Today´s Presentation

I can´t believe I´m done with one whole week of school!  It has flown by.  And I think it´s working.  We had a presentation today for about 10 minutes, and although the slides were in English, the presenter spoke only in Spanish, and I understood most of it.  And since the purpose of this blog is to share my experiences, I thought I´d communicate the gist of the presentation.  Now, be aware, it was a serious subject, and a little delicate.  You have been warned.

To prepare you for Guatemala, CELAS Maya sends out lots of information before you arrive, and one of the most important pieces of information are the warnings not to eat food from street vendors, to ensure that restaurants had running water before choosing to eat in them, and to always drink purified water, either from bottles or from reputable sources (such as your host family).  Well, today, our presentation was from a local doctor regarding a possible treatment opportunity, should you not have followed these precautions, or should they not have been entirely effective.

Well, it turns out that if you happen to be having this particular problem right now, you are in luck. The University of Texas is currently conducting an experimental medication study for dealing with (un)said problem.  This (reputable, in case you were wondering) doctor´s office will examine you, and if you are a candidate for experimentation (frequency, consistency, color), you will be provided with three days of medication (or placebo, of course) to help with the problem.  Luckily, Xela is one of six places in the world involved in the study, and apparently the foreign students in the language schools provide great raw material for participation.  Now, when I participated in another medical study during my wisdom tooth extraction, they paid me as well, so the deal is not as good as that one, but beggars cannot be choosers!  When life hands you lemons...

Now, it is true that there are a couple of downsides.  You do have to be in-country for at least six days, because you need to be examined again on the sixth day.  There are a few unlikely side effects, such as stomach distention and cramping, but you are probably dealing with those effects anyway.  Perhaps worst of all, you do indeed have to collect your stool at times, but the clinic will pay for the shipment to Texas, so you don´t have to make an extra trip to the post office!

Part of me actually wants to take advantage of this trial; what a story to share later on!  Plus there´s the freedom to know that I can now eat from *any* place in Xela, rather than having to live by all of those pesky rules (once you recover, you are apparently immune).  I don´t know though, not sure I want to have to explain it to Red Cross next time I give blood.  But I´d be helping science... what a pickle!

Well gotta get to my homework now.  Til next time.