Will picked up a cough, stuffy nose, and diarrhea sometime yesterday afternoon. He was clingy this morning and uncharacteristically whiny. We discovered that the home phone is now functional (hooray!) and I used it to call the pediatrician. We had an appointment at 4 with Dr. Spangenberg of Pediatras Asociados. He was great; easily one of the best visits I’ve had with a physician. Will seemed to like him as well, especially after Dr. Spangenberg gave him a lollipop (right before Will had a diarrhea incident and got changed right on the exam desk while I spoke with the doctor!) It was expensive: 180 soles (a little less than $60) but the state of mind it bought us made it worth it. We now have a pediatrician in the city in the event of emergency and a baseline for Will in the event of serious illness.
Other acheivements: I have a working cell phone! I managed to get it functional and acquire the prepago ClaroRecarga tarjetas. It’s pretty darn expensive (roughly 2.5 soles per minute to local cell phones not on Claro plans) but worth it for how we need to use it.
On the work front, I began to make appointments and contacts. I met for the early afternoon with a medical student who is interning on a fellowship with PRISMA, a local health organization that works in various barrios in Lima but most notably with Las Palmas. She has no real research background so I’m helping a bit with that, specifically with survey and questionnaire design, in return for networking. I’ll go with her to PRISMA on Thursday afternoon.
Interesting moment. I didn’t have enough cash to pay the doctor’s office (of course they only take VISA and we only brought M/C to Lima — we should have known better!) but I did have my emergency US $20. So I ventured out to find someone to change the bill. Street changers are the common way to change — and the one I used hassled me! He insisted that I didn’t give him the bill and I insisted I did, showing that I no longer had US bills in my hand. When he pressed me, I asked him if he wanted to ask the police guard on the other corner what he thought of the situation and walked away. This happened on a very busy street corner with Will in the stroller with me. It may have been a mistake on his part. I learned that I performed a slight breech of ettiquette by giving him the bill in trade: you are suppose to inspect the soles (look for a watermark) and after clearing each one, then give the bill. I didn’t quite do this, so maybe it was an honest mistake. But it certainly didn’t feel that way so I’ll stick to my “how I handled the guy who hassled me” story. I will be more careful to follow full protocol in the future (or suck it up and wait in line at the bank.)
Will and I did make a stop at Wong (same store from yesterday) as the pediatrician is up in the same ovalo. Found out that you can pay in US dollars and get change back in soles. Wow. We also took Will to the park this evening to run around at twilight before bed. The Lima coastline is truly a beautiful place for sunsets.
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