Officially a Trip

I think it's never officially a trip until you make a trip to the hospital, and our visit to Zanzibar provided the opportunity.  Or, since we were visiting Tanzania, a former British colony, I suppose it would be appropriate to take the more traditional British approach and say that we went to hospital.  And, further, in this case hospital would really mean a doctor's office.  In this case the doctor's office was that of Dr. Mehta, although he was busy and we saw the excellent Kamlesh Purbia.  The patient was Emma Michalowski, who thought it might be a good idea to change her contacts on the beach, and thus managed to get some grit in her contact and a scratched cornea.  She was pretty miserable, and was beginning to look like an unsuccessful boxer, so she and I passed on the music lesson at the Dhow Countries Music Academy (fortunately we went back that night for a concert) and went in search of a doctor.  On our walk downtown we had gone by Dr. Mehta's Hospital every day, and decided to give it a shot.  The walk-in hours were listed as beginning at 8:00, although, classically, in Zanzibar that didn't really mean 8:00.  At 9:00 we began to knock and eventually a very nice nurse opened and let us in.  We spent the next hour and a half there and I'm happy to report that we received first rate treatment.  And it was also air-conditioned, which made Emma very happy (and she quickly dozed off waiting for her next round of eye drops).  They asked for our insurance information, which we could give them because Champlain was insistent that we carry the information at all times.  They said it looked good, and then charged us $125 ($137.40 once you factored in the 10% charge to use the credit card), so I'm not really certain what the insurance actually covered.  I would think that even in the US you could see a doctor and get some eye drops for $125, although maybe I'll delusional (or even more delusional than normal).  Still, I'm not complaining.  They were extremely nice and professional and Emma felt better very quickly, so it actually became one of my favorite moments from the trip.

Obviously Dr. Mehta is pretty famous, as shown by the fact that there is a sign for his house.  I think the current Dr. Mehta is the grandson of the original Dr. Mehta.  There were all sorts of pictures on the wall of various Dr. Mehtas meeting various famous people.

And here is the patient, who was soon fast asleep as she waited for her next round of eye drops and enjoyed the air conditioning.  And to think, she went on our Jordan trip last year and she was allegedly on this trip because of her experience as an international traveler.

Kamlesh Purbia, who looked after Emma.  He was a very nice guy who was completely on top of things.

And Emma's drops, one set antibiotic and the other steroid for pain and swelling.  I suspect you'd get something very similar in the US.

While killing time during Emma's nap I read all the signs on the wall.  This one was my favorite.  It walked you through what you were supposed to do to treat a bite from a Black Mamba.  With my brutish Arabic I figured out that Mamba must actually be an Arabic word, because it's quite common to form the plural by adding an extra A in the middle of the word.