Las Drogas

Apparently I am beyond allergic to something in Guatemala. Last week I was sneezing more than I have ever sneezed in my entire life. I thought I was just sick with a cold I picked up from the students who use my shirt as both a napkin and a tissue, and who like to braid my hair with sticky hands immediately after their snack of oranges. Yet one day I took a hay fever pill that one of the volunteers had just in case, and things cleared up a great deal. So Im now thinking my allergies are because of the new plants, dirt roads, and the huge amounts of smoke in the air from the wood stoves that are constantly burning to make the massive amounts of tortillas each day by the women and girls in Santa Maria.

The moral of this so-far very uninteresting story, is that I quickly realized I had to find some drugs of my own here in Guatemala. I found the nearest farmacia and struggled through broken spanish to explain I have alergias from too much polvo (dust). I was quickly given a quote for the cost and handed a box of drugs. No prescription, no waiting, not much money, all added to a quick and easy errand but also some slight apprehension towards the way drugs are distributed here.

Back in the states before I left, I visited Walgreens 3 times and called them 5 just to get a vacation override for a prescription for 2 months. Insurance and pharmaceutical companies in America have some serious work to do, but Im not sure openly handing out drugs is the ideal alternative....

In conclusion, I should be able to teach for more than 3 minutes without having a sneezing attack. That is, if I did indeed end up with basic allergy pills. And at least we will find out if my spanish is good enough not to kill me...