Nobody said anything to me about de-worming

June 12, 2007
Kumasi

Apparently it’s common practice. Locals take a tablet every two or three months to flush the system... just in case. You never know where you might pick up Trichurus trichiura, or pinworm, to name just one of the nasties that may have taken up residence in my gastro-intestinal tract.

I seem to be writing about activities inside my guts a lot these days… I’d promise to stop, but I can’t be sure. I don’t know what to expect. Nobody said anything about the need to de-worm now and then.

Pinworms, roundworms, tapeworms, these are not in the guidebook. The travel doctor didn’t mention them. I don’t even know if worms are what I’ve got, or if the two pills I swallowed this morning will do the trick. The War of the Rhea has been on decline, but you never know when or where conflict may flare up. Periods of non-combat might just be appaisement, as Madame Csorba would say. It’s like the Cold War of the Rhea now… rumblings deep behind boundaries, uneasy tension, occasional explosions…

No war lasts forever though, and in the end we’ll win. We’ve got tactical advantage in almost every way: superior intelligence, medical technology, and we even outnumber them, if you count our elite White Cell Warriors. The enemy may have position, but this war is ours to win.

Justice is on our side; after all, they invaded us. I may carry a few prisoners back to Canada with me in three months (THREE MONTHS!!!) but we’ll just torture the shit out of them (pun) with clean food and water until they submit. Then we’ll extradite them, back to the liquid underworld. Sure, different continent, but they won’t know that.

I wonder… is this how epidemics start? Some dumbass traveler comes home full of parasites, dumps them in the wrong place and starts a plague? Best not find out, and go get some more deworming pills. (G)