i don´t believe in germs, i don´t believe in germs, i don´t believe in germs....

I attended a dance class recently that made me wonder if perhaps the people of the jungle evolved with additional ligaments and small muscle groups. The way these people can shake it is beyond the imagination of my poor body...and I´m no stranger to shakin` it. The class was at a gym so it was intended to be a workout, and that it was. The tiny yet muscular Peruvian man--and I ask you, how do you tell (especially when dancing) the gay latino from the straight latino?--lead the hour long class of gyrating, shaking, humping, kicking, turning, and pulsing. There were several occasions in which we were literally stradling the floor and pulsing our pelvises (aka humping). Another favorite move was placing our hands on our knees, legs spread wide apart, and pulsing down to the ground and up again while he yelled at us to ¡pulse! ¡pulse! for 30 seconds or so. Ahh, que loco!

Then once I had swat all the liquid from your body (no AC of course), I naturally wanted some water to drink. There was a big container of water that I saw people drinking from with small plastic cups, so I asked where the cups came from and I was told, ¨just those,¨ meaning there are only 5 cups and you share. Oh. Silly me. I realize that germ theory is in fact a theory, and that not everyone believes in it--and trust me, I am not germaphobe--but the idea of sharing water cups with every sweaty person at the gym had simply not occurred to me. Alas, I made note of my American germaphobe thought-tendencies, deciding not to honor them, and grabbed a glass after someone set one down.

Which brings me to some other noteable germ moments. And again, I wish to inform that I feel for the most part that my American germaphobe tendencies (and trust me, we are way out there in terms of germaphobe lunacy in respect to any other country in the world) have been cured by spending a lot of time in cultures with different theories concerning illness. But I do believe that harmful bacteria in large amounts will cause illness, especially if your body is not prepared to battle the little buggers. The only reason I`m even slightly skirmish right now is because I had that shot of Pennicillin G which killed all traces of my precious healthy flora that I had been culturing for weeks specifically so that I could come here and eat whatever I wanted off the streets. And now I´ve found myself with a cold because of it. Oh well. Here are some of the other bacterial observations:

• With my cold, which people like to joke is¨gripe porcina¨ aka swine flu, no one is hesitant about drinking out of the same glass as me or giving me bites of their food with their utensils or touching my snotty kleenexes.
• There clearly has not been a public health push for washing hands, at least in Pucallpa. There is usually not any soap to be found in the bathrooms: public or private, nor is there soap in the kitchen, which is more disturbing to me.
• I went to the market to buy chicken with Maria, which involved selecting our live chicken, picking it up and poking and proding the poor thing, and then a man took our chicken by the feet and brought her back to the alley to slaughter with his bare hands. The chicken returned dead and defeathered, and a woman hacked into her, breaking her pelvis and removing the insides for us to inspect (on a dirty table). The chicken and the parts were then put in a plactic bag, and Maria put the slimy thing in her shopping bag atop the produce we had just bought. Meanwhile in the market, Maria is petting animals, children, etc. Then we took the food home and prepared it again without washing hands. Yum.
• Though I am unphased by this by now, if you buy a roadside juice or hot drink, they either do not wash the glasses at all in between customers (but do usually give each person a new straw) or they wash it some nasty looking water. Same goes with street food in plates or bowls. I don´t care though...I only got parasites once last time, and I survived! I ain´t quittin my love affair with street food! I just love pulling up a chair or standing at the stand and chatting about the day with other people who have stopped for a treat.