bugs and fevers

today in cost-benefit class (which deserves its own rant) my professor described what an IUD was in detail AND where NOT to insert birth control pills (even though pills can technically be absorbed through a mucous membrane).

speaking of oxidizing, cramp-inducing copper IUDs, my stomach has been hurting today. i thought i might have contracted an intestinal bug from my carpool-mate who threw up on the way to school monday morning, but i think it is because i am taking an oral typhoid vaccine. i also will be forced to take malaria medicine this summer. i never caught it before while in india, but the US Gov't has their precautions.

guddu had malaria once. he was shivering and we kept piling blankets on him even thoughthe temp was over 100 degrees. that summer he also was posessed and had to have the ghost exorcised by the village doctor who poured oil in his ear. this doctor is fairly successful-- he cured my fever once with some cloves and a few chants.

my dad also had malaria once when he was in the Vietnam War. he also got hit with a grenade on his arm and killed a viet cong lady. he almost died shooting her-- he was "walking point", saw some rustling, and as he was firing away the magazine was tightening around his neck. but he was ok. and he was ok with going to war, too. and with killing someone. and i see him as strong for not being emotionally destroyed by all of that.