We arrive at the hospital and go to the foreign registration desk, we are given paperwork etc and then we have to go and pay. It costs 1510 dollars (around £30). Then on to the first stage, taking blood for screening. I am at a desk with a woman there in a mask, people are behind me sitting, others are next to me at similar windows. Then the woman says "Take Blood", straps my arm and pushes the needle in (this is a bit sudden and kind of shocking for me, used to a more private environment in the UK).
Next I am presented with a vial and a plastic cup. I swear to you that nothing will ever prepare you in the World for the moment when you are handed a cup and told you have to poop in it and then collect a sample of it for examination. I am reeling in shock at this revelation and think surely it is a windup. Then to make matters worse a woman appears and leads me to the toilet and stands guard to make sure it is my poop. I don't know if there are people who will do it for you but it seems an alien concept to me. I am not used to being pressured to go to the toilet and the environment is not exactly relaxing, it is a busy toilet with many people shaking the door etc. I am given a home enema kit, another shocking experience and it doesn't work. So I get another one and the woman lets me use the disabled toilet which is more private apparently. It still doesn't help and I end up with a very sore stomach.
I come outside and explain the situation, we are told to do the rest of the exam first. I have to take off my clothes and they check my skin, when I ask what they are checking for is it excema or something they tell me it is leprosy, which thankfully I don't have, especially in this time of no Jesus. So back to stage two, they tell me that I should eat something then come back in the afternoon.
We go home and have lunch, I feel a bit sick. Eve's friends visit and I have to make my excuses and go back to the room. I feel bad but they are understanding. Back in the room I am crunched up in the feotal position, feeling sorry for myself, when suddenly, let's just say I have a feeling. I rush next door and we jump on the scooter and go to the hospital, where I am led to a more comfortable toilet and after a short time I complete the task. I give it to the poop guard and even though she doesn't understand me I tell her that it was one of the most harrowing experiences I have had.
We have to take the forms to the administration department and I am feeling a little self-conscious about drawing so much attention today, so I pop on one of the masks that they use for when you have a cold and slip into being a little more incognito. We will collect the results in around 7-10 days.
That night at dinner all the family is there and we share a meal. Eve's mum is concerned for me as I am a little sick and tells me that I dont need to feel so much pressure to try all the different foods and that I can take my time to get used to things even if people are tellling me to try stuff. It is not the food that was the problem, I guess I got sick as my immune system has not met the virus strains here yet.
I haven't had much to do in the way of helping out around here and I have been asking Eve to tell her parents that I want to do something. So after dinner her father says he will show me how to deal with the rice. He takes me to the kitchen, explains the 5 pots, the 4 different kinds of rice and how to measure them. Then he shows me the technique for washing the rice and gets me to try it myself while he watches.
I am having trouble sleeping in the humidity, and tonight is no different, so I decide to get up at 3am and help in the breakfast store.
I will finish up with pictures of the tank I was talking about, haven't found out why it is there as there is no sign or anything. I asked Eve and she told me "Don't know, some war or something."
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