Traveler's Diarrhea is No Joke

Water, water, everywhere. Even where it shouldn't be. It's in the Waterfront and the Atlantic Ocean, the sudden rain and rolling clouds over Table Mountain, the guy peeing on the street outside our window, and thank goodness for indoor plumbing... because, yikes...

I'll try not to be graphic, I promise. But oofta, it is no fun. It's also confusing, no matter how common it is or how many pamphlets your travel nurse gives you.

This week, on Monday, we went to Franschoek and went on a wine tour through a bunch of different wineries. Afterwards, we "spontaneously" stayed the night at a hotel so we could explore the town more (let's be honest, we planned it 5 MINUTES before we left Cape Town). After too much wine, a delicious fresh salad, and an amazing pizza we were feeling pretty great. The next day, Tuesday, we went for a walk around town to visit all the different art galleries. We then returned to Cape Town and went boxing to redeem ourselves with our coach (did you hear the story of how I passed out last time? Check out our video here). On Wednesday night, Ashley and I had dinner at a friend's house, and then... Everything blew out of me like the noon cannon, except it was midnight and it kept coming like a helicopter trying to put out a forest fire. (Sorry, I couldn't help it)

We knew this was a possibility (and probably an eventuality). We were trying to be careful with any water; making sure we didn't drink it while in the shower, brushing our teeth, or with ice at a restaurant. Maybe it was the salad, maybe it was the wine, or maybe it was the meat during dinner. We really don't know. Ashley started feeling sick herself on Thursday, so we knew whatever it was, we shared. You could tell because we both wanted to lie on the floor or couch with our feet up; and we couldn't tell if we were hot or cold so we turned the air conditioning on while we drank tea and wrapped ourselves in warm blankets and sweaters.

I had some really rough nights. We spent the days watching movies and television.

By Friday, I became best friends with Imodium. My new friend helped stop the digesting, and therefore, all the toilet bowl depth charges. Our travel nurse also gave us Azithromycin to help defeat whatever bacteria, but it didn't work right away. Right after I took it, things actually got worse. It made us think that maybe it wasn't a food or water bug... Maybe it was COVID.

The chances for that were pretty low (we're vaccinated and always wearing masks) but the aches, pains, chills, and headaches were getting worse. Ashley even started to have chest pain. We called a doctor, but they said they can't give us a COVID test until we have symptoms for 5 days. Additionally, it's not free or cheap to get a COVID test here. He was also a total butt-munch over the phone and kept saying things like, "So, who pays for COVID tests in America? Do you? What symptoms do you have, again? Where are you located, again?" Dude. We just told you. Also, I don't want to talk about insurance or government right now–my brains are in the toilet.

Fortunately, I started to feel better by day 3 (Saturday), so we didn't end up taking a test, but it was frustrating and scary.

The whole experience made me feel really homesick. I didn't want to be in another country listening to club music from across the street every night while trying to hold back the big brown floodgates, I wanted to be home with my fish and call my mom to come bring me soup and applesauce (even though we had lots of love from our SA mom, Nic). I didn't want to watch movies and television all day, I wanted to be healthy and adventuring. At first, I felt guilty about missing my home when I was in a beautiful country like South Africa, but a few days confined to the couch with hardly the strength to suck down a sip of water, I figured it was okay to feel literally anything.

We are grateful for healthy and clean drinking water, and we are happy to get back to adventuring this week. We love to learn and are happy to experience lots of things... but hopefully we've learned the heck out of this "lesson" and we won't have to do it again. Our plumbing can't take it.

The Zeeps