African Diet - 3/20

Well, despite avoiding whatever kept hitting my team in Yemen, I think the bug finally caught up to me. Had a long night, and tore muscles in my back vomiting after a rough bout of food poisoning. Not fun at all. Nothing makes me feel more like a mama’s boy either. Just wanted to go home and lie down on the cool tiles and not have to worry about bugs crawling on me! I got up the next morning to find one of my other teammates was hit by it as well. The one who is up-country and eats out on the streets. So, while our team went out to gather data, we spent the day crashed in bed, a bit oblivious to the fact that we were cooking in the room. I’m not sure when my fever broke, but my stomach was barely ready for the hour long trip to Ganta that afternoon. Both Sean and I made it, had some crackers and sodas at dinner, and I crashed yet again, sleeping well, unfortunately, he was sick again that night. I guess the only positive thing of the experience is that it allowed me to cut back on some of the impact of the buffets I’d eaten my first few days in Monrovia. Driving to Ganta, I couldn’t help but wonder again why Africans don’t walk in the bush instead of on the dirt roads where they are covered by a film of dust. I would be so frustrated by the cars that left me choking in their clouds of dust as they drove by if I were coming back from the farm-especially if I had a big bundle of firewood or crops I was bringing in to market. It would only take a day or two to carve a path just off the road but protected by rows of trees and brush. Maybe one day there will be an uprising of dusty people against motorists…