First (and last? Fingers crossed) ailment

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.