Christmas in a Palestinian ER
I end my Middle East trip early. What I have kept from my blog is that I've suffered from severe diarrhea for the last week. I got some type of stomach virus or parasite while traveling, which has prevented me from digesting food or retaining fluid. My very kind host family in Bethlehem, seeing me nearly incoherent and unable to eat, recommended I go to the local clinic. On Christmas Day, I went to the ER in Bethlehem, which is part of the Occupied Territories in the West Bank. The people there were very hospitable. I gave them my American passport, and they charged me only 15 shekels to be seen by a doctor (less than $5!). Unlike your average U.S. ER, there were no lines, and they saw me right away. The place looked like any Western hospital, only a lot poorer. My initial impression, in my semi-coherent state, was that it looked kind of like the thrift store of hospitals, in that they didn't change the paper that was ontop of the hospital beds between patients, and most the c...