Malarone is my friend

One of the seldom written up arts of fieldwork is that of staying well in a different environment.  I've had a few more opportunities to travel with people who're really experienced fieldworkers in the last year or so, and it's been really interesting to compare notes on what works and what to take with you.  Over the years I've developed my own preferences, but the real basics are something to patch up and disinfect breaks in the skin (currently iodine though I'm quite fond of a nail varnish like product called Germoline new skin) and something to deal with the inevitable dodgy stomach (charcoal and water unless it's really bad).

On top of that all I'd nonimate my good friend - Malarone.  I don't have a malaria story of my own, thankfully, but I'm really glad that we've left the delights of chloroquine (rotted my belly) and Lariam (somewhat exhausting dreams) behind and now have something that works everywhere I've been recently and simply involves one pill a day that has no side effects I've ever experienced other than preventing malaria.

Some other things I've found useful over the years:

Sun cream
Paracetomol
Puritab water treatment
Tiger balm
Mosquito repellent
Sterile set (never had to use this thankfully)

Probably the most useful thing is to learn to pace yourself.  We're working six long-ish days a week and while the climate is being very kind to us and we have a great place to stay it still adds up.  So probably my best friend of all is my day off, and I'm off to relax.