A year of the shits

So I've been possibly the most ill in the tummy that I've been in the 6 months that I've been in Bangladesh.  (Although the first time I got sick, "multi-tasking" was given a new meaning.)

We have a new housemate in the Chittagong house - Bri, who is here for 12 months as an English language teacher trainer.  She arrived in Chittagong on Monday afternoon to an empty house, as I was still in Sitakunda and Tania away for work.  I arrived at about 6:30pm, intending to go to my Bangla class.  My belly, however, had other ideas.  I'd been a little dodgy when leaving the Shit but figured it would pass.  This is an approximate transcript of the conversation that I had with Bri when I arrived at the house:

Bri (hearing me come in the door): Hello?!

MFT (hurriedly taking off my shoes): Hi.  Sorry, I really need to go to the toilet.

Some time later...

MFT: Sorry about that.  I'm Monica.

Bri: No worries.  I'm Bri.

Conversation continues for about 5 minutes.  Interrupted by another toilet break.  Repeat same sequence of events about 6 times.  MFT sits "sipping" (or so I thought) oral rehydration solution.

MFT: So where are you from, what do you do, blah blah the usual questions...  Oh shit.  (Makes mad dash to bathroom to vomit previously sipped rehydration fluids.)

So my last couple of days have been a bit of a juggling act, trying to achieve a fine balance between rehydrating adequately but not at too fast a rate such that I will just vomit everything back up again and be back to square 1 (or even a little behind).  I burst into tears today when Moriam (the cook) and two of her daughters came in to check how I was going, fed up with the whole bloody thing.  Even a visit from Momu wasn't enough to cheer me up, cos she just wanted to get up to mischief and I didn't have the energy to be keeping an eye on her.

I have been fed the following, in attempts to fix my poor tummy:

• flaked dry rice with water, banana and sugar (breakfast, lunch and dinner)
  
•  green coconut juice (between meals)
• Tasty Saline (a local version of Gastrolyte) - I thought 4 packets in one day would be enough, but was told I had to drink 10!

How I long for those carefree days when my digestive processes didn't have such a profound impact on my ability to function!  How is it that I can eat food at dodgy local restaurants and drink tea from cups washed in dirty buckets of water and be fine, but then NOTHING (I hadn't eaten since about 9am) can make me sick?  I was just bragging the other day about not being sick for a month and thinking I was finally getting used to these Bangladeshi tummy bugs.  Bastards.