Sick Bay Inmate

No, not guards outside the Peace Corps sickbay. It's the scene outside the Presidential Palace

Welcome to the Hospital California--aka the Peace CorpsMed Hut--where you can check out anytime, but you can never leave. Once they get their rubber-gloved hands on you here, they never loosen their grip. It has been 16 days since I checked in here. I thought i would be out in one. But nothing is ever that simple in the Peace Corps. I came because i had lost a crown from a tooth while on vacation in Portugal. I didn't actually lose it; i saved it in a small baggy and brought it back to Dakar. I thought it would be a simple matter just to pop it back on. No such luck. While fishing around in my mouth, the dentist found a cavity in my uncapped tooth, Filling it meant that the old cap wouldn't fit anymore. So he had to fit me for a new one. that, of course, wouldn't be back from the lab for a week. In the meantime, I had a appointment with a cardiologist. I managed to sneak away for a few days for a workshop in Theis, but had to return early to get the new cap. But after i took the train back to Dakar, and went directly to the dentist's office, well, the cap didn't quite fit.

No worries said the Lebanese dentist. (He really didn't put it that way. He's not Australian. but that was his point.) Just leave it in overnight, and hopefully it will settle. (Actually, this is said in an amalgam of English and French.) Well, that seemed kind of strange to me, but well, he's the doctor.

So I grabbed an espresso and hopped a cab back to sickbay, way uptown. A bit later, as i was eating dinner i felt a sharp shard in my mouth. It was, of course, a piece of the new cap. That killed my chance of returning to the workshop the next day, Friday. I went to the dentist instead. Time to have a new cap make, he decided. That meant i would be spending the weekend in sick bay.

Fortunately, some friends were in Dakar, and we dined on Indian food (not bad) and seafood at Maree at the Point de Almadies (excellent).

 I had an appointment for Tuesday morning to receive the new cap and that afternoon to see the cardiologist. The cap fit perfectly so it was back to sick bay. All of this back and forth is costing me money. Sometimes a PC driver takes me. Most often i have to catch a cab back for 3,000 CFAs. I got a ride to the cardiologist later with a Peace Corps driver. Once there i learned that the appointment was for Wednesday, not Tuesday!