I get an email forwarded of a young man who a month or two ago went to Mexico and is in a town in the jungle in dirty conditions.

Anyway, in the last one he said he got sick again, from Sunday to Thursday, with headaches, body pains and diarrhea. Says if he doesn't eat he starves, and if he does eat he gets sick. And he said it was quite a challenge to his testimony.

Somehow the food must not be clean or something and probably little immunity in a U.S. citizen.

But it's all good for him, right? At least that's what his dad writes to him. Maybe parents should spike their kids' food with E. Coli or Salmonella to toughen them up.

and figure out what the public health system is. And how the mission helps U.S. boys to keep from getting sick. I was in Public Health in the military, and so am wondering about the water and food supply and cooking and sanitation.

Does anyone know how missions help missionaries in such countries keep from getting sick?

If that doesn't help, Church Headquarters.

as in, don't buy food off the street from a vendor that didn't have at least 3 sides to their cart. This was a silly rule and we didn't follow it.

We did however look to see how many flies were around the food and used good sense. Also, the good eating locations were passed down the companionships so we knew where to get good food.

Finally, we were warned to be careful about water. For the first few weeks in country the greenies were not to drink water that wasn't bottled, and no ice. Eventually, we were allowed to have ice (presumably from unbottled water). We were never encouraged to drink unbottled water actually, but sometimes this was unavoidable and I know I've had some nice rain water. I never got sick from this though. I count myself lucky in this regard.

I was in Thailand, and I didn't think that our allowance was too small for us to feed ourselves adequately, but then, I've always been a bit of a miser when it comes to money.

I got food poisoning exactly once in my mission and it was my own fault when I decided to eat something that everyone around told me was a bad idea.

We were also told to take de-worming medication every 6 months and some right before we went home.

I would take it up with the mission president, but if your not the missionaries parent, you will have no sway with him. I would encourage the missionary to spend as much time as it takes doing what they can to clean and sterilize their house. They need to get some bleach and get used to boiling the water and washing everything they eat with boiled water if bottled water is not available.

I met missionaries in '92 in La Paz, Baja Sur, which is a fairly nice little Mexican city. They were very thin, and starving. Their food allowance was way too low. And they were sick all the time. Worms, intestinal parasites, etc. The Mexican mission prez. didn't care about the nortenos and their health problems.

Abuse victims don't tend to place blame where blame is due. They somehow think they have to submit to whatever abuse is thrown at them because they deserve it.

No.

This guy isn't thinking clearly. He's sick and could possibly die or have lasting health problems and it's crazy for him to stay there and continuew to try to live this way.

You, his parents, his relatives, friends, anyone who knows him needs to intercede since his church doesn't care if he lives or dies.

They are using peer pressure to make him feel his health problems can be overcome by what...testosterone? faith?

There are returned missionaries who have posted here who NEVER recovered normal gastrointestinal health after their missions. And think of the parasite cysts and whatnot that go to the brain.

He would be in the doctor's office instantly if he were at home. This is abuse and he is a victim.

Anagrammy

When I was in Armenia as a Peace Corps Volunteer, I got giardia and ended up with diarrhea for two weeks. The water was mostly safe there, once you got used to it, but there was a broken pipe in the water system. I didn't know about it, so I got sick.

Years later, I read a very good book about staying well when in developing countries, "How to Shit Around the World" by Jane Wilson-Howarth. She writes that you're more likely to get sick from a buffet at an international hotel than a street vendor's food. It's safest to eat food that is piping hot and freshly prepared than food that's been sitting around in a chafing tray.

That's true even in the United States. It's just that we're pretty good for food safety in the first place, so even a 10x increase in the odds of food poisoning is still very low.

You're right. We Americans should not forget that food poisoning can happen anywhere.

I got a real kick out of that book. It was funny and informative. I wish I had had it when I was in the Peace Corps instead of the comparatively useless "Where There Is No Doctor" that the Peace Corps issued to everyone.

I have worked in govt and international circles the last 10 years and have to travel to shit holes like Mexico often. Even in Mexico the govt or any other company pays a per diem to work there for a period of time. The US state dept determines foreign food per diem rates based on the price of eating establishments (like CHILIS yeah!!) that WON'T GIVE YOU A CASE OF DYSENTERY. The kid has the royal shits cuz he lives off of TSCCs slave wage while conducting it's slave labor. Most missionaries end up with about $100.00 a month for food. SCAM! It makes good business sense, even in C. America.

This is why they don't want missionaries calling home except for two times a year. I bet if the mission president gets contacted about this young man's health, the young man will be blasted for saying anything negative about his mission.

His parents need to get their heads unwedge and be willing to get involved to the point of bringing their son home and getting him help. Period.

3d world cultures where beans are a staple are particularly dangerous...beans (low acid, dence food) which are not kept at safe temperatures can be a great envournment for botulinum toxin. Deadly. Very little chance these places have the antidote available or the symptoms would be identified in time. Sounds like these kids don't have a clue how to be safe...they will end up having a really strong testimony engraved on their tombstones!

OT, but this reminds me of the threads about how young women are taught that it's better to die than to be raped. The women have it far worse, but it's exactly the same mentality.

This kid is the only one in town who speaks English. His companion is Spanish speaking. So he's been pretty frustrated trying to explain his problems or to be able to get any support.

He tries to laugh it off in his emails, and say what everyone wants to hear, but it's sad. Real nice, meek boy that would take abuse from anyone.

I sent an email to his dad with some questions to ask about water and food sources and whether he's able to cook all his food and sanitize with bleach or boil water, etc.

The boy said they moved into a new place and it's a dump, with much of the plumbing shot so he's bathing with a bucket.

And he's right next to a bar which plays loud music all night, which means little sleep, which means his immune system will be weakened.

The hilarity/tragedy of it all?

The system has you so Jedi Mindtricked that the shittier physical conditions you go through on a mission...the BETTER!

"Yay I was counted worthy enough to live on turd and squalor for two years for the lord! I am sooo worthy and chosen. Hooray for eating dirt and peeing out my bum for 2 years!"

"YOU only had malaria for 5 months!? Hmmm..I had it for 10, I wonder what you were doing wrong!"

It's like the persecution complex and how everything the church plays victim on.

So 1. You save money to go and pay your own way. 2. The church cuts EVERY COST known to man and the YOU pay gets put in a massive fund that you know for a fact is invested and is making money (I may be wrong...but I highly doubt they would let 56,000 payments of $325 per month (going mission rate my have changed) to waste! and 3. The missionary (I was included in that) thinks it's the BEST THING EVER!

"Companion! I just woke up to a roving band of cockroaches having an orgy on my face! God be PRAISED!"

So it's usually not until well after one frees oneself from the matrix does one really realize how crappy the mission conditions were. And even then it's usually STILL with endearment.

And fortunately he and his wife are getting mad. He ran into a guy at the BYU game who works for the Missionary department who said this isn't right. The dad also says he hasn't heard anything from the mission president, but he is spanish speaking.

I joked that for all we know, they forgot his son even exists. Maybe they lost count.

Anyway, dad and mom are going to make some phone calls to headquarters tomorrow. I suggested they ask who is in charge of public health for the missionaries and how do they ensure they are educated and have a safe food and water supply and have malaria medication, etc.

I am also writing a summary of disease risks like I did in the military, and we'll email that to his son tomorrow and get him immediately boiling water, etc.

With all he supposed inspiration going on, shouldn't need an exmo to take care of the missionaries.

Let us know what happens, OK?