Only in Taiwan: emergency room for a mosquito bite

At the Master Teacher Retreat, we recalled that the great teachers we'd had went beyond the expected, beyond the traditional boundaries of the classroom and beyond the strictly professional to establish connections: between what we knew and what we wanted to learn, and between ourselves and others. They forged relationships by making us feel we mattered. They shared their passion and made it interesting. They thereby shared something personal through transparency and an openness.

That got me thinking. Most bloggers start personal and have a quandary when their audience grows; do you continue writing for personal fulfillment or do you write specifically for your audience? I started writing for teachers and I've put some useful practical pedagogical content in every post: very professional. As a result of the retreat, and since I'm on vacation in Taiwan – I'm going to change my tone. Push the center of gravity toward the audience. I tweeted last night about taking my son to the emergency room for a mosquito bite. Some people have demanded details.

While the bandage accentuates the size - it doesn't add to it. This picture doesn't really do justice to the size either - it looked HUGE last night.

I'm on about the tropical line here – much of the island is subtropical. The island supports wildlife different from what we find in Kansas, tho anything that can be eaten or used for or currency has likely been hunted to extinction, but bugs and the snakes are not to be trifled with. I have stories, having lived in the mountains, but this post belongs to the boy.

People here go to the doctor for things that would annoy a doctor in the states. Like when they get a cold. It’s dramatically cheaper to see the doctor – appointments aren't needed and I've never had to wait over 10 or 15 minutes. Also scratches that heal by themselves in dryer cooler climates get infected quick. This is the part of the world that through crowding and climate produces 75% or more of all the new virus strains. This different attitude toward the health profession causes cultural misunderstandings and friction – but in defense of my hosts, Taiwan and China have lower infant mortality rates than the U.S.

Translations cause problems. For example, the Chinese have 1 word for either a mouse or a rat. The distinction here seems academic; after all they are vermin. Mosquito gets translated as "wen-dz” but I'm not sure there aren't several small blood sucking varieties – and if not those here give tremendous welts - large red swellings with a hard center that produces multiple blisters. Scratch and they break and spread.

About noon on Sunday we noticed a reddening of his right ear. I guessed a mosquito bite.

5 hours later after his nap it seemed noticeably larger, and the multiple blisters presented. Iknow the pic is bad - but I was holding him in one arm, he was squirming, and I felt like I was being judged harshly for taking a picture at an inauspicous moment. I put up token resistance when Ah-gong (Grandpa in Taiwanese) offered to take him to the Doc. He normally drives more aggressively than the average local and that says something. In the late 90's Taiwan had the highest traffic mortality rate in the world. It's better now but I don't know if they've dropped in the rankings. The trip to the clinic put the fear in me a couple times.
The worst part was holding him down so the nurse could clean and dress the ear. If you've read the short story "the country doctor" by William Carlos Williams you can understand why I had to be the one to hold him and why I had to do it right.

For the first time I believed the expression parents use - it hurt me more than it did him. We were cool together afterwards, but the next morning he pointed at me and screamed "j'accuse" in a nasty resentful tone I havent seen before.