Peace Corps Email #19

Rather than sharing an email home this week, I found a statement I wrote about my leaky eye syndrome.  Since I usually tell the story of my eye drama whenever I tell people I was in the Peace Corps, I thought it was interesting.

I was attempting to be "adult" and "calm" when I wrote this-- the nasal-lachrymal unblocking was far more traumatic than I let on--the tiny metal rods I describe were gabbed into my eye socket and came out my nose with a TON of blood and tissue. 

The Moldovan eye specialist was a short little man wearing what I swear to God were women's glasses--complete with pink frames that didn't fit his face.  Allowing him to JAB a metal rod into my eye was one of the most horrific experiences of my life.  It might have been compounded by the fact that he didn't speak Romanian or English--only Russian--and also didn't warn me of the upcoming trauma.

It was more terrifying than painful...but I needed Valium for that second appointment.  And I shot of whiskey.
Funnily enough, Leaky Eye Syndrome didn't turn out to be pink eye or an issue with my nasal-lachrymal canal--it was a simple allergy to chicken feathers.  See, my pillow was made out of chicken feathers (that my host mom plucked herself) and I always slept with the right side of my face smooshed into the pillow.  With 1 minor allergy drop a day and a new pillow, my NINE MONTHS of eye drama was over.  Oh, and when the AMERICAN eye specialist realized it was an allergy, I allowed him to cut off my wart/cyst.  It hasn't come back, thank God.