sickie

Two years! I lived for two years in Rwanda and a summer in Tanzania and I never got sick. Okay, not true. I had a cold that turned into a sinus infection. And strep throat. But that's not SICK, that's just a sinus infection. And strep throat. I get those all the time. But I never got sick from the food or the water or the bugs. No amoebas, no worms, no malaria. And I wasn't being careful. I ate the salads, even at sketchy restaurants. I ate cut-up fruit. I drank juice made with who-knows-what water. I once swigged from a water bottle before noticing that it tasted strange and looking down to see that it had green stuff growing in it. I let my guards use their machetes to cut me some sugar cane. I didn't use a mosquito net. I didn't take anti-malarials. I swam in lakes. I rafted in rivers. I walked around barefoot. I was as uncautious as I could practically be. I mean, I didn't lick the ground or anything. But I ignored all the standard precautions and I never got sick. I didn't throw up once.

In fact, I have a pretty tough stomach. A stomach of steel, said the interns last summer. I don't throw up very often. Or ever, really, unless I take tylenol or ibuprofen on an empty stomach. The last time I threw up other than from pain relievers on an empty stomach (tylenol with a sip of coke, anyone?) was when I last had malaria in Liberia in, I don't know, 1989?

Until yesterday. Oh, yesterday. I'm choosing to blame the milk, which I think was bad (I threw it away today), and which I had for breakfast and lunch yesterday. But regardless, I spent my corporations class sitting there trying not to hurl and the rest of the afternoon curled up in bed trying not to hurl and eventually couldn't not hurl anymore so... well, you know.

Today I ate a bit. Mostly white foods (cornflakes were the most colorful). They stayed down. And tonight I was excited when a handful of caramel pirate's booty tasted good. Until it got to my stomach, when it didn't so much feel good anymore.

What use to me are all those months and years in Africa trying to build up my stomach's ability to withstand anything I put in it, any varmits I send its way, if it is going to fail me for NO REASON AT ALL? IN THE U.S. That's what gets to me. It's like passing drivers training only to forget how to shift as soon as you leave the parking lot with the license. Not ironic, but maddening. MADDENING.