Parasites

Just a quick update.  I'm in Natitingou right now, on my way back to post from Cotonou.  I've been stomach sick for a while and I got some sort of cold/virus on top of that and basically didn't leave my concession for the first part of this week, so I called the doctors and they said to come to Cotonou.  The Peace Corps medical office is in the Bureau in Cotonou (Peace Corps Benin headquarters), so if you're sick you have to trek down to Cotonou.  Recap of my trip down:  because of where my village is located, getting to Cotonou is a two day trip.  Thursday I went to Parakou, spent the night there, then took a bus to Cotonou Friday morning.  It's supposed to take about 3 hours to get to Parakou from Pehunco.  It took me 7, and three different taxis.  It may sound like I'm just complaining, but really I'm simply providing some insight into the joys of transportation in Benin.  So, got to Parakou finally around 9 at night, left the workstation there around 6 am Friday to catch a bus to Cotonou which arrived late in the afternoon.  To sum it up, I will try my best to never ever be sick again.  Benin is a small country, but Cotonou is far away from Tonri.  Case closed.

 It ended up that I had giardia, a parasite, which was oddly sort of validating because it meant that it was actually worth getting myself all the way down to Cotonou.  They gave me some drugs and hopefully that will be the end of it.  I did get to sleep in air conditioning, take hot showers, and eat non Beninese food, so it wasn't all bad.  You can get parasites from food, water, basically anything so I have no idea how I got sick, I'm just glad it wasn't malaria (a few volunteers in the med unit when I was down there had malaria).  Maybe I shouldn't be brushing my teeth with well water?  I'm heading back to post tomorrow morning - if all goes well it should only be about 3 hours in a taxi from Nati to Pehunco.  It turned out that I was heading back to post when the Peace Corps shuttle (Land Cruiser that goes around the country twice a month to deliver packages and stuff to the workstations) was driving up to Nati, so I got to take the shuttle up.  Awesome.  Again, air conditioning, my own seat (!!!..this does NOT happen in taxis), calm.

Otherwise things are going pretty well.  I'm looking forward to having more energy and not wanting to die after every meal, plus the elementary school in my village should be starting classes soon.  Hopefully I'll be able to do some work (tree planting, env club, etc) with the kids there.  We're in the petit chaleur (literally little heatwave) now so it's been pretty warm, but Harmattan (cool, windy season) starts soon which is pretty exciting.  Halloween and Thanksgiving are coming up too!  Hope you're all doing well.