Story time with Ann is back again. So it wasn't my malaria meds that were making me sick, it was a parasite, and the bumpy trike ride to the doctor, the first of three that were made within a week of each other. Going to the doctor in the states can cause me all kinds of anxiety, how long will I be dealing with the bills after this visit, will they need to run tests, will my insurance cover it? So as I sat on the car seat that had been converted into a bench seat in the waiting room I was nervous about how much this visit was going to cost me. Behind the door that patients came in and out of systematically I pictured a hallway with doors and nurses bustling about. So when it came my turn, I looked at Raquel and JoJo hopefully and they joined me. I was prepared to be sitting and waiting to see a doctor for the next half hour to hour, when I opened the door and BAM, doctors office! That's right, it was right behind the door. And who, do you ask, was in the room? The doctor! There was a doctor right there! RIGHT THERE! Once I overcame the shock of this I sat down and told him my symptoms, he took my blood pressure, checked my temperature, and listened to my heart and lungs. Oh and the sheets on the patient bench have honey bees on them, amazing. Then we sat down, he told me what I have and what prescriptions I need. I expected to have him write this down hand it to me and tell me to come back if the problem persists. No, no, the meds are onsite, and the doctor actually HANDS THEM TO YOU! He told me which ones to take when, with or without food, to avoid this food and that drink. I marveled and then walked out expecting the woman at the desk to ask me for a couple hundred dollars (a thousand or so pesos, that probably doesn't exchange like that but I'm not good at math) she looks at the meds and tells me that it's a couple hundred pesos. I left there in a daze of the beautiful simplicity of the whole experience. I couldn't believe it, that explains part of the reason why I went with Jessica to the doctor on the day of the festival, to see if it all had been real.
