Well, surprise surprise, my culinary hubris has caught up to me. I knew this was gonna happen.....in fact, I kinda expected something to happen from this particular meal.
There's this little sandwich stand near the hostel where I used to stay. There's a guy there who serves little sandwiches filled with either sausage (sogo') or liver (kebde), and I cleverly named him "the kebde guy". There's always a crowd of guys around his stand sampling his wares, and the smells that come from his cart are generally downright divine. Multiple people in Cairo have even referenced this very kebde guy as a source of very, very tasty treats.
They've also uniformly cautioned me that the food there, although delicious, is also highly "suspect" and that if I were ever to try it, to work out my immune system at other local places first, and even then, give myself at least two days after the meal to fully enjoy the "experience".
They were pretty much right on all counts. Twitchy has fallen, hard. Started feeling ill at work this morning (meal was last night around midnight), and slunk outta the office around 3pm when I really thought I was going to legitimately pass out (and then do unspeakable things while passed out). I feel like Icarus' lesser-known little brother Dwayne, who, after watching his big brother's escapades, went out and did the same freakin thing.
Luckily, like in many developing/non-western countries, pharmacies dole out every medicine possible with zippy prescription. All you have to do is describe the symptoms to the pharmacist (who generally speaks a workable degree of English) and you're set. In my case, this involved pointing at my stomach and colon, emphatically huffing "moshkela" (problem), and then using my hands to make spraying motions from my orifii. In addition, drugs in Egypt are subsidized by the government, so they're super cheap too. After getting advice from coworkers and browsing a few pharmacies, I have this little cocktail of various "intestinal antiseptics," "anti-intestinal amoebiasis," and "anti-protozoal" medications of almost-recognizable chemical compounds, including some promising quinones and nifuroxazides. Cost me about $3 USD.
I'm fine by most accounts, so no need to worry about me posting even less often than usual. In fact, after a few hours of shivering and sweating in bed, posting this is about as active as I'm going to get. So you have Egyptian parasites to thank for this recent update!
And to flush out all the mental images you may have right now of tapeworm thrash-metal bands and amoeboid mosh-pits, here are some super tender kittens that live in a nearby alley.
2 comments:
Are you totally OK? Sometimes parasites stay in our body longer than we think. Be sure that you follow the instructions and take them as long as you need.
based on the gereral appearance that Egyptions are healthy looking than Ethiopians, their cocktail must be effective.
Post a Comment