burp, squirt and gurgle

...aka dysentery. yup...after nearly 11 months living here, i finally got it. i thought my body was building up immunity and i was even thinking of considering maybe possibly brushing my teeth with the tap water, but noooooooo, not now. how have i gone from baby elephants to this? last week i stayed at a rustic camp, went canyoning in waterfalls and rafting down a river. any one of these could have contributed to my current state of affairs. hmmm...after a few episodes this weekend, i thought i was doing better this morning so went to work. big mistake. i'm on the third floor and the staff bathroom is across campus on the ground level. the cramps come outta no where and then it becomes a race to the lou. running down the steps did not help! ee-gads. and the noises my belly has been making? OMG...some i think whales could understand! i told my fabulous t.a., sheela, that i was having troubles and she didn't bat an eye. she told me to go whenever i needed; she was there. culture here is so different regarding it. because it's so common, it's just part of people's every day vernacular. 'soooo, how's your diarhea? what color is it? does it smell? what have you eaten? are you crampy? etc.' ...and evvvery nepali person has advice. 'eat rice...eat bread...don't eat...take this herb...have this (while shoving something completely unrecognizable in your face).  christy told her work people about it after i called to tell her that i was going to the clinic and they even asked her a bunch of questions! lol! i don't think i'd ever had such a conversation with anyone in my life...but here, it's like talking about the weather. fortunately i had only the first 2 blocks today (out of 4) and was free before lunch for the rest of the afternoon. i told our principle that i was having stomach issues and he said he was too and that his wife (our 4th grade teacher) was home today because of it. ugh. i set off out of the school in search of a taxi. the walk down the hill to the main road was scary and the 20 minute cab ride, tricky. i finally made it to the best clinic here, known as ciwec, where there are western doctors and nice facilities (i would not go to a nepali hospital...ever.). at ciwec there's even a doctor from chelsea, michigan! what a small world sometimes. but anyways, he was the doctor who, after inspecting my 'stool' sample (and i use the word stool very loosely...pun intended), told me that i had the worst case of dysentery he had ever seen. nice. sooooo, meds for 3 days for me. he said they wouldn't make much difference until 48 hours later, however, so i'm really leery to go to school tomorrow. just thinking about the bumpy bus ride gives me chills. i think the russian revolution can be independently studied tomorrow! ugh... the only good thing about this is it's a quick 'reduction' before coming home for the holidays where i plan to totally pig out! more later, love j