This is the sixth summer in a row I've run 8-week programs from ASU. The previous five summers have been in Kazan. Kazan sometimes has giardia in the city water supply, so on occasion I myself or students have been treated with metronidazole to get rid of the parasite. (Actually, it's never been properly confirmed that we ourselves specifically giardia, but the symptoms match, and the treatment was effective.) During week six of my stay in Bishkek I finally decided my 4-5 weeks of diarrhea was ridiculous. The symptoms/smells/colors seemed similar to my previous experience in Kazan, so I went to the pharmacy, grabbed some metronidazole, and the symptoms cleared up by the time I took the second pill. I took the full course, of course, twice a day for five days. And then 2-3 days after that, the symptoms were back.

Мost of my food here is heat-treated: I'm not eating fresh fruits and vegetables for the most part, just cooked, but I am drinking about two liters of tap water a day. Myself, I strongly suspect that the city tap water supply here has some kind of parasite. Next year, I will drink only boiled water, and probably try to pre-treat myself with acidophilus tablets. And of course once I get on the plane back to Arizona, I'll dose myself with the next round of metronidazole to get rid of this batch of whatever it is. If I get back to AZ and it takes something else to resolve the situation, I'll let you know.