Day 12

Another example of my complete and total devotion to you:

Everyone is having drinks at The Little Chef Cafe across the street. I dropped them off and headed over here to write. What song was The Little Chef Cafe playing? "Like A Prayer" by Madonna. I blew my opportunity to hear Madonna in Africa, to pretend for one glorious moment that I was at a fabulous gay bar that was filled with young gents who truly value Madonna, to sing along and be viewed as a crazy American instead of a crazy fudgepacker. I blew that opportunity so that I could tell you about my day. You. My loyal fans. All three of you.

Speaking of fudgepackers, something I've been meaning to share. From 6-7am here they have Anderson Cooper 360 on TV and the maid/nanny/slave at my house likes to watch it. Now some of you know, but most probably don't, that I hate Anderson Cooper. I think he's a total douche, a closet case pussy, and an all around weakling. So to have to see his queer, overly made up, Botox'd face every morning is annoying.

Today at Dickson we ran out of water at 8:00am. What constitutes plumbing in Mombasa is basically like a mini water tower per building. It gets filled weekly and the pipes all connect to it. If it's empty, there's no water. It was bad. The toilets were piled 3ft high with the shit and piss of 28 children, the laundry was done in like 12 oz of bottled water. We didn't mop the floors nor do much of the cleaning. The kids did not wash their hands once today. I used instant hand sanitizer like it was falling from the sky. It was really nuts and I'm hoping we'll have water tomorrow, but I'm fairly certain we won't. I left at 4:00 and the water guy hadn't come and most things end at 5:00 here, so it's likely there's no water there right now and that he'll hopefully come in the morning (if we're lucky).

The toddlers and primary kids were very well behaved today. We played, we laughed, we went for a long walk. It was good. The older kids were all very good in the afternoon except for 1. She's about 2 inches away from getting the smack down. If she doesn't shape up they will hit her on the knuckles with a switch. I'm hoping she shapes up as I don't really believe in that form of punishment. That said, it's not up to me. It's the Kenyan way and I have to accept that they do what works for them. Dickson is really good in that the punishments are done under supervision by management and are very limited. Girls get it on the hands, guys on the butt. At other projects, the kids get beaten with a switch. Sometimes a dozen lashes or something. At ours it's more about embarrassing the child than actually hurting the child.

So, Dickson was a good, but trying day. My adventure began upon getting back to town. I finally caved and went to Aga Khan Hospital to get some medication for my sinus infection. There are no clinics here, you just go to the hospital. It took just under 3 hours but I finally got azithromyacin (a Z-pack, but the old school kind, not the actual pack) and 30 Xanax. I figured as long as I was seeing the doctor I'd ask for the hook up.

This was my visit to the doctor, almost verbatim-

Doctor: How are you?
Me: I'm doing well, thank you.
Doctor: Obviously not, you're here.
Me: Ya. I need azithromyacin and xanax.
Doctor: Why?
Me: I have a sinus infection and I'm uncomfortable in your country. It's stressful.
Doctor: Are you an addict?
Me: No. I'm a volunteer at Dickson.
Doctor: Ok. I just hope you're not an addict.
Me: I'm not.
Doctor: How many do you want?
Me: I'm here for 6 weeks, so 6x7= 42.
Doctor: I'll give you 30. Do you want 0.25 or 0.5mg?
Me: 0.5.

Now you'll notice no examination went on. We just talked. He didn't look in my nose for the sinusitis nor ask anything other than if I were a drug addict. I love this country.

I paid $46 for a "doctor's visit" (I don't know if that qualified as a doctor's visit, but technically it was a doctor's visit), 30 xanan, and 3 azithromyacin. In America, where I have health insurance, that would have cost me $50. $20 copay for each prescription and $10 doctor's copay. Here, it was $46, plus no hassles about getting the xanax. Can we say fabulous?

Ok, off to have some beers. The perfect chaser for .5 mg.