"It doesn't matter, it's all gonna' come out anyway!" was Emily's response to me warning her not to eat pani pourri from the street cart she was eyeing.
For the first time in our travels, we are both sick. Not terribly, not violently - but enough that we both were exhausted all weekend. Emily started first during the week when she had a lot of trips to the bathroom. Now she's past bathroom duty while I'm - I think - at the end of it. There's some tiredness, mild discomfort and for Emily - some serious sneezing.
Given where we've been and how long we've traveled, it's impressive that this is the first time and that it's been so mild. We have still gone out and done what we wanted this weekend. We just haven't been so ambitious.
In my expert diagnosis, we picked up some kind of mild flu or bug. Highly clinical conclusion, I know. But it hasn't been as harsh as food poisoning and has seemed to go from one of us to the other - as communicable diseases do.
One of the main reasons we've done so well until now is that we're careful about where we eat. Things have to look clean and a restaurant has to look like they're making and serving food regularly. Being the only customer makes you much more likely to get sick with pans and food sitting back in the kitchen, possibly unclean, aging and fermenting.
I'd like to think we also have strong stomachs - tempered by past experiences of third world living. I have frequently boasted about the time in Nepal when some bad street side samosas bought and eaten in a somewhat desperate situation, got my two friends I was traveling with sick - and not me. I was living in Thailand at the time and had an iron stomach. I took care of my friends from Seattle who were doubled over the toilet the next two days.
Emily too has a good stomach. While I have done everything in my power to prevent her from eating street food in Nepal and India, I couldn't stop her from eating dried, roasted corn and bean snacks from the street stands in Nepal.
And this is where we begin our story.
It was two months ago on our way to Nagarkot to spend our last Nepal weekend at a beautiful mountain resort overlooking the Himalayas. We had a lot of work to get done before leaving Kathmandu that Friday afternoon and we were so focused that neither of us had lunch.
Emily doesn't do well without lunch. Once we were in the car, on the way - hunger caught up to her.
Now, I can just decide that I'm hungry, but I'll wait until a convenient time or the next meal. Not Emily.
So it was that Emily decided she needed roasted corn snacks from a side-of-the-road stand. She told our driver and he became her accomplice in finding illicit street snacks.
When Emily is bent on a choice I find questionable, but am powerless to stop, my final card is to jokingly play at her conscience.
"How would you feel if Bailey (our four year-old niece) and Sweet Girl (nickname for our one year-old niece) knew you did this? Would you want to set this example? Would you want them to do this?"
I received a look that said, "Up yours, Pal!" And I knew it was over.
Eventually, after we left Kathmandu and had already driven through most of neighboring Bhaktapur, we sighted a small makai (corn) stand. It was the most questionable of questionable, but in her makai lust there was no stopping my wife.
She left the car, made her purchase and came back with several bags worth of makai and chana (chick peas). Then she partook of large quantities of the forbidden fruit.
It's important to know that in Nepal, where people eat with their hands - the right hand is for eating meals and the left hand is for wiping your butt. As a result, people often do not touch or conduct transactions with their left hands.
However, eating is only defined as "eating rice" which can be broadly construed as eating meals. The left hand can be used when eating snacks, including taking from a common bowl of things like - makai and channa.
When the next morning Emily was violently erupting in the bathroom, it was all too clear she had been "left-handed". Besides clearing out all there was in her, she became lightheaded and weak. She couldn't keep down fluids most of the day.
A young American doctor from Kathmandu's premier expat clinic happened to be staying the weekend and I went to ask his advice. Since no one seemed to have any Givenjal - the local brand of electrolyte drink mix - he had me pour salt into Sprite which he said was a good substitute. Emily was able to keep it down and started to feel better.
"What happened to me?" she asked - already knowing the answer.
"It was the makai man. He used his left hand."
"It was totally the makai man....oh, the makai...." she said.
"When we get home, one day when the time is right, I'll tell Bailey and Sweet Girl all about what happened when Aunt Emmy didn't listen and ate bad food. The story will end, 'And that, Sweet Girl, is why we don't put poopie in our mouth....'"
