Dukorol - tastes bad, but hopefully it works!

Two weeks until departure and I just got my preventative illness prescriptions filled. One is an antibiotic in case I get sick on the trip.

The other is Dukorol. I took the first of two doses this morning. It's a vaccine to prevent cholera and traveler's diarrhea.  You mix 5 oz. of water with a package of sodium bicarbonate, then drop in the liquid vaccine and drink the whole thing on an empty stomach.

I know prevention and the benefits will be worth it, but stomaching this first thing in the a.m. is enough to cause one to rethink trying new and unique foods when they travel to avoid drinking this preventative potion.

And, I know me....I am the adventurous "try as much different local food as you can when in a foreign place", so a couple minutes of discomfort this a.m. will be well worth it!

 

Micheal Stark and his wife Evelyn (my grandpa)

Why I wanted to go to Argentina

The congress in Argentina had a huge draw for me. My grandfather, on my dad's side, Michael (Mike) Francis Stark, was born in Guamini, near Buenos Aires in 1905. His parents had moved there from Russia as near as I can tell. I have a copy of the ship’s manifesto when he sailed to Canada on May 12, 1913 from Buenos Aires with his parents.  They settled near Chamberlain, Saskatchewan where there was already family living. After a pretty hard childhood, Mike ran the general store in the town with help from his wife, Evelyn, my grandmother, and four kids, including my dad, Edward.  Grandpa was also the Massey-Harris and Cockshutt dealer.  He took up farming later in life in 1958 when he turned the store operations over to my uncle. For me, this trip feels a bit like going back in history since my grandfather died when I was only four. My plan is to see if I can get a photo at the dock where they would have shipped out. I don't beleive in ghosts but with my dad now gone too, this seems like a way to somehow connect with my roots 100 years later.

20 days until departure - reading up on Argentina and ag

The countdown to Argentina is on – 20 more days until I leave. I am very excited.

Did you know that….

·         Argentina was once referred to as “the world´s granary”


·         Argentina bills itself as the “far corner of the Earth” because it stretches to one of the most southernmost points in the world

·         This is the first IFAJ congress in South America

·         Argentina has tripled its production in the last 30 years and feeds more than 400 million people annually

·         It is the world’s leading exporter of soy oil and flour, the world’s second highest exporter of corn and sorghum, the fifth largest producer of wine in the world, the tenth largest producer of milk and the fourth highest exporter of beef

(adapted from the IFAJ Argentina website)


Visit www.ifajargentina.com for more information.