Today the three oldest were home with the fever virus that afflicted Marc earlier this week and Brynnie on the weekend. There's always weird viruses floating around here. Aidan said his head really hurt so I took him to the Apotik (pharmacy type place) to have a malaria test done. Apparently that is one of the most common signs of malaria. We head to the back to this little room labelled "Laboratorium". Quite hilarious. Just a little room with a desk, sink and a cupboard along one wall with a countertop on it. On there was a hair dryer, microscope and some other lab-type piece of equipment. There are no sterile-looking uniforms to be found. A young guy in jeans and a t-shirt pricked Aidan's finger and put some blood on a slide. Then he was looking around a bit and rummaged in the garbage can where he had just thrown the poker thingy and retrieved it and used it to smear the blood around on the slide. Hmmm... that's not going to contaminate the sample is it? He puts the slide in front of the hair dryer and turns it on. Then I get a little piece of pink paper and am told to go pay up front. Brynnie has to pee. I ask if there is a kamar kecil (literal translation: small room). Yes there is, around the corner. We go and see that it is a squatty potty, but actually very clean with no layer of water on the floor (they think that if there is water on the floor it is clean...). Hold her above and she actually goes and I manage not to drop her in. Then we pay and get the phone number to phone later for the results. The test cost me 5,000 rupiahs which at todays current exchange rate is about .55 cents... I better save the receipt for later reimbursement by our insurance... I called later and the results were negative. I had given Aidan the local version of tylenol (they actually have chewable tablets for kids!!) and it brought his fever down. Usually tylenol, or panadol as it is called here, doesn't bring down a malaria fever.
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A sight that I don't think I'll ever get used to: Two big burly Papuan men holding hands... perfectly normal cultural behaviour. Members of the same gender may show public affection, but members of opposite genders may not.
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I was talking to a woman who is a nurse and lived here for many years with her husband and children. She now lives in Greece and comes here twice a year to visit all the mission folks that she can and dispense advice etc.. She said that after having dengue fever you can have some bleeding under your skin. So it is quite possible that Brynnie had a case of dengue fever when she was sick that one week. Lets hope that's what it was and that it won't come back! Once you've had dengue, if I'm not mistaken, you are immune for a while.