The past few days I've come down with a high fever, sore throat, headache, and all over miserableness. Being sick at home in the US is already bad enough, but put that in a foreign country where nobody speaks your language it's about 10x worse. I knew before coming to Thailand that I would inevidently probably get really sick at least one time but I didn't think about the cultural differences that there would be about how to treat or act to someone who is sick. When somebody is sick in the US you usually let them rest by themselves and leave them to get better, maybe offering to bring by some soup. In Thailand, just about everybody will be knocking at your door or in my case yelling up to my window until you answer. They come into your house (of course always with the best intentions) to give you medicine and fruits and want to chit-chat getting a detailed account of all your symptoms (keep in mind this happens multiple times). You can imagine the pantomiming that goes on here is pretty hilarious too. For me, when I'm really feeling sick I want to be by myself, lay in bed and hopefully sleep. The concept of "alone time" is unheard of and not widely accepted mainly because of the fear of ghosts. For example, I have three student teachers living next door to me now, who are also 23 years old, and instead of each sleeping in their separate rooms they all sleep next to each other in one room! Yes, personal space is minimal to non-existent, which is why worldteach made sure each volunteer had their own room.
Anyways, back to my sickness. Yesterday when I was really feeling in the gutter and had run out of medicine for a fever I decided to go to the hospital to get my temperature read and stock up on more medicine. The hospital in my village acts more like a doctors office containing only a few doctors and is a little rustic to say the least. I went with one of my teachers to help translate the little english that she knows. The trip was like what I'd heard from other volunteers that have been to a hospital in our teaching areas but I guess I needed to experience it for myself. I wasn't feeling too hot, or I had a fever, so I was feeling really hot and not in mood for the farange stare-down from everybody in the hospital. My teacher and I were constantly bombarded by people wanting to know what I was doing there and exactly what was wrong. Since I and all the other worldteach volunteers had checked into the hospital when we first got to thailand to get a health clearance for our visas, my name was already in their system. However, I and another volunteer have basically the same first and last name making is virtually impossible for Thai people to tell the difference. Heather Jones and Heather Johns...really! That caused a lot of confusion at the hospital and time of me explaining that it is 2 people after they tried to give me a slip for Heather Johns who somehow also was misrecorded to by 33 years old?. So I wait an hour and finally get to see the doctor who is a young lady in her late 20's I'd guess. I'm pretty sure I was the first foreigner she'd seen because she had no idea what to say or do. She barely even looked at me and there were long awkward silences. She asked Pi Med some questions and wrote out about 5 prescriptions for various aliments. oookkkay I guess that's it. I pick up my prescriptions which cost about $4 for 5 difference medications and we are on our way. On the way back to my house Pi Med turns to me and laughs saying that the doctor was veryy veryy shy. Lets just hope this is the last of me being sick in Thailand!
