Travelers Mouthwash

Travelers Mouthwash
Kpalime, Togo West Africa
Monday, April 2, 2007

I have had more or less a paranoid case of bad breath worries. I woke the other morning with a mouth taste that would not say goodbye. Brushed my teeth many times, swooshed the water this way, that way and tried my best.

Then decide, time to floss again.

I think the problem was this, I flossed the day before, and in a hurried, too aggressive way, I pushed down and made my gums bleed. When I flossed, again, this area told me, I am the culprit; this is where the smell resides, lives and is you worry.

There is dried or bad blood.

Baking Soda brushing, purchased some new toothpaste, finally went to a pharmacist to buy mouthwash. This is difficult stuff to buy in West Africa and it is not because there is not a good need.

4500 CFA for the first bottle - 9 U.S. Dollars.
3300 CFA for the next in line. - 6.4 U.S. Dollars.

Something African here, they will not show you or even admit cheaper exist, until you say no to expensive. It takes a long time to work you way to down to cheap and proper price hotel room, you must take a tour of the complete hotel.

500 CFA is about 1 US Dollar.

I said no, and went back home to search on the internet, learning that alcohol in the mouthwash dries my mouth and is not good.

I do everything wrong, coffee, dieting, cheese, I do not have good mirrors so I do not brush good, I like to see myself when I brush. Peanuts, Popcorn, every food that is perfect to set up home in my teeth, I eat.

Look across the street from the Pharmacist at some lemons, they was the super baby size, not big enough for prime time TV. Sometimes, I buy lemons and just cut one in two, bite, suck, and my mouth gets some type of citric acid clean. I think it will clean off a penny.

Acid
Baking Powder
Toothpaste Rinsing: Taking my toothpaste and pretending it is mouthwash.

I gave up today, paranoia is growing stronger, and brushing my teeth 10 times per day makes me nervous about myself. I went today and purchased some Hydrogen Peroxide.

The first pharmacy and the five workers FIVE were out to lunch mentally. I wrote Peroxide, then Hydrogen Peroxide, then went to H2O, the to 03 or the little 3, not like I typed.

Said it in Spanish, converted to French.
L’eau Oxigenateur.
Or
Agua Oxigenado en Espanol.

I am saying, no need to spell good.

I gave up, did not say Merci, I wanted Mercy, this was too crazy, and a full on formal pharmacy and I cannot get Peroxide to use as mouthwash.

Said, to a Moto Taxi, see this sign, it says Pharmacie, I want another one, take me, he takes me down the street, and down to the corner and there is a pharmacy.

I ask everyone; (3 Men, one women here) showed them a piece of paper with written on it, H20 and 03 and Peroxide, and Hydrogen Peroxide. I then say,
L’eau
Oxigenadeur

A women, the only women, I do believe they are smarter than men, engaged here brain into first gear, finds a bottle of Eau Oxygenee.

This cost 900 CFA or about 2 USA Dollars and is powerful and cleans, and works, and it usually cheaper than mouthwash needed in West Africa.

I ask her, the women, are you the Pharmacist. She says no, and points at the man, I say in English.
- I am worried about you. -

Then I say,
- Tout L Monde, la femme est intelligence., et l-homme es mal. -

I hope she understood as this, in the entire world, the women are educated and the men are not. Culturally, the men somehow learn to sit and talk, and the women learn how to work. Now, in school, this is giving the women tired of the men drinking and carousing a huge advantage, they study and apply themselves.

Being big, and bad, does not stop intelligence from conquering the world, and the women are taking over the planet while the men go and watch football and drink beer.

The Medicines and Pharmacies, the true place where a person is going to start finding solutions to problems is crazy here in Africa. The price of medicines in Africa is double of South America, I think triple of Asia, and the French Colonies are the poorest on the planet….

Ergo..

I really like my lemon solution, yet I think the sugar in a lemon kills and advantage of taste.

I am still brushing my teeth and tongue and cheeks and scrub and so on and so forth in an obsessive, compulsive let discover a new problem way.