Shot in the...

Somehow it's Saturday again. Saturdays mean sleeping in to 9 a.m. or even later - sheer decadence. Since I spend way too much time in front of the computer during working hours, I'm fighting my aversion now for another update.

Last Saturday I went into Antakya with Ferhat and Guzin for late afternoon. We went for food, wandered around the mysterious twistings of an older section and then ate Kunefe, this incredibly rich dessert that Hatay is known for. It's very good but I shouldn't have eaten a whole one - on top of our awesomely good dinner I was sick as a dog (literally and figuratively) afterwards. Even more thrilling was when we went to get the dolmush back to our village they'd stopped running - there was a bunch of our team members who'd also been in town for the day/evening there too, the company actually called another one to come and get us all half hour later - but an unfun ride for me trying not to vomit along the way (I was successful in that endeavor at least).

Monday Bike (pronounced Bee-kay) was going to see an eye doctor and I went along because my ear was getting worse again. After she did her thing at the eye clinic/hospital we went along to the private hospital of Antakya where all the girls who work the desks and assist the doctors wear green and white striped shirts and lots of makeup as well as look vaguely similar. The doctor there sent a camera down my ear, then a vacuum tube and water, then stuffed it full of gauze drenched in iodine. All in the space of 2 minutes. Ouch.

Apparently it was serious - not gravely but almost. The pharmacy provided me with a bunch of drugs including shots - yikes. Bike's dad is an ear, nose and throat specialist so she talked to him that evening to get a second opinion on what seemed an extreme treatment. He agreed and so I began the fun of shots twice a day of antibiotics for five days. That first night Mara on our team wielded the needle, but the following day and since I've had Barrati, the village handyman, as my shot-giver. He inoculates the village children and obviously knows what he's doing, which is a relief. 500 ml of antibiotic twice a day along with two kinds of ear drops and painkiller seem to be doing the trick, I have 2 shots left and then my hope is that this ear will actually stay open instead of teasing as it's been doing. I've been striving to take care of myself and get lots of sleep, all that jazz... I'm not a patient patient.

What's nice though is that so many people care. And are entertained by my injections (which is silly). A little tiny bit of gold has been discovered on site, squares are fighting to find features in some, others to make sense of the seeming mess they have in front of them. I've learned about Cypriot pottery from Ekin, our expert, as I helped her enter data and proof-read a paper she'd written. Drama continues but at a minimum (seemingly), now I'm here wondering what to do with the swiftly disappearing free hours I have left for today. Perhaps I'll venture to the museum in Antakya, work up the energy for farther afield once I'm whole again. At least the Turkish is coming along bit by bit - the young ladies that wash bones and pottery chatter with us in the mornings in a mix of English and Turkish, so that's helping a bunch too. Once again one has to be an utter fool to survive.