oaf@mit-vax.UUCP (Oded Feingold) (08/15/86)
[From AMAZON, by Brian Kelly and Mark London, Holt Rinehart Winston
1983, softbound (Owl books) 1985, pp. 152--153]
(The book describes two reporters' trip through the Amazon, proceeding
roughly from southwest to northeast -- this section is halfway
through.)
"Our own plight was becoming less and less comfortable.
Besides the psychic discomfort of our dangerous errand here,
Xinguara was splattered with insects and filmed with a brown
fungus that seemed to grow on everything. It would have
taken a full--time crew of sailors to keep things clean, but
with new residents arriving in droves, the town could hardly
keep up with housing demands. The Brazilian passion for
cleanliness had ebbed here; there was mud on the floor of
our hotel room and dead bus in the beds.
"And our diets were beginning to change.
"The frontier towns of Xinguara and Redencao grew be-
cause of roads, not rivers, and few of the inhabitants are
caboclos (mixed Portuguese--Amerind stock - Oded.) Meat,
not fish or vegetables, is the accustomed diet, and it was
in evidence everywhere: bloody carcasses strapped on donkeys
walking in the sun; stringy joints hanging from hooks in
open-air butcher shops; gore--spattered slaughter pens near
the front gates of ranches, the floors strewn with steaming
intestines, hides and heads. The smell was everywhere,
greasy and decaying. It stayed in our nostrils for weeks.
Yet the tough gray meat, unpleasant in color and texture and
rank in flavor, _was_ _what_ _we_ _had_ _to_ _eat_ _if_ _we_
_were_ _to_ _eat_ _at_ _all_. (Emphasis mine - Oded.)
"The bigger problem, though, was parasites. Almost sure-
ly some were to be found in each piece and, in spite of or-
dering meat as well done as possible, there was no avoiding
parasitic disease. The tropical climate is an incubator of
strange organisms and stranger illnesses. Besides the big-
name ones like malaria, hepatitis, typhoid and river blind-
ness, dozens of others haven't even been named -- AND WE GOT
A LOT OF THEM. Bottled water -- like well-done meat --
proved to be a merely fabled protection: we more than once
saw a waiter filling from the tap a bottle of supposed
spring water."
Non-capitalization afer colons theirs, not mine. Ditto for mixing
viral, protozoan, bacterial and rickettsial diseases and calling them
parasitic. Those are side issues. My opinion of the book's accuracy
and literary qualities can be gleaned in e-mail, maybe on net.books.
FINALLY, THE QUESTION
I'm travelling to the same areas soon -- anyone have constructive
suggestions for what someone on the move should eat to avoid parasitic
diseases and tainted meat? [Normally, health reasons don't dissuade
me from eating meat at any particular meal -- considerations of long-
term health have restricted my overall intake.]
Thanks.
--
Oded Feingold MIT AI Lab 545 Tech Square Cambridge, Mass. 02139
{allegra|ihnp4!mit-eddie}!mit-vax!oaf OAF@OZ.AI.MIT.EDU 617-253-8598