This End is Just a Beginning

Day 2

I handed the pharmacist the white slip of paper with the medicines and instructions the teacher had prescribed me. She had outlined the process in 4 easy steps:

1. Eat 100 grams of pumpkin seeds.
2. After 2 hours (once the pumpkin seeds are digested), add 60 grams of betel nut (a mild stimulant the Sanya locals often chewed) to water. Boil water, let cool, and drink.
3. Pour 20 grams of white crystal (I forget the Chinese name) into a cup of hot water. Drink.
4. Shit.

The pharmacist rummaged briefly in several plastic compartments that made up an entire wall until she found what she was looking for. She handed Dan and me 24 bags of Chinese sorcery and potions. I touched them gingerly in wonder and awe. I felt uncertain and nervous, but I was curious more than anything. I was practically a Chinese-traditional-medicine virgin (other than my bout with the cold), but regardless my teacher decided my journey would be Chinese traditional. Since we weren't opposed to the idea, we consented to taking the scenic route. We were in for the ride. There was no denying it though, the entire process, including the medicine, was so foreign and unusual, like a bizarre aquatic creature. I was accustomed to the simple Western solutions: take 1 tablet every 4 hours. But Dorothy, we’re not in Kansas anymore. That’s for sure. When in China do as the Chinese do.

The pharmacist was completely unaware of my slight anxiety in seeing weird white crystals and dried nuts as the answer to my health problem. She was interested more in the fact we were foreigners, and that the white one could speak decent Chinese. She casually tossed all 24 bags in two small plastic bags, tied them, and placed them on top of the glass display case containing more Chinese medicine. She explained each medicine, and the directions more thoroughly-- patiently responding to our questions. She ended the entire affair by praising Dan’s Chinese, an appropriate ending to our two-day ordeal. After all, it was his Chinese that maneuvered us through the affair, bringing us to the tiny pharmacy at the No. 363 hospital, and to the end of our trek through China's hospitals.