I Have What?

Rewind… roughly six weeks. I’m standing in my host-mother’s kitchen watching her make some food. She is drinking some substance slightly resembling milk, and she offers me some. I am unsure; I waft a little in the direction of my nose to get a better sense of what is before me. She says that the milky substance is in fact milk from a goat, but the smell is wrong, but what the hell, this is Africa right? Let’s get a little cultural. I take a swig, and am immediately disgusted with myself, that is no milk that I have ever had. Unpasteurized mixed with vinegar and sugar. My stomach churns as I begin to digest this odd concoction of liquids. Little did I know that I was contracting a little parasite called Giardia.

The last few weeks of pre-service training consist of spontaneous vomiting and bowel movements of the most wicked kind. On one occasion I actually awoke to a rather unfortunate accident, this incident occurred early enough in the morning to awake and use the washboard to clean my sheets before any member of my family knew what was occurring. When my mother awakes, she asks me why my sheets are drying on the roof. I tell her that they were dirty and that I needed to clean them, she says “why so early”? I pretend that I don’t understand and just go on about my morning routine. As I arrive to the center where we have technical session, four other trainees are already sitting in the center. They greet me; “Bon dia Matt, how are you”? Reply; “I pooped the bed this morning”. Now, I realize that you reading this back in the states may think that this is ridiculous but realize that bowel movements are like pillow talk here. My fellow trainees cannot contain themselves, they begin laughing hysterically at me, and to be fair, this is rather humorous.

Later that day Estavon, the Peace Corps driver, takes the 3 environmental trainees along with one other trainee to Praia, for a meeting with the Director of environmental affairs for Cape Verde. The trainees are asking me questions about my incident and I recap my story, and maybe I embellish a little. Estavon hears some of it, but misses the story punch-line, so I tell the story again in Kriolu. Now, the story is sufficiently funny in English, but outrageous in Kriolu. At the end of my story Estavon and all the other trainees are laughing uncontrollably, and Estavon tells me, “oh, that’s normal”. This statement throws the already hysterical, into almost violent laughter. If only I could continue to laugh.

During our short stint in Praia I began a rapid decline to what eventually led to a sleepless night and medicine that only alleviated some of my symptoms. The last few days on Santiago were painful and long. Upon my arrival to Boa Vista, I was sure that with me now in complete control of my diet and drinking water that I would recover. Boy was I wrong. Three more weeks of hell and I just couldn’t take the pain, drowsiness, and dehydration anymore. I called our Peace Corps Medical Officer and she says immediately, let’s get you tested. I turn in two samples, one on a Thursday and one on Friday. The weekend is rather rough, the waiting is the worst. On Monday sometime in the afternoon I receive a phone call from Doc, and she says, “Matthew, your results came back positive for Giardia”, what the hell is Giardia? Anywhow, she continues to tell me that the pharmacies here are currently out of the remedy that will get these little monsters out of me, but what’s the difference? I’ve been waiting for 6 weeks, what’s another day or two. So I receive the medicine and now it’s only a matter of time. Who knew that a harmless drink could bring so much pain? Stay tuned… next week I’ll tell you about the dolphin lives I saved!

To: Healthy

From: Recovering