Dr. Mehta's

I am so desperately far behind in posting to this blog that it is sometimes daunting.  Of course, with that in mind I'm also just beginning another big personal blogging challenge (sort of like my daily examination of Proust, although not for 737 straight days) so I may never get caught up.  That said, I'm a person who tends to accomplish a lot more when I'm busy so who knows. Here's a picture I snapped outside Dr. Mehta's Hospital in Stone Town on the island of Unguja in Zanzibar. I have this dream: taking students to Zanzibar and NOT having to visit Dr. Mehta's.  It seems like a simple dream, almost manageable dream, but I doubt if I'll ever realize it.  I know I posted about visiting Dr. Mehta's a couple years ago, but it's still something that happens on every trip.  It's not as if they doctors and nurses at Dr. Mehta's aren't pleasant, because they are unfailingly nice, as well as being hard working and competent, but it's also a stress that I don't need.  On our first two trips to Zanzibar we made one trip to Dr. Mehta's each (oh, and it's Hospital like the British use the term, more like a small private clinic).  This last time we were doing so well, and then we ended up taking students to Dr. Mehta's four straight days.  As it turns out none of them were serious, happily, but it was almost comical.  At the end of the third visit I smiled at the doctor and said, "See you tomorrow," which made her laugh. She laughed harder when I walked again with a different student.  It defies our understanding of math, really: four different students with four completely different problems, none of them caused by being in Africa. Still, on the positive side, it's great to have a place like Dr. Mehta's to go to, so I really shouldn't complain.

Just one Dr. Mehta-free visit . . . just one . . .