Last week I (Meagan) had a really itchy rash for about four days that wasn't going away. I wasn't too concerned, it was just really annoying and we were confused as to what it might be from. We had been on the island for nearly two weeks so we were worried it might be something in the boat (fleas, lice, etc). We made the decision to go to the doctor and it was unlike any doctor's visit we had in the states. For starters, we had to take a taxi into town- which took about 25 minutes. When we arrived at the doctor's office, I was surprised that it was just a small house that had been converted into an office. It was tucked away behind the main street and the only thing differentiating it from other local houses was the fact that it had a sign that said "doctor's office" on the front. We had called in advance to see if the doctor would be in, and he said he would return from lunch at 2. We waited until 2:20 before we saw him strolling up the road. He clearly was in no hurry at all. Island time. Immediately after looking at my arms, he knew it was a reaction to fiberglass. I was impressed because he didn't even know we were living on a boat in a boat yard. He took all notes from my visit on a little 3X5 notecard and filed it away. And then to my surprise, the cost of the visit was only $23. I was relieved because I was initially concerned it would be expensive without insurance. When we went to pay, we only had USD and he did not have enough change to break our $100 bill into the Eastern Caribbean currency. The doctor was not worried, and told us to walk down to the pharmacy to get my prescriptions and stop by an ATM on the way back and just to pay him when we were done. This shocked me. First of all, I cannot imagine any uninsured doctor's visit costing anywhere near $23, and I definitely could not picture a doctor being like, "oh it's fine, just pay me whenever". Anyways, we got my three prescriptions which were a total of $10 and then of course, went back and paid him. The honesty and integrity of people around here continue to amaze me. It seems like in the US, we are programmed to think people are up to no good. But here, it seems like everyone thinks the best of other people and they live in a world where nobody would even think to not come back and pay the doctor for the visit. It is crazy how different my medical experience was here, but it was really cool to see a culture that is still so genuine.
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