Michael and I visited a public "health" clinic for our mandatory health screening, as the capstone to our visas. It was simple: a urine drug test and a blood HIV test. But let me back up...
I distinctly remember my 6th-grade teacher telling us in a DARE class that he would always insist his needles be opened right in front of him to make sure that they were clean. For some reason this story has always stuck in my mind, and as we walked into the clinic, I told Michael that we needed to insist on getting a clean needle. We didn't realize that we would have to insist that the blood-drawing lady put on gloves!
But it was indeed that way. We watched her draw blood from other patients, gloveless, so when it came Michael's turn, he asked her to wear gloves. She went to wash her hands. "No, gloves, please. It's for you--for your safety!" he said. A confused look followed. He gestured the donning of gloves. With a sigh and a huff, she went to fetch some gloves, as though her time were being wasted. She came back, not with surgical gloves, but with food service gloves. Sigh.
My turn came, and did she change her gloves? No, she did not. I vowed that I would seize her personal bank account if I contracted HIV. Not likely, but we were both surprised that in a developed country such as Korea, basic hygiene like gloves would be ignored. "Unbelievable!" We said as we left. "Unbelievable!"
3 comments:
Craziness - and good for you both for having the forsight to insist on gloves. I probably would've have been to distracted to notice until the needle was in my arm. But, anyway... I hope you are well and settling in.
The boys are doing the "bath/bed" routine and I am stealing a few minutes in the computer. Miss you!
that is all just creepy! thanks for the update! let us know how your new students are doing! I want to hear more about the time out's!
we love and miss you!!
Okay, so I think I can top this one. I came to work today and found a bloody--really bloody--tissue on my desk from some unknown corpse. When I started getting really grossed out a teacher just said, "Hmm," laughed, picked it up with his BARE HANDS, and threw it away. Well, I wasn't going to go back to my desk without having it cleaned first, so I went looking for a cleaner. Surprisingly, there are NO CLEANING SOLUTIONS at all in our office! Can you believe that?? So the teacher says, "Oh, just use a tissue and some water." I was like, "WHAT?!?" I'm convinced that Koreans have absolutely no concept of blood born pathogens! Their idea of medicine and sanitation is so warped... :S
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