A New Day

How hard is it to get a TB shot for an almost 4 year old? It's proving to be pretty hard. Long story short, I spent 4 hours yesterday trying to get it done. The clinic was moved, nobody spoke English, took a trip back to the school for translation of a note, nobody can give me an address, I made a zillion phone calls trying to get an address and I still have nothing. NOTHING. How can you require a health record from a certain local clinic and not be able to give an address??? I am hearing that this is pretty typical for Kuwait. So, off I go today in a taxi with my new maid who is trying to help me (from Shrilanka), her taxi driver (Phillipine), and Jordyn into a downtown district that has a medical clinic. The driver can speak some Arabic so he is going to ask some locals when we get there and we hope to find the clinic. He told the maid he would go in and translate for me. Then, provided I get the shot, I get to take her back in 2 days to have it read. Wish me luck! Stuff like this is frustrating and very stressful to me. It's SO different living some place foreign, rather than just visiting.

UPDATE:

I realize this would be more interesting if I had pictures, but I'm too much of a stress ball to think about that. Plus, when you are sitting in a place with everyone in head scarfs and burkas, you kind of stick out like a sore thumb even without taking out a camera to snap pictures. Thankfully, between the driver, the maid, and myself - speaking 3 different languages at times - we visited 4 more clinics this morning which took a total of 2 more hours. I made quite a spectacle of myself as we entered the 4th and final destination. I tripped something awful on a step into the grand entryway. Yep. Classic Jolee, right? After more deliberation with the doctors there (mind you this is the very first place I visited!) we got the shot we so longed for. Get this, at one of the clinics the doctor signed off on all her paperwork and signed that she was cleared for the shot. If I had known that and could read Arabic, I would have shut my mouth but I had to explain we never got the shot. The doctor and his nurse had a heated debate and he told her to do it, but never again. :-) Ahhh... another memory.