What's in a dong? and why am I thirsty?

Two unrelated topics:
What's in a dong?
Well, from what my grandfather told me, the dong was created as part of the same festival that the dragon boat races came from. The story I learned is that a Chinese scholar, beloved by the masses, was so distraught by the happenings in China that he threw himself into a lake to protest. The people raced out to save him in their boats (memorialized by the dragon boat races), but no one could get to him in time. The people didn't want the fishes to eat his drowned carcass, so they threw rice wrapped in banana or te leaves into the lake to give the fishes something else to gnaw on.

What is actually inside the leaves varies by person, but in my particular dong there was rice, small shrimp, peanuts, ham, lop-cheung (chinese sausage), and an egg yolk.

why am I thirsty?
It is recommended that you should drink 6-8 glasses of water each day. I drink about one and a half nalgene bottles each day. I'm not sure if I drink the recommended amount, but the last week I've been very aware of how much I drink and if I feel dehydrated. The main reason is that I've been reading a book entitled 'Skeletons of the Zahara'. It's written on the true account of James Riley and his crew. They were an American ship that wrecked off the African coast in 1815 or so. They spent 2 months in captivity in the Sahara desert. Just reading about how hot it was and the lengths they went to find water makes my mouth dry. They would follow their masters camels around to try and catch the urine in their hands to drink. They would spend the nights catching snails to squeeze out just a little bit of water from them. They lost over half their body weight in 2 months to dehydration, starvation and sickness. So, drink your 6-8 glasses of water daily, it's good for you and you don't have to follow a camel around to get it.