Wednesday, February 10, 2010

My first run in with The Law (Natural Law, that is)

Hello Everyone. I apologize for the great delay since my last post. Just as I was starting to work on a detailed post two days ago, an ugly mistake rendered me useless.

This is how it all started: The night of February 8th was like any other (minus me being in India). Shubhra offered me a snack derived from milk. Many of the sweet shops sell a kind of treat that is made from milk fat that has undergone a separation process. They add lemon juice to catalyze some unknown reaction, and voila - skim milk and fat. So, that night some of our milk had separated and Shubhra asked if either Loren or I wanted to try it. People eat it all the time here as dessert. She suggested sugar, but I went for it without sweetener. No problem, I felt great.

It wasn't until the next morning that I made The big mistake. All along I had the impression that our milk had separated because Shubhra intentionally put lemon juice in it. This, in fact, was not the case. Our milk had separated because it had been sitting out for at least a day and a half. Loren tried to warn me, but for some reason I convinced myself that it was safe. I blame myself. So, merrily as ever, the morning of Feb. 9th I added a few spoonfuls of the 'skim' portion to my morning coffee. You could call it milk, or you could call it a staphylococcus convention, where billions of happy little bacteria were living their lives.

That night was no good. I'm sure you can imagine the details. It put me out of commission for a whole day, but I'm happy to announce that this morning I'm feeling like my old self again. No need to worry, I think it's important I was humbled a bit - with a month in India without getting sick, I was beginning to feel invincible.

That's it for now. There's plenty of catching up to do, so look out for a more upbeat post very soon. You're all in my prayers.

Love,

Jeff

Photographic evidence that I'm feeling better and that no one needs to worry

4 comments:

  1. oh nooo Jeff! I'm glad you feel better now but Staph conventions aren't fun... as awful as it must have been, I could see what you were thinking at the time and it's definitely an unfortunate learning experience!

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  2. Hi Jeff:
    Your Grandmother and I really enjoy your reports from the field. It looks like you are having the time of your life and wonderful that friends from home could visit with you in India. Black coffee for the rest of the trip. Love, Grandma and Uncle Bob

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  3. Hi Natalie, Grandma, and Bob - Thanks for keeping up with the blog. Yes, I'll chock that up as a learning experience. I'm sure you know the gory details, Natalie the nurse : ) Grandma and Bob! Thanks for the love. It's wonderful to hear from you. Take care everyone. You're in my prayers. Love.

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  4. lol, that was really funny the way you described the "billions of happy bacteria"... I could just picture them multiplying and wrecking havoc on your intestines (with little smiley faces, as I like to draw them)...

    I'm sorry they caused you so much trouble!

    The separation part reminds me of something weird that happened when I had skim milk in the fridge once. It separated into a firmish block of white stuff (like tofu consistency) and yellowish clear liquid. Needless to say, I did not eat it...

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