Needless to say, Emily recovered the next day - as we both are recovering from a far lesser sickness now.
For the first time in our travels, we are both sick. Not terribly, not violently - but enough that we both were exhausted all weekend. Emily started first during the week when she had a lot of trips to the bathroom. Now she's past bathroom duty while I'm - I think - at the end of it. There's some tiredness, mild discomfort and for Emily - some serious sneezing.
Given where we've been and how long we've traveled, it's impressive that this is the first time and that it's been so mild. We have still gone out and done what we wanted this weekend. We just haven't been so ambitious.
In my expert diagnosis, we picked up some kind of mild flu or bug. Highly clinical conclusion, I know. But it hasn't been as harsh as food poisoning and has seemed to go from one of us to the other - as communicable diseases do.
One of the main reasons we've done so well until now is that we're careful about where we eat. Things have to look clean and a restaurant has to look like they're making and serving food regularly. Being the only customer makes you much more likely to get sick with pans and food sitting back in the kitchen, possibly unclean, aging and fermenting.
I'd like to think we also have strong stomachs - tempered by past experiences of third world living. I have frequently boasted about the time in Nepal when some bad street side samosas bought and eaten in a somewhat desperate situation, got my two friends I was traveling with sick - and not me. I was living in Thailand at the time and had an iron stomach. I took care of my friends from Seattle who were doubled over the toilet the next two days.
Emily too has a good stomach. While I have done everything in my power to prevent her from eating street food in Nepal and India, I couldn't stop her from eating dried, roasted corn and bean snacks from the street stands in Nepal.
And this is where we begin our story.
It was two months ago on our way to Nagarkot to spend our last Nepal weekend at a beautiful mountain resort overlooking the Himalayas. We had a lot of work to get done before leaving Kathmandu that Friday afternoon and we were so focused that neither of us had lunch.
Emily doesn't do well without lunch. Once we were in the car, on the way - hunger caught up to her.
Now, I can just decide that I'm hungry, but I'll wait until a convenient time or the next meal. Not Emily.
So it was that Emily decided she needed roasted corn snacks from a side-of-the-road stand. She told our driver and he became her accomplice in finding illicit street snacks.
When Emily is bent on a choice I find questionable, but am powerless to stop, my final card is to jokingly play at her conscience.
"How would you feel if Bailey (our four year-old niece) and Sweet Girl (nickname for our one year-old niece) knew you did this? Would you want to set this example? Would you want them to do this?"
I received a look that said, "Up yours, Pal!" And I knew it was over.
Eventually, after we left Kathmandu and had already driven through most of neighboring Bhaktapur, we sighted a small makai (corn) stand. It was the most questionable of questionable, but in her makai lust there was no stopping my wife.
She left the car, made her purchase and came back with several bags worth of makai and chana (chick peas). Then she partook of large quantities of the forbidden fruit.
It's important to know that in Nepal, where people eat with their hands - the right hand is for eating meals and the left hand is for wiping your butt. As a result, people often do not touch or conduct transactions with their left hands.
However, eating is only defined as "eating rice" which can be broadly construed as eating meals. The left hand can be used when eating snacks, including taking from a common bowl of things like - makai and channa.
When the next morning Emily was violently erupting in the bathroom, it was all too clear she had been "left-handed". Besides clearing out all there was in her, she became lightheaded and weak. She couldn't keep down fluids most of the day.
A young American doctor from Kathmandu's premier expat clinic happened to be staying the weekend and I went to ask his advice. Since no one seemed to have any Givenjal - the local brand of electrolyte drink mix - he had me pour salt into Sprite which he said was a good substitute. Emily was able to keep it down and started to feel better.
"What happened to me?" she asked - already knowing the answer.
"It was the makai man. He used his left hand."
"It was totally the makai man....oh, the makai...." she said.
"When we get home, one day when the time is right, I'll tell Bailey and Sweet Girl all about what happened when Aunt Emmy didn't listen and ate bad food. The story will end, 'And that, Sweet Girl, is why we don't put poopie in our mouth....'"
Needless to say, Emily recovered the next day - as we both are recovering from a far lesser sickness now.
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