Drinking the Water with Low Caste Bananas

When you first come to any developing nation, usually you are bombarded with warnings. DON'T DRINK THE WATER! Of course, Micronesia is no exception to this. Part of our medical training showed us no less than 4 ways to safely treat drinking water before consuming. Then we learned about all the parasites and other diseases that can happen to us if we fail to do as we're told. One in particular included pictures of the worms that you would actually puke up after they grow in your intestine for weeks... or months.. EEEK! Of course, I was really good about this, boiling my water, drinking the water Peace Corps provided for us during training, and avoiding water from the tap and rainwater. And...unlike others in my original training group... who drank lots of Sakau made with untreated water... I didn't get sick in Pohnpei.

Then training ended, and I'm on my own in my village. Well, luckily my host mom normally boils drinking water and puts it in our freezer, so i thought I was doing pretty good. Of course, then I have to go to a party with huge things of ice water and koolaid (think it's boiled?) probably not. And then there are the times I go to neighbors and they make me a big glass of water or tea mix or koolaid.... not boiled either. But it's rude to refuse, so I drink it happily...if not cautiously. I still felt pretty good about not drinking too much untreated water... and most days my tummy seems pretty happy.

Now, I should have been suspect at the fact that my school has one of those great water cooler/heaters... with the big 5 gallon water drums. Wow, fresh water... of all the things the school lacks... like when we sometimes run out of printing paper... we always seem to have those big water containers. Awesome! So I make sure every day to fill my water bottle before going home, just incase we're out of boiled water, and I drink lots at school. I don't want to be dehydrated now do I?

Well... funny thing happened the other day... I'm sitting outside on a break between classes and I see one of the teacher with the empty water drum...... and what does he do? Goes straight to the tap outside, fills it, and puts it back on the water dispenser. Hmmrph? So, you mean all this time I've been drinking untreated water? YUP... looks like it.

Luckily, I don't yet seem to be vomiting worms, which is always a plus. So, I guess I have a pretty tough tummy after all.

On a different note: I ate a fantastic banana today... It was red on the outside, shaped kinda like a mango, and neon yellow and squishy on the inside. And now my pee is also neon Yellow. Fantastic! Lots of Vitamin A! Yummy Yummy.

I heart Neon Yellow (Low Caste) Bananas! p.s. They're low caste because they grow up, not down like most others.... so only the low caste look up, and refuse to look down... or something like that. Low Caste Bananas Rock!