On late Tuesday / early Wednesday, I began to feel less than sterling. In fact, I was unable to work at all on Wednesday. By late evening Wednesday, I started to turn the corner finally and fortunately made it into the office Thursday and Friday.
The cause of the malady? Unknown. Could have been something I ate. Could have been something I drank. Could have been something I transferred from my fingers to my mouth. We had read in our pre-assignment that Ghanaian currency carries a lot of nasty germs. If you're more academically inclined, here is a paper on the subject of bacterial contamination of Ghana currency notes. So, licking your fingers to help turn the page of a book or biting your nails is to be avoided.
Montezuma's Revenge is no fun at all. While our Ghanaian physician didn't call it that, he did share with us how to treat it. So I took my Azithromycin from home and also visited a local pharmacy across from our office to stock up on ORS, which I hadn't heard of before, and the local equivalent of Immodium. On a whim, I also asked for Cipro, which the doctor had mentioned and some had used to combat similar symptoms. All of this medicine for 26 Ghana Cedis, the equivalent of approximately $16 US, no prescription required!
Experiencing Ghana the hard way with #IBMCSC #Ghana-VII.
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