It's a Wednesday, so today was time with peer tutors, various activities, an excursion and a doctor's visit.

Since Kathleen was in town, and since this was her only opportunity to see something outside of Bishkek (and she is a great lover of hiking), I offered her my seat on the excursion. Originally we had planned on this trip to be to the Kegeti gorge, but instead they went somewhere closer. It ended up being a picnic near a minor waterfall. An adequate trip, but no great shakes. The really good part was that she could see how our language coaches worked with the students, and frankly, the language coaching (previously called peer tutoring') here is the best we have worked with. Our partner, the London School, did a nice job training the language coaches, and they are executing their training, keeping the conversation in Russian at every turn. I'm proud of them.)

One of our students needed to take a trip to the doctor today; probably she ate something funky. Her host mom was kind in insisting to accompany her. Here is what the doctor prescribed:

• нолицин = Norfloxacin (often used for bacterial gastroenteritis in the fUSSR). These are the tablets he gave her.
• ципрокс = Ciprofloxacin (for IV drip), often used for gastrointestinal infection.
• метронд (?) is most likely metronidazole (for drip), which is often used in combo with Ciprofloxacin in treating "community-acquired abdominal infections in adults."
• глюкоза = glucose for IV drip
• шприц = syringe
• Аскорбиновая кислота = ascorbic acid, i.e. a monster vitamin C jolt, which I think was the injection. BTW, I'm less confident about my deciphering of the handwriting on this one.
• Система = system (for IV administration)

They left the office. Bought the stuff. Having received the Rx, she returned to the doctor's office. They administered the short-term medications.

I reviewed the doctor's Rx. All seems sensible, though the vitamin C bit seemed oddish, though harmless. On the whole the diagnosis seems consistent with the "infectious gastroenteritis" diagnosis he told her, at least from a complete layman's perspective. That would be consistent with eating food in tourist places or post-excursion infection. (Of course, I am a total layman, so my commentary has no serious professional import.)

The most amusing thing was this: the bill for the doctor's visit was $8.50. I don't mean to imply that doctors in the US should charge the same. I just want you to feel how vastly different different parts of the world are.