Don't drink the water

Guest Blogger:Lucy Mele

When I’m home, I’m not much of a risk taker. I don’t do roller coasters or ski black diamonds. I always wear my seatbelt and I stop at yellow lights. I don’t even put those little red pepper flakes on my pizza (spicy food kind of hurts my mouth a little).

But for some reason, I always gain a renewed sense of invincibility after I leave the boundaries of our half acre plot in the ’burbs to set out on a new adventure. My “travel alter-ego” will often find herself hitchhiking across countries and eating weird things like duck feet and shark blubber. It’s as though I feel compelled – almost obligated – to make new and different decisions when I’m in a new and different place.

There is one risk, however, I’ve always been careful not to take, especially when I’m in a developing country (and by careful, I mean borderline paranoid) and that’s water consumption. No raw veggies, no unpeeled fruit, nothing made or paired with ice. I had the whole routine down to a science. Or so I thought.

I spent a few days in Haiti earlier this month delivering solar-powered flashlights to school kids on the rural island of La Gonave. The island has no electricity, and the students can’t study at night (unless they use a kerosene lamp, which eats up costly fuel and can fill the small, cinderblock huts with greasy black smoke). The trip was through an organization called Haiti Lumiere de Demain (Haiti Light of Tomorrow), which works to create educational opportunities for students in Haiti’s rural areas, as well as build an environmentally sustainable community on La Gonave, where there is currently no waste removal system.

Sci Fi looking giardia

It was a pretty incredible trip – we spent our time talking to people, playing soccer with kids, and getting to know each other over long, plantain-heavy meals at the fabulously decorated home of the equally fabulous Madame Fifi. I got home about a week and a half ago with interesting stories, new friends, and great pictures.

Unfortunately, I also brought home a case of giardia.

Even local tap water can be dangerous

Giardia can be a traveler’s worst nightmare. It’s a microscopic, hard-shelled parasite that lives in the intestine of the person who is infected. Symptoms show up about a week or two after infection, and can be pretty miserable -- cramping, diarrhea, nausea, dehydration, the whole bit.

Aboriginal guts have built a tolerance for local water

Which leads me to where I am now: writing this blog from my couch while sipping Gatorade, watching Saved by the Bell reruns, and wondering how the hell I, queen of Purell, could have possibly picked up the parasite.

I cracked open my copy of “Born to Explore” for answers. According to Richard, giardia can be caused by a number of things, including consuming, swimming in, or accidentally ingesting contaminated water from tainted lakes or ponds, eating infected food, or touching your mouth with contaminated hands.

I still have no idea how I got sick, and, in retrospect, I could have contracted this thing any one of those ways. No matter how crazy I was about keeping clean and avoiding bacteria, there are certain things you have to do, like bathe and eat, to avoid getting sick in other ways.

Author

I guess the lesson here is that parasites can be sneaky, and you can never be too careful about what you consume. Take the advice in “Born to Explore” – “boil it, cook it, peel it, or forget it.”
Trust me, you don’t want to learn the hard way.