Salud

Or, Rabies and spiders and worms.

“Don’t mess with the water.  Lettuce, cabbage—don’t even think about it.” So said our Canadian nurse, and after 2 hours of some of the most horrendous mental images of throwing up worms and life-long intermittent diarrhea, I was convinced.  Besides the tarantulas that can jump 6 feet, worms and life-long intermittent diarrhea are probably now my biggest fear on this island.  There are no poisonous spiders or snakes, but worms—oh, and rabies.  Rabies is freaking scary.  Worse than malaria, typhoid, and TB. Also, thousands of mosquitoes can explode from a discarded plastic bottle with just a bit of water in it.

If you have more to fear from water than from violence or theft, something is up.

So, after all that, they told us that we’ll probably be fine, just never imbibe the water, and for the love of jebes, sleep with your mosquito net. 

Luckily, my dona blesses me every morning, which is up there with heavy doses of antimalarial drugs and deet in mosquito deterrence.  There may be a saint for diarrhea, I’ll have to ask.

Al fin, here is a random picture of me on a peatonal bridge.