I have just recovered from some sort of throat sickness. It was weird because, I wasn’t coughing much, my head was fine, I didn’t have a fever, no runny nose, but I had a severely soar throat. SEVERELY! I mean I was on the brink of crying. I was really going to cry. It was extremely painful every time I swallowed. You can never truely conceive how much you swallow until it feels like someone has stabbed you in the back of the throat with a white-hot knife. Yeeeeeeaaaaaaah. So anyways, teaching was very difficult. I would take a bunch of over the counter drugs and random pills that my coworkers handed me and then I would go off to teach my classes. The medicine would make life a little bit more bearable, however, towards the end of the day the drugs would wear out and so would I leaving a very exhausted Juba.
After about two days of this, I couldn’t take it any more and I asked about going to the doctor. I had naïve apprehensions about doing this, because a doctor’s visit in the States is like handing over your entire paycheck just so they can tell you what you already knew before. Or better yet, so they can tell you what you just told them… and a prescription. Things are different in Korea, yes the doctor told me what I already knew but the visit was only twelve dollars! Ruined by US health practices, my natural skepticism led me to think: Sure, the doctor’s visit was twelve bucks but the price of my medicine is surely going to bury me. Nope, the cost of my three times a day for three days prescription was $11.30.
Since then, my realization that I have a fear of going to the doctor (the person paid to make you better) because of what I know will happen to me financially has resurfaced. Because of this fear, spanning my entire adult life, I have avoided the help of the person designated to help me. The system is fucked. The thing is, everybody knows it and there is no change we just take and deal. Why is that? Why do we just let injustice happen? Is it because of our ignorance? Is it because we are conditioned to feel helpless and there’s nothing we can do about it? Is it because there's so much shit on our plate, we become overwhelmed and just do wat we can to get by?
Whatever the reason, the system is fucked and there needs to be change… real CHANGE not fake propaganda bull you know what. Change has to come from the people, not political figures or a government whose only interest caring for itself and not you or me or your mother or your grandmother or your local grocer.
Anyways, that’s it for now and of course there’s more to come. I haven’t said anything about my weekend, so stay tuned. Pictures are a must.
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2 comments:
Preach it, Juba! I concur... the system(s) are corrupt and we only perpetuate the cycle. Don't just talk about it... be about it.
Amazing what a little sore throat can mobilize one to do.... or say! i am still uninsured and still wary of doctors... and not only because of the money thing, but because they are HUMAN. humans don't really "know" anything, do they? they speculate, they test, they experiment... and at the end of the day, you're right back where you started, but with various drugs (and all their little side effects) floating through your body.
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