Everybody poops

This blog entry is devoted to poop. I'm sorry if you find this gross/disgusting/inappropriate, but to be honest, I'm amazed it has taken 2 years for me to go into more details about the stomach woes of a PCV in Thailand. PCVs are notorious for talking about every and all bodily function that comes our way. Plus, everybody poops, so deal with it.

After just one week with a host family way back in training, I realized my relationship with my stomach was going to reach a whole new level. The literal translation of diarrhea in Thai equals "broken stomach" and when you think about it, that's the perfect description for it. My fellow volunteers and I have shamelessly shared stories of accidentally pooping our pants, having bad aim on the squat toilet and hitting the floor instead, and various hospital visits due to intense "broken stomach." It's a fact of life here due to the crazy spiciness of the food and the lower standards of food preparation, or the complete lack there of. One volunteer and I became "Poop Buddies" during training as the foundation of our friendship was that we often shared encounters with "broken stomach."

So now the end of service is nearing, and PC requires us to all go into Bangkok for a week of a full medical and dental check to clear us of any health issues before returning to the States. Ironically, one of the medical tasks at hand is to provide stool samples for 3 days in a row to check for parasites and other such issues. On the first day, we were all given 3 little containers with our names on them and popscicle sticks. There was a cooler in the PC office and hospital to drop off our samples. Yes, that's right, last week there were 40 Americans carrying their poop around Bangkok.

I'm proud to say I successfully completed the task of pooping in a cup 3 times and now I will just wait and see if any bugs are living in my belly. As I said, pooping is a common topic of conversation amongst the volunteers, but this past week it was taken to a whole new level when "Did you poop yet?" "Did you make it into the cup?" and "Ugh, I'm constipated, why can't I go?" were completely normal ways to start a conversation. Oh Peace Corps. We were all weird before, but now we are even weirder. : )

Please note, the picture above was an extra cup and was never used.

And just remember, everybody poops.