So, for lunch last Tuesday I went down to the street to a food vendor lady and ate a bowl of kay kay (kind of like couscous made from manioc) and all was well for a couple hours. Then I started to get a stomachache, and felt pretty bad that night, and felt even worse the next day. It wasn't as bad as whatever I had a few weeks ago, but it was exhausting and unpleasant nonetheless, and I wasn't able to get much work done.
As luck would have it, there wasn't much work to do, as most of the office is either out in the field or off on vacation, and I was able to spend most of the rest of the week lying down and sipping ORS and reading over things.
ORS (also known as ORT, Oral Rehydration Therapy) replaces the electrolytes that you lose when you can't keep anything in your stomach for very long. This helps your body to actually absorb water so you don't get dangerously (or just uncomfortably) dehydrated over the course of an illness. It is quite literally a lifesaver for little kids and babies and other people who are particularly vulnerable to diarrheal diseases. People can be trained to make ORS themselves (since it's pretty much just salt and sugar) and health-focused NGOs like PSI market affordable, appealingly packaged ORS here in Guinea and work to spread the message that treating diarrhea is quite do-able and can prevent a minor case of "running stomach" from progressing to something more lethal.
Happily, when Peace Corps gave me my med kit it was stocked with a generous supply of ORS. Even so, I'm not going to take any chances with street food for awhile. I have my kitchen all set up now (I even started to decorate the walls!) and, having finally read In Defense of Food* over the weekend, am determined to use it.
*I liked In Defense of Food. Though nothing in it was particularly surprising - most Americans have an extremely unfortunate relationship with eating, highly processed foods are terrible for everything, industrial agriculture and meat production are upsetting - the stuff Pollan writes about was good for me to think about. His suggestions for eating inspired me to resolve to trek over to the market at least a couple times a week to get fresh vegetables, and also left me slightly dismayed at how impossible some of his recommendations - Don't eat alone, Enjoy a glass of wine with dinner, Eat whole grains, Buy a freezer - are for me here. On a related note I really, really liked Pollan's recent piece in the New York Times Magazine, all about our microbiomes and why the bacteria in our gut is important.
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| Salt + Sugar + Potassium = Magic |
ORS (also known as ORT, Oral Rehydration Therapy) replaces the electrolytes that you lose when you can't keep anything in your stomach for very long. This helps your body to actually absorb water so you don't get dangerously (or just uncomfortably) dehydrated over the course of an illness. It is quite literally a lifesaver for little kids and babies and other people who are particularly vulnerable to diarrheal diseases. People can be trained to make ORS themselves (since it's pretty much just salt and sugar) and health-focused NGOs like PSI market affordable, appealingly packaged ORS here in Guinea and work to spread the message that treating diarrhea is quite do-able and can prevent a minor case of "running stomach" from progressing to something more lethal.
Happily, when Peace Corps gave me my med kit it was stocked with a generous supply of ORS. Even so, I'm not going to take any chances with street food for awhile. I have my kitchen all set up now (I even started to decorate the walls!) and, having finally read In Defense of Food* over the weekend, am determined to use it.
*I liked In Defense of Food. Though nothing in it was particularly surprising - most Americans have an extremely unfortunate relationship with eating, highly processed foods are terrible for everything, industrial agriculture and meat production are upsetting - the stuff Pollan writes about was good for me to think about. His suggestions for eating inspired me to resolve to trek over to the market at least a couple times a week to get fresh vegetables, and also left me slightly dismayed at how impossible some of his recommendations - Don't eat alone, Enjoy a glass of wine with dinner, Eat whole grains, Buy a freezer - are for me here. On a related note I really, really liked Pollan's recent piece in the New York Times Magazine, all about our microbiomes and why the bacteria in our gut is important.
