Pharmacy Experience

Dissimilarity and Consistency:I had a swollen ankle so wondered if I could get some naproxen at my local pharmacy. You need a prescription for it in the U.S. I wanted to cut down the inflammation, since I will be doing some walking, which had brought it on in the first place. Egyptian pharmacies sell Raid (anti-insect spray) as well as products we're more accustomed to: drugs, hand sanitizer,shampoo, lotion, etc. I gave the pharmacist (usually a she, who knows quite a bit of English and has training) the English name; and she looked up the Egyptian equivalent in a handbook. The Egyptian version is called Maxipan and includes naproxen (200 mg) and diffusal (200 mg). Egyptian pharmacists can be quite helpful if you know what you want; they aren't diagnosticians. My packet did not have an expired date and was kept in an air-conditioned shop; so I thought I did quite well. The cost was $1.50 for 10 caplets. The medicine had been manufactured by the Tenth of Ramadan Company in Sixth of October City. Those are the dates Sadat launched the 1973 war against Israel. Strange Glasses: The family practitioner for the U.S. Embassy (he can't treat us but offered advice at yesterday's orientation) wore eyeglass frames with magnets at bridges for attachment between the lenses. I had never seen these before. He called them his "old man" glasses. A string kept them around his neck once he had them on. I really didn't see the advantage. Temperature Change: The high today was 91°. When you're used to temperatures in the upper 90*s, that can seem like a welcome change. At about 7:30 PM, it was down to 84° with a slight breeze. When temperatures are in the extremes, one becomes sensitized to even slight changes. Probably due to the warm weather, Egyptians get up later (10-11:00 AM) and stay up much later than we're accustomed to. Politeness: At the orientation yesterday, I learned that if you add hadritak (-ik for women), you will get much more willing responses when requesting information or assistance. I tried it on the waiter in the nearby hotel, when asking for the bill; and I could see his immediate attention. Egyptians are very polite because of their religious principles; and this term is a way of being extremely polite. Of course, there are some Egyptians who don't live up to these standards, as there are rude people in every society. I can feel that I'm putting into practice some of the advice I had learned in books in the U.S. It makes a difference to actually be living in a country and interacting with its people on a daily basis.