Nigeria, August 16, 2008
Busted by Bad Nigerian Beer
A wrong Star Beer can knock you down
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When I took the first sip of that second Star Beer, it didn't taste right. I took a second sip, and it still had an off taste. Putting that bottle aside, I went for the third bottle instead. It too tasted funny, so I figured that must be how Star Beer tastes.
Wow! Was I wrong on that idea. I really should have followed my instincts that night, and skipped the third beer too. I don't remember if the fourth beer was also bad, but the next morning, my body sure knew. My pre-run morning tea came back up as fast I drank it down. Unable to stand up afterwards, I gave up on the morning run idea. Instead I crawled back into bed and spend the rest of the day curled up in a ball, with the worst stomach cramps. For the next two days, I was on the standard banana and rice diet, recovering. But then jolaf rice called. And I was so hungry. So I ate the spicy friend rice dish of West Africa. Now that was my second mistake. Back to stomach cramps and the quick step I went. For another whole week. In fact, the cramps were so bad, and my pain so great, I thought for a bit that I might have appendicitis. Sharing my fear with Amy got a quick call from the USA - "Do you have a fever?" started the health questioning, which I cut short with a (painful) laugh. I've had the traveler's stomach before, maybe not this bad or this long, but I knew what caused my malaise, and it wasn't a ruptured appendix. It was that bad Nigerian beer. That suspect Star Beer. Lesson learned: if the beer tastes off, it is. Get another beer! |
2 Comments
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Procrastinating my huge workload, I wandered around your blog and saw this Bad Star story. I loved Star when I was in Ghana, and am sorry to hear of the trouble it caused you.
Actually, I think Star is bottled in Kumasi, which makes it Bad Ghanaian Beer, but perhaps the transport time turned this batch bad; we never had a problem with it it when we drank it.
I did a search on it, but I couldn't turn anything up that suggested either way. Maybe they brew it in Nigeria too, and the secret just isn't there.