Hospital visit

Wednesday Sept 9, 2009

Students without Borders met the Uniterra Volunteers today. Most, if not all of them are French which adds a healthy amount of flavour to our group energy! We had participated in orientation today at the WUSC office and then headed to the local clinic to visit with a doctor who introduced us to the common sicknesses caused by mosquitoes, water, and contaminated food. I love how my question “what are the long term side effects of using anti-malaria drugs for the span of 6 months to a year?” was answered with “I recommend you use a mosquito net, yeah, that will be much better.” Haha. If anyone out there does know, I’d love to know the answer! In summary, don’t drink the water, wash your veggies but don’t eat them at restaurants, and use a combo preventative measure for beating those pesky mosquitoes: mosquito repellent, long sleeves and nets.

After the clinic we all had lunch together at a local restaurant. WUSC picked up the tab. From now on, i think I’m going to stick with chicken curry and rice; it’s a little more filling than everything else but let me tell you it’s not all that cheap. It’s expensive to live here...Food is about the same price here as in Canada. Somehow, we’ve only been here 4 days and I’ve already spent 40USD. When you think about it, that’s a lot of money. Then again, we did by a cell phone and that’s a little pricey.

I have landed in the hospital. Well, not really. I have come down with a persistent cough, weak muscles, and dizzy head (not malaria). Under the guidance of the WUSC staff I have sought medical attention and have been prescribed Glycodin (cough syrup), antibiotics (i.e. antihistamine), and pain killers. Haha.

A little extreme perhaps. In fact, the daily dose amounts to 12 pills and 3 teaspoons of cough syrup. If anything else, I’ll take a few here and there and then stash the rest away for emergencies in the camp. I’m not on my death bed by any means, I am sure it’s simply a result of the dust everywhere and the many garbage fires burning just outside our window. But this is how illnesses are treated here. Drugs, drugs, drugs. It cost me 10USD.