Devan

Today I had my first experience with a universal health care system. When I woke up this morning I couldn’t open my left eye, I was pretty worried about having Pink Eye because several other AETs had recently come down with bad cases. I didn’t have any of the symptoms of pink eye so I moved on with my day figuring it was an allergic reaction from a bug bite. I wanted to call in sick to work but thought I should at least show up and let them tell me to go home…this way I don’t look like a faker.

I hadn’t anticipated the reaction I got when I walked into the teacher’s room this morning. On any other day, the teacher’s room is so busy in the mornings they barely notice me. Today, everything stopped as soon as I walked in the door. After a few minutes of examination by the school nurse, it was decided for me that I should go to the hospital. Unfortunately the “hospital” didn’t open until 9:30am so I had about a hour to sit and be questioned in another language by anyone who walked past my desk. By 9 children were blatantly leaving their classes mid-lesson to go look at the foreigner’s swollen eye. Finally, a 9:30 my Vice Principle told me it was time to go. I was happy to have a ride to the doctor but I was a bit hesitant about having my boss as the translator during a medical examination. Lucky the bug bites were only on my face!

What my co-workers had been calling the hospital was more what I think of as a low income clinic. We arrived 2 minutes after they opened and there were already hordes of mother’s with crying babies and the elderly. The wait wasn’t as bad because my school nurse had called ahead, so I only had 30 minutes of awkward silence sitting next to my boss in a dirty waiting room with 15 crying babies. When your number is called you and 10 other patients are escorted into another room with a small bench and two doors. Over a speaker a male voice calls a number and the door on the other side of the room slides open. The whole scene was very sci-fi to me. There were no windows, a tinny voice over the loud speakers and an automated door that people only entered but never came out.

Eventually I saw the doctor and he explained to me that it was not a bug bit but Herpes. HA. Don’t worry I don’t have herpes, less than 24 hours later the swelling and pain are gone (not symptomatic of herpes). I actually laughed when the doctor told me this. Granted I’m not a doctor, but honestly I could have come up with a better diagnosis than that buddy. My favorite part of the day was when we went back to school and my Vice Principle explained to everyone that I have herpes. If you are keeping track, my co-workers now think I’m a bug eating vegetarian with a herpes infection.

All in all it wasn’t a bad day, I didn’t have to work a full day and the visit to the doctor only cost 10$ including two prescriptions for my herpes infection.

Some pictures of my eye and a random picture of my English room.
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2025787&l=bc8eb&id=168301094

A group of us went to the beach and a park to kill some time.
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2025638&l=6be85&id=168300008