I took Ron to a neighborhood doctor, as he still doesn’t feel well. He started flu symptoms on Thursday and today is Tuesday. He got dressed for work, came down to breakfast then went back to bed. Veena gave me the name of her doctor who is three blocks away and we got in first thing this morning. The doctor is probably in his 70’s and has a sign in the front office that reads “no charge for services between 9:00 and 12:30”. I about fell over. When we went in, he talked with Ron and told him there was a viral epidemic in Colombo right now and he thought he would feel better tomorrow. He changed his prescriptions and ordered another blood test. When he was finished, I told him we understood he didn’t charge for his services but we would like to make a donation for those who couldn’t afford medicines. He said he had everything he needed so why charge for his services. He graciously accepted the donation. Let me know when you find a doctor in the US who has a similar attitude. It is a lesson for all of us. Those of us with money to spare can afford to be generous to those who have to go without. My socialist attitude is showing.

Today’s paper has an article about SL government exporting rice (called paddy here) to India. Because the government here subsidizes fertilizers for paddy farmers, they had a bumper paddy harvest. The government also buys the paddy from the farmers for 17.50 Rupees per kilo. That is $0.175 for 2.2 pounds. The government paddy stores are filled to the brim. They need to sell some to make room for the next harvest. So they are exporting 50,000 metric tons to India.

It’s now Friday. Ron has had several trips to the lab at the hospital for more blood work. We have been to Dr Goonenarathne’s office three times now. He is a sweetie. We always go first thing in the morning because the way appointments are scheduled in SL is you get a number, like at Baskin Robbins. You are called in when your number is up that way unrealistic expectations are not created thinking you will get in at 9:15 if that is when your appointment is like in the US. We have all had the experience of a doctor being behind schedule and finding ourselves irritated. This way you only know where you are in the line up, not when you will actually see the doctor. Since we go a little before 9:00, we get to see the doctor enter the office. He usually arrives about 5 minutes after nine. When he enters the room, most of the patients stand to greet him. It is rather sweet.

So after all the tests we now know Ron had Dengue fever that is carried by mosquitoes. No wonder he felt so bad. One of his consultants from Vancouver WA also had Dengue while he was here. Bummer. There are four strains of Dengue and once you have had a particular strain, you are immune to it. We will only hope this is our last episode with Dengue. It is NOT fun. However since he didn’t have an appetite for six days, he has slimmed down to a weight I have never seen on him. Not my idea of how to lose weight however. The big conference that Ron has been planning for months ended yesterday and for the most part all went well and TAF is already talking about doing it next year. Ron is glad he won’t be here for that.

Four of his staff came by last night after the conference to see how he was doing and to tell him how the conference went. It was very touching that they took the time to come see him. Today after the trip to the hospital for more lab work, we stopped by his office. Everyone from the TAF director to the secretaries gave Ron a warm welcome and expressed relief that he was okay and getting better. I went by the lab this afternoon to pick up his results and his platelets count is up and within the normal range. YEAH!! We are relieved to say the least. His appetite is coming back and his energy is increasing daily. He hopes to return to work on Monday. Tomorrow we need to do something to alleviate his cabin fever so may go to a photography show. Nothing too ambitious.

Well that’s it from the land of mosquitoes, some less hostile than others.