Mystery solved

For a while now, I've been having mild stomach aches nearly every day. I didn't give it much thought, since I'm no stranger to random stomach pain; I had it a lot before I figured out I'm casein-intolerant and even after that, so I tend to just ignore it and/or pin it on the fact that I have a rather sensitive stomach. Especially since I'm living abroad, I figured I'd just eaten something that my stomach was unfamiliar with.

Turns out, I'm pretty sure, it's the water.

My homestay family compound has three kitchens, one for each nuclear family (my host parents, and each host brother and his wife and child), which is pretty standard around here. Usually I refill my water bottle from my host brother's kitchen, since it's closest to my room. He and his wife keep their water in one of the big water bottles, the sort you flip upside-down to attach to water coolers. It's always the same bottle and it just kind of magically refills (which is to say I've never seen them refill it), but I assumed, since it was water they give me, that it's not regular tap water.

An explanation, for a moment, as to why the distinction is even relevant: Balinese tap water isn't particularly potable. People who have grown up on the island all their lives drink it, but when we students showed up we were warned repeatedly not to drink plain tap water, only to drink bottled water or tap water that's been boiled. We were told it wasn't even a good idea to brush our teeth with tap water.

So this morning, the magic water container was empty. I went to find my ibu, who took my water bottle from me and said she'd refill it and bring it back to me. (This is pretty standard: my host family still considers me pretty much a guest around here, so they don't like letting me help around the house. It makes me a little uncomfortable, since I'm used to doing my own dishes and being self-reliant, but they do it all despite my protests, so I've more or less given in.) Instead, I followed her to the kitchen, thinking it was silly for her to have to bring the bottle back to me when I could just as easily carry it myself. I arrived in the kitchen just as she was finishing filling my water from the spigot.

At first I thought she was just rinsing it, but she put the cap back on and handed me the bottle. "That's tap water, though," I said, a little hesitantly. She nodded in the way that one does when someone's made an obvious statement. I shrugged, then carried the bottle back to my room.

So, presumably the magic water bottle is indeed also tap water, which would explain a lot: how it never gets swapped out for a different one, how it never takes long to refill it, how I'm always a little sick. I haven't quite figured out how to deal with the situation yet, but I'm going to do my best to switch back to bottled water, even though I hate how much plastic I go through as a result. Given all the warnings about tap water, I'm pretty certain at this point I should consider myself lucky for only having gotten really sick once (knock on wood) this semester, and I'd rather not court that happening again.

I don't mean for this post to be a rant about how I'm a delicate foreigner living abroad or anything like that. Generally speaking, these sorts of things aren't a problem, and they're vastly outweighed by the cool parts of living abroad. But it is an interesting example of how something so benign as tap water can be two completely different things to people who have grown up in different situations. To my host family, it's normal everyday hydration, whereas to me it's a potential hazard. It's also one of those times where I'm not really sure how to address the issue with my host family. I don't want to make a big deal or insult them, since they've been wonderful, I like them a lot, and I appreciate all that they've done for me. But at the same time, I really don't want to get another horrible stomach bug.

There are a thousand things I'm going to miss about Bali when I go home; I've no doubt of that. But I am definitely going to have a new-found appreciation for potable tap water.