The Ailing Digestive Track

Disclaimer: Don’t think, even for a second, that this post is about anything other than what the title suggests. I feel it’s important to give you as complete a picture of life as an overseas volunteer as possible. Skip this post if you are afraid of that.

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Have you ever been around a child who is being potty trained? Perhaps a younger sibling or young cousin. He [I started writing this with “he/she” and it just got annoying… so I have chosen to just go with “he”] gets up off his little Fischer Price mini-toilet and insist that absolutely everyone in the house comes and admires the beautiful little present he has deposited. He is so proud, like a conquering hero. I don’t know whether he is proud of the fact that he did not miss despite the fact that it would be much bigger accomplishment to miss if you are firmly planted on that little Fischer Price toilet, or maybe he is proud of the size [I did go with “he” after all]. Whatever it is, he feels triumphant in the way we students only feel after acing an exam [especially if we initially thought we failed].

Traveling in [Warning: cumbersome yet, in my opinion, more politically correct term ahead] less-economically-developed nations, particularly those closer to the equator… well your stomach won’t love you for it. Nor your bowels. Diarrhea is just a fact of life as an overseas volunteer. But on those infrequent occasions when things are solid… you feel like that little kid and his Fischer Price toilet. Thank your lucky stars that I have drawn the line this side of pulling out my camera.