Head Back Out Of The Clouds

amazing rickshaw art, very current of the times.....

Monday, July 17, 2006 head back out of the clouds Well, at the end of the day this is still Bangladesh, and the internet, phone, electricity, and other essentials will work when they decide to. I was out with a viral sinus infection, for which there is hardly any medicine, for five days. I didn't want to see daylight much so looking at the glow of the computer screen didn't sound too exciting either When your head is so blocked up with mucus that you can feel your jaw tighten, and your eye balls feel like they are under a car compressor, you just don't feel like doing anything. So, that's what I did last week. Just about nothing. This is the start of the monsoon season. It is not so sunny, and not so piping hot, but it rains for long periods of time at Mother Nature's will. So far, and it is just the beginning, this rainy season is not a bad as others I have spent especially in the mountain area. It really rains up there. It rained for a few days, and since then it has been minimal. If there's no rain, then it gets really hot again, near 100 degrees farenheight. There are little health superstitions here in Bengali culture. For example, if a drop of rain hits your head you will be sick, most likely a fever, the next day. I really want to prove that theory wrong, but it did happen that way. I got some rain on my head, and then the next day I was really sick with a little fever and mega sinus blockage and sinus headache. I had to get myslef to the pharmacy to get some sort of sinus decongestant. If there is one thing I've learned in this part of the world is that if you have to purchase allopathic medicine, check the dosage because they give these enormous dosages here. For example, a girl in the group gave me a couple of dosages of some Sudafed-like nasal decongestant. Each pill is 30mg dosage, taking two for a total of 60mg every 3-4 hours. After getting to the pharmacy, and adventure in itself, and being beseiged by beggars as soon as I got out of the bicycle rickshaw, it took ten minutes of making the pharmacy guys search for the proper medicine ingredient. Over here, they love to give you something with like 500mg of paracetemol. That and a beer and you are good to go! At last we find the medicine, I buy it and head home with some puffed rice (mori) and super ripe mangos to snack on. I was just about to pop the pill in my mouth with I looked and saw that it was a mere 290mg dosage! Enough for two days! So I busted out the leatherman, and started sawing at this pill. Well, with my body weight half the pill might do it. A few days of pill eating, menthol steam-inhaling, and feverish neti nose washing, it's a week later I am fully back to normal. I came downstairs for breakfast two days back and wanted some food that wouldn't make mucus. I had words of my Oriental Medicine doctor friend Krishna running in my head. There was white bread, peanut butter, milk, butter, and banannas. No luck for me. So it's any wonder why I got sick how I did. I have probably been eating at least three eggs everyday since I go here. I was simply asking for it. Well, that is my way of course. I always make things harder than they need to be. I think most of my friends know that! So I have lots that I want to post, but will do it in little snippits from events over the last ten days. Keep looking and more very soon----> Four Winds Yoli aka Kurukulla aka France