Ah, Antibiotics!

I do think my bronchitis/swine flu/avian flu/asthma/tuberculosis/little-Peggy-Ann-McKay-disease is FINALLY about gone.  In the meantime Nepal has invented some news (though not too much; they’re still working on the whole rebuilding the government thing) and I’ve considered posting some pictures (though I haven’t taken any new ones, because the camera was missing until an hour ago.)

Coincidentally, I just took my last antibiotic in the latest series.  I do think I’ve taken more medicine, and spent more time sick, in the past 6 months than I had in the previous 6 years.

Part of the problem has to be the simple change in environment.  After all, in 2005 I went to Morocco for 2 days… and was sick for 5 weeks.  (It was still worth it!  If you ever get a chance, go!)  But I didn’t get sick from living for six weeks in Mexico, and I was remarkably healthy for the first 6 months while we were here.

In large part I blame the dry season.  The air even *feels* cleaner during the monsoon.  We’re creeping closer to it–in the past month it has rained multiple times.  Contrast that with the previous months:  it rained THREE TIMES between October and April.  Now, I’ve been told that this year was especially dry; the Kathmandu valley was really suffering a drought, and a few months ago I started hearing rumbles about water shortages and emergency measures to conserve water.

Um, do you see the blank page at the top of the picture? Yeah, you're supposed to see hills there, if not Himalayas...

In the past few weeks, on multiple days, the skies have opened up and poured buckets of water on us.

The first time it happened, back in late April, I ran through the house, peering out every window to get a different view, clapping my hands and chanting in a child’s sing-song, “It’s raining!  It’s pouring!  It’s raining!  It’s pouring!”

(That was back when running up and down the stairs didn’t send me into violent fits of coughing…)

So I have high hopes for the rain to clean out the air and wash icky pathogens down the rivers to India.  (Sorry, India!)  And the Indian Ocean.  (Sorry, Australia!)  At least there they won’t be as concentrated.

In official news about diseases, apparently Kathmandu has had its first case of the dreaded H1N1/swine flu.  But it’s only “apparently,” because the case is in a woman who crossed the border into Chinese-controlled Tibet and got diagnosed there.  Previously she’d spent a few days in a hostel in Kathmandu.

I think I may start wearing a face mask.  Or–heck–just never step outside again.

Except–unfortunately–it is awfully pretty…

Panoramas are our friends. Particulates are not.

Nepali of the Day:

ghar:  house

gharbhitra:  in the house

gharbahira:  outside the house

shahar:  city

ghumnu:  wander around

sutnu:  sleep