It's all about perspective and crap

First, I'll apologize for my last post. It's not awful, but not particularly exciting either, and definitely not very well written.

Part of the reason for this is, as I had written, work has been crazy and I have about a million things on my plate. Another reason is that I was starting to feel sick.

I've written a bit about health issues here in Tanzania before, and then swore that it would be the last I had to say on the subject. Well, I feel like talking about it again. So for those of you who are too lame or wimpy to continue, skip down towards the end of this post. For anyone up for a good laugh, or 'ew gross', let us continue...

I wrote my last post from the internet cafe at the Mwanza Post Office, and I hadn't even made it from there to the bus stand when I started to feel 'bloated.' Now, there are many reasons someone might feel bloated, and this is certainly not a first for me here. So I just did my best to ignore it on a particularly nasty ride back to my town, then passed out in my bed and got a good 10 hours of sleep.

The next morning, I woke up feeling great. Hooray! I must've just been really tired. OK, so all's clear, I went about my work for the day. Except that, come about 11am, I started bloating up again, with a fever to boot. Now this sort of thing in the States, while it still sucks, would typically prompt regret over a bad burrito or something and be left at that. In Tanzania, fever/bloating/nausea/diarrhea could be symptoms of any of the following:
malaria
typhoid
cholera
amoebic dystentary
bacilic dystentary
giardia
worms
food poisoning

So we PCVs are taught, ala pavlov's dogs [minus the drooling], to hear alarm bells in our heads as a response to any symptoms that are vague and increasingly discomforting, and we start paying extra attention. By paying attention, I mean really 'getting in tune with the inner workings of our body.' Which may mean regular temperature taking, drinking plenty of water, resting, etc. It may also mean an overly critical analysis of our feces.

CRAP.

So yes, I had diarrhea yesterday. Care to know details about consistency, frequency, color, blood, etc? I thought you might say yes!! Not the diarrhea where you're making a dash to the toilet every 2 minutes, but the kind where you hear rumblings and gurglings for a few hours, and then spend 10 unpleasant minutes, as I wrote in my previous entry, 'unloading a heavy parcel.' At least this type gave me enough time to relieve myself in the comfort of my own bathroom.

Now, every Peace Corps Volunteer is given the greatest book every published, our bible, which is called 'Where there is no Doctor.' It is basically a book about every possible health problem someone could have, common symptoms, and whether or not to scream for help. Then we also have a guide to health problems in East Africa, put out by PC. So i flipped through them a bit to see if I had anything to worry about.

I'm making myself feel sick again just writing this. SPEED version to finish up this unpleasant, but quite riveting yes?, story:
-bloating increased
-fever went away
-closest descriptive match for my poop in the book is 'Cholera: watery diarrhea classically described as looking like rice water [water used to clean dirt and gunk off of uncooked rice]'
-description in my words: 'peeing bailey's irish cream out of my butt'
-next morning confusion: chunky, but with blood?!! Could be giardia now...

Anyways, the moral to this story is that today I'm feeling quite a bit better, but still tiptoeing around with the anticipation that all this unpleasantness could return without warning. And hoping that it can all be traced back to some funky french fries I had a few days ago, and not worms or a disease with which my only previous contact has been burying friends and relatives, and writing obscene epitaphs, on a third grade trip down the Oregon Trail...


OTHER NEWS, FOR THOSE WHO SKIPPED THE POOP TALK

Was woken up this morning by a man walking around our neighborhood with a bullhorn. This happens frequently, I'd say at least twice a week. But they're not talking crazy religious stuff here - he was reading out death announcements.

So the title of this entry is 'perspective and crap.' I talked about the 'and crap' already, so now a bit on perspective. I mentioned in my last post that I really enjoyed the movie 'Constant Gardner.' And it's true, I really did. I especially loved the part [and laughed out loud along with Meena] where the young white woman is bombarded with 'How are YOU?' greetings by the little children, because that's really what happens!! But there was one scene that rather shocked me, and I've been thinking about it for the entire week that has passed since I saw it.

The closing scene shows two young boys, running along the side of the road [probably following the car in which the cameraman was located], smiling and giving 'thumbs up'. Albeit, they were wearing pretty ratty clothing, and this was obviously not the nicest neighborhood in Nairobi, in fact it was probably pretty close to the Kibera slum.

Now, i've been here in Africa for almost two years. And the first reaction I had when seeing this shot was, oh look!, these cute little boys are having fun chasing a car!

Then I heard the soundtrack. It was a sad song, one that is supposed to provoke deep reflection and pity.

Then I realized it. For many moviegoers, these young boys live in an absolute hellhole, have ratty clothes, look slightly malnourished, and will probably die of malaria or AIDS or some other disease or hardship of life before they reach 30. It was a completely different perspective from the one that I had.

I've since been asking myself, if i've just become so accustomed and blind to the problems here, and willing to accept these poor young boys as having a good time with the simple pleasures that are available to them, like chasing a fancy car down the street?! Or were the movie directors condescending enough to claim that only rich people can have a fulfilling, happy life?

I don't know. But it's worth thinking about.