Health

Is it possible for a volunteer to live a healthy lifestyle in a country where a bottle of gin (admittedly, local) costs slightly less than half the cost of 200 g of butter (admittedly French)? I pondered this is I walked home with a plastic bag containing both items and 20 pesewas worth of lemons. The answer is obviously ‘no’, if these items were to form the basis of my diet.

VSO take volunteer health very seriously - mainly in the form of preventing illness, but also diet and insurance coverage. At pre departure training we meet members of the VSO headquarters’ medical team and we receive a weighty health guide. (Don’t swim in water where you might catch bilharzias, be careful to iron clothes dried outside to kill any eggs laid by flies which if left could hatch and burrow it your skin.) VSO also regularly undertake exercises to see whether the allowance we receive is sufficient to buy the right food for a balanced diet. Fortunately VSO has recently increased our allowances; otherwise I might not have been buying either the gin or the butter. Incidentally alcohol is not included in VSO’s calculations.

VSO pays for the injections we need and anti-malarial drugs. Every morning I take a green capsule after breakfast which won’t actually prevent malaria but should mean that if I do get it, it should be in a milder form. Koforidua’s tropical location makes it ideal territory for mosquitoes. I am sure I read somewhere that the first British missionaries here were unable to stay because of the general air of pestilence about the place. Malaria is still rife, but if you can afford the drugs it is usually not as serious as you might think. Most volunteers here seem to get it at some time or other.

It is possible that the anti-malarial’s themselves are a greater threat than malaria itself. Some volunteers are prepared to take their chances with malaria rather than suffer some of the side effects of the preventative drugs. I take doxycycline which can increase susceptibility to sunburn (not good when you live virtually on the Equator), skin rashes, nausea, diarrhoea, severe headache and should not be taken if pregnant or if you suffer from liver problems. It is also an antibiotic, but on the positive side it has probably contributed to the fact that I have only suffered from two bouts of diarrhoea in 16 months. It is also used to treat acne!
I find it quite hard to eat enough. The hot conditions reduce my appetite. I definitely lost weight and I am now making a conscious effort to try and keep what I put on over Christmas – more bananas and yam chips with pepper sauce. Keeping hydrated is also a constant consideration. I always have a bottle of water to hand or know that I will be going somewhere where sachets of pure water will be available.

Exercise, like eating, needs effort and I don’t do much. I do walk around town rather than take taxis but I have to walk at a slower pace, otherwise I end up dripping with sweat. I have finally decided to buy a bicycle. When I get it, I will have to weigh up the benefits of the exercise with the risk of being knocked off it. I’m already looking for the quieter byways which the cars don’t often use.