Well, I’ve had my first Peace
Corps ailment. It started out as a bunch
of bug bites all over my legs, so I didn’t think anything was unusual when it
started to turn into a rash, even when my host family told me it looked
infected or like an allergic reaction. I
thought it was just a usual reaction to foreign bug bites. But as the rash started to spread over the bug
bites and break out in places where the bug bites never were, and my host
family continued to be concerned, I finally called the Peace Corps Medical
Office. As Peace Corps Volunteers, if we
are going to do anything medical related, like go to a doctor, we have to call
the med office first. We also can only
go to certain doctors that have been approved as legitimate medical
providers.
Here in Panama there is a lot of
traditional medicine practiced. For
example, you shouldn’t expose yourself right after heat. This means you can’t open your fridge after
ironing, you can’t shower after walking in the heat of the afternoon, and you need
to cool down before you can go swimming.
It also means a lot of herbal remedies and teas. And Vicks is their febreeze – it is used for
everything from colds to headaches to bug bites. So, if I need medical attention, I have to go
to a clinic in my provincial capital, an hour and a half bus ride away. There I was told that despite my fears of
leishmaniasis, it looked more like an allergy, and I was given medicine and a
cream. Now, three weeks later, my rash
is going away, though the marks remain and people keep putting in their two
cents about what caused it or what I should do to make it better. I also have to put up with people telling me
how concerned they are that my beautiful legs will be forever marred by the marks,
and have I told my boyfriend yet that I don’t have pretty legs anymore? I just tell them that it’s a good souvenir
from my time in Panama.