The campus clinic

Another busy week has come and gone! Last night after writing my blog entry, I headed out the back gate to the tiny noodle shop by myself for dinner. In my mangled Chinese I managed to order some dumpling soup with mystery meat. It was pretty good, and I started eating it while I sat on a little peg stool at a table by myself. Then a young Chinese guy saw me as he sat with his friends at another table. When I was looking down at my soup, he was all of a sudden sitting across the table from me, with his bowl of soup.

The kid started chattering away in Chinese. I could only answer back in Chinese that I didn't understand. He was intent on talking to me, even though I didn't invite him to sit with me. But that doesn't matter in China. I told him I was an English teacher at Blue Sky, and that I was from America. He was a student at the university and he doesn't speak any English. He was a friendly kid, but we couldn't communicate. After finishing up my food, I started to get up to pay, but he jumped up and paid for my meal before I could do anything. All I could say was "thanks, thanks." So both my lunch AND dinner were paid for by very friendly students. What a life.

Last night I fell asleep at 8:30 and slept straight until 6:30 a.m. I guess I was exhausted. Class was fine and then the FAO assistant and our driver took me to the on-campus "clinic." It was like out of a movie, sort of like everything around here. I went in to a very sparsely furnished clinic. I couldn't help staring. The walls and floors were all concrete, and Chinese doctors and nurses walked around in very long lab coats. A bit of fear gripped my heart as I saw the old cots and pillows. Everyone was very welcoming, though, and I didn't have to wait like the other students. Sometimes the celebrity status is very advantageous.

Through translation, I explained that my toe was infected and I needed an antibiotic, which you don't need prescriptions for in China. Then the doctor wanted to see this toe. Everyone, including some bystanders, gathered around the desk poking at or looking at the foreigner's toe. The doctor then led us down a hall and into a room which was right next to the squatty potty. I took off my sock and put my foot onto a metal stand. The doctor rummaged around in some tin boxes and poured some red liquid on the toe. All of a sudden I got scared and thought he was maybe going to remove my toenail or amputate.

But of course I worried for naught. This special liquid was to help kill the infection. It wasn't really necessary to also take an antibiotic. I thought that was much more practical than what I usually have to do in the U.S. when my toe gets infected sometimes.

So the doctor gave me a bottle of the red stuff to put on twice a day. Then he also gave me some penicillin, just in case. He asked if I needed anything else. I asked for some amoxocillin for Joelle, because she said she might need it sometime. The doctor was like, sure! I could have probably asked for any random medication for anyone.

The grand total for this visit and all the prescriptions was 22 kuai. That's about $3.

(This picture is of some of my team and me from the night of the rat saga in my apartment. We are waiting expectantly on chairs for the mouse to run back across the room).