). Then I spent a couple weeks with hourly headaches... maybe too much caffeine? Or maybe it was the lettuce in my salads? Now, having just been back from Kampala for 1 week, I spent the last two nights clutching my stomach and begging the pain to go away. I slept 12 hours last night (thank you, aleve). But I also forgot to bring tylenol and enough cipro for the next three months... guess I will be surviving on pepto and aleve.
I know I'll be fine eventually - but these illnesses are more debilitating here than they would be elsewhere. When I woke up yesterday, I felt fine - but by noon, I felt pretty miserable and didn't want those spicy thai noodles. By 5 p.m. I was canceling my evening meeting, pumping my body full of napricin, and wondering why both my head and stomach were hurting, how does that even work? Today, it's 2 p.m. and I feel fine. So far.
One of my friends has been sick every 5 days since I arrived. He just takes a round of antibiotics and gets over it - no need to go to the clinic. Another friend says the only way to get rid of parasites is to let them pass - you can't kill them, she says. I think it's the climate that most surprised me - being near the Nile makes everything damp and humid, which is a fabulous breeding ground for bacteria. There is a little bug that crawls up through my shower drain each day, and struggles to get out of my shower during the evening, and then disappears again in the morning. Today, I woke up to a gigantic bug in my bathroom - his name is Jerry, and we have a very strict agreement that he will not be laying any eggs while he stays with me. (he/she - I'm cool with transgender bugs. Maybe Jerry is really Gerry, and short for Geraldine, who knows?)
Today I am healthy, and today I am thankful. Tomorrow is anybody's guess.
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just one quick addendum a shout-out to my amazing mom, who wrote me this in an email this morning:
I know what you mean about facing a huge bug alone. One time I was in Cucuta, Columbia--alone because they stopped me at the border (I had to renew my visa before re-entering Venezuela). I woke up in the night to find a cockroach the size of a shoe--no lie. I couldn't envision killing it, so spent the rest of the night with the light on and very little sleep! I hope you survived your encounter with Jerry.
Part of the problem is that you never know where you are actually catching this or that bug from. When I first arrived, it was from rinsing my toothbrush with sink water (that was dumb, I admit it). Then I spent a couple weeks with hourly headaches... maybe too much caffeine? Or maybe it was the lettuce in my salads? Now, having just been back from Kampala for 1 week, I spent the last two nights clutching my stomach and begging the pain to go away. I slept 12 hours last night (thank you, aleve). But I also forgot to bring tylenol and enough cipro for the next three months... guess I will be surviving on pepto and aleve.
I know I'll be fine eventually - but these illnesses are more debilitating here than they would be elsewhere. When I woke up yesterday, I felt fine - but by noon, I felt pretty miserable and didn't want those spicy thai noodles. By 5 p.m. I was canceling my evening meeting, pumping my body full of napricin, and wondering why both my head and stomach were hurting, how does that even work? Today, it's 2 p.m. and I feel fine. So far.
One of my friends has been sick every 5 days since I arrived. He just takes a round of antibiotics and gets over it - no need to go to the clinic. Another friend says the only way to get rid of parasites is to let them pass - you can't kill them, she says. I think it's the climate that most surprised me - being near the Nile makes everything damp and humid, which is a fabulous breeding ground for bacteria. There is a little bug that crawls up through my shower drain each day, and struggles to get out of my shower during the evening, and then disappears again in the morning. Today, I woke up to a gigantic bug in my bathroom - his name is Jerry, and we have a very strict agreement that he will not be laying any eggs while he stays with me. (he/she - I'm cool with transgender bugs. Maybe Jerry is really Gerry, and short for Geraldine, who knows?)
Today I am healthy, and today I am thankful. Tomorrow is anybody's guess.
------------
just one quick addendum a shout-out to my amazing mom, who wrote me this in an email this morning:
I know what you mean about facing a huge bug alone. One time I was in Cucuta, Columbia--alone because they stopped me at the border (I had to renew my visa before re-entering Venezuela). I woke up in the night to find a cockroach the size of a shoe--no lie. I couldn't envision killing it, so spent the rest of the night with the light on and very little sleep! I hope you survived your encounter with Jerry.
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