Well, I'll start with the second rabies shot I needed to get (you know you have to get three, spread out a week or two between them, so I've been making sure I am in a centre where I can get it on the right days, so this is the second one.... in Pondi...)
After having walked passed a couple of hospitals and seeing all the people milling around inside the corridors of the recommended hospital for rabies vaccinations, I decided to try another option this time. This town is not as big as Chennai, and so there aren't the same options for private hospitals here. I had seen this sign which was square and green with a cross on it and said 'medical vaccinations', so decided to go and see if they could give out rabies shots. A tall guy with a shaven head was standing behind the counter, he smiled shyly and spoke in quietly in English. He told us that rabies vaccination was "possible", but we needed to go to this doctor first, and then get the vaccination after. We didn't quite understand how it would work, maybe we needed a prescription in order to by the vaccine, and then he would administer it? Anyhow, we just did as he said, and followed his instructions to the doctor around the corner. By now it was night time, and the streets were lit up or dark if there were no shops around. This doctor was down a side street, a more residential area.
Approaching the open lite door, we could see women holding small children rocking them in comfort, and men waiting outside by the motorbikes, or with older children. There was hardly room in the waiting room as it was only a few square metres in size, and all the seats were filled to the brim with large sareed women. We leaned halfway in the door and half on the steps of the building, unsure about where we fitted in to the queue... if there was one. Soon we edged further in, and later someone offered us a seat. I panicked slightly when I realised that the more time passed, the more women with sick children turned up -were we ever going to get seen to?
I shouldn't have worried, because the doctor saw us and seeing my 'rabipur vaccine card' told us he would 'just get' the vaccine and cal us shortly. After about 20 minutes the sidekick of the guy from the vaccine shop came with a coolbag in his hand, smiling at me and wiggling his head from side to side.
In the doctor's room, he administered the shot into my arm before I knew what was happening, and continued to talk about Christchurch with us for the next ten minutes (I felt so bad for the women and babies waiting so patiently outside. It was getting late now too). Anyhow, all good and done, we squeezed back past the women to the street, relieved and happy. Same price as the doctors without the half-day wait and the shuffling around to different departments. Good.
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