Since signing for our house we have all been ill with various illnesses and bugs - mixture of colds, flu and the common missionary complaint. Mark has had a tickly cough to go with his sore throat and cold and so headed off to the pharmacy in search of some cough mixture. Now here in Peru, you don't need a prescription to get medication and you just ask for whatever you want. Don't be fooled into thinking, however, that the pharmacy staff have received any sort of training whatsoever, so you must ask for the description to go with any drugs you buy to know how many and how long you should take something.
'I have a sore throat' - Mark says to the lady at the counter, whilst Daniel is trying to grab at anything within reach. 'Do you have anything for me? A bottle of cough medicine?'
'Si, Si' - the lady replied, disappearing into the shelves, and reappearing. 'That'll be 22 soles'.
She showed Mark two packets of tablets.
'These are for a sore throat?' Mark said cautiously.
'Si, Si' - came the reply.
With Daniel threatening to destroy the money tray with one karate whack, Mark hurriedly paid for the tablets and left.
Later on that day...
Feeling his throat getting worse, Mark heads for the tablets, downing the paracetamol-looking one, whilst throwing me the instructions.
'Why did you get tablets?' - I asked reading the description. 'I thought you were getting some cough mixture.'
'I was' - Mark replied. 'That's what she gave me'
'Mark, did you actually read the description?' I retorted, not believing what I was reading. 'Why have you got tablets for chronic bronchitus and pneumonia??'
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