Monday 25 July 2011

I've just eaten my first piece of chocolate.....


since I got back from Egypt...!
 
For those of you unfamiliar with traveling to Egypt getting the run's or the trot's if you prefer is an occupational hazard!! Sorry if I've offended my American friends with my bluntness!! 

Most of those who I met out there have returned home still suffering with rumbling guts having eaten something that's been washed in foul water. Why is the water foul? 
 Well that probably has something to do with the amount of refuse dumped (scuse the pun) on the side of their waterways, all except the River Nile where there wasn't one sign of a single piece of litter. I wonder why that was?!!
 
The consequences of eating one piece of fruit or lettuce that has been washed in something hazardous is something similar to gastroenteritis. Fasting prevails and so therefore I haven't eaten a proper meal for a whole week. 

Seven days is a very long time to go without a piece of chocolate in my book. Worse than this they didn't have consumable chocolate there either so it's been a 3 weeks!!! 

I believe this is a certain punishment for having enjoyed the beauty of The Nile from a very decadent place. 
What makes it worse the locals where living like this:
in mud huts, catching fish with spears and riding donkeys   
but they do have satellite dishes and mobile phones! They also have some great ways of moooving their cattle around the place!  
 And seeing them ploughing the field was like stepping back in time. Their cattle don't stand in the field they stand in The Nile to keep cool after a hard days work pulling a hand driven plough.

The whole experience certainly made me feel a tad guilty. I can only console myself that at least we had the guts to go there and spend our money, which is desperately needed in the current Egyptian economic and political climate. 

There are usually 600 river ship's cruising up and down The Nile and there were only 15 last week. Of course I'm so relieved that we didn't get lots of other ships on the river.

I'm sure I will manage to get over my food poisoning with the help of Arsen Alb 30c and Dioralyte! (both from the chemist) After just 2 Imodium I was sick.

I mean how do the Egyptians cope?! When I feel bad I just think about them and their 40C heat....! Lucky them. 

Have you ever had food poisoning? How long did it last and how did you cure it?