Off Base Doctor Visit

So yesterday we had quite an adventure! Mackey hasn't shown signs of getting better so we needed to take her to the doctor. This weekend is a Korean holiday known as The Lunar New Year and they told us everything will be shut down for it. It's one of two holidays that are really big here so the interstate becomes like a parking lot. I do believe a lot of you experience something like that yesterday and day before ;) ;) !

Any who! I decided I would video our way to the doctors and much more.

The taxi ride cost us 5,200 won (which is just about $5)to get there and $5 to get back. We found out that Mackey has a really bad sinus infection that caused both of her ears to become infected. She got so back up she started leaking yellow mucas out of her tear ducts, in which irritated the eyes and cause them to become red and swollen. Poor thing, one of her eyes only halfway opens and the other one is on it way down.

The doctor gave her eye drops, antibiotics, cough syrup, prescription tylenol, and something else(??)

Story also saw the doctor while we were there. She has had a cough that she couldn't get rid of and it's a good thing we got her checked out of well, cause the doc said that she was beginning to get an ear infection so she is also on cough medicine and antibiotics.

Mackey's Meds

Story's Meds

The doctor's office was interesting. When we walked in there were a bunch of people standing around and we were absolutely clueless of what to do. This nice Korean lady comes behind us and took a piece of paper with a number on it and hands one to us as well. THANK YOU! Then we wait for our number to appear at the desk and started to try to communicate with the receptionist. She told us to hold on a minute with her hands and she continued to call someone of the phone. She told us someone was coming down to speak English to us. SCORE! A nice lady by the name Jessica came and got our information and we headed upstairs to weigh the kiddos and get their height. I must have been looking at the wrong thing, cause later I told Andrew that it was funny that Mackey weighed 105  here and he said that was wrong that she weighed about 18kg opps...my bad.

Sidenote: There was a gentleman(Korean) holding his phone up at us..I believe he was trying to take a picture or video of us..it was strange but kinda of funny at the same time. 

After the girls got weighed we went to hang out at the door of the doctor we would see.

Side note: You see those mask above the sofa..you can put those on to help open the air way.

The doctor's door to the left. It had an electrical sign above which told us how many were in front of us and an estimated time on it.

Had to take a couple of pics with the new iPhone



When our name came up we walked into the office and their was the Doctor and a nurse to help assist him.

The girls sat in that little stool beside the doc

The translator was awesome, but the doctor was so animated with his hands we knew what he was saying without understanding his words. The girls were also very good for him. It was a nice experience, not stressful at all. Jessica also helped us out with checking out and taking us to a pharmacist to get our meds filled. We haven't had time to go anywhere to get our money exchanged over to Wons, so we ended up having to charge everything to a credit card. Since they do not direct bill the insurance we have to pay everything out of pocket and wait to be reimbursed from the insurance. Luckily their doctors are very reasonable and very efficient. The visit only cost us about $30 dollars and the pharmacist was not bad either. All the prescriptions cost only $50. We don't know how much insurance will cover, but even if it is $0 we are not that bad off.

Side note: Everyone here that is sick always wears a mask over their face, so we also bought the girls a washable mask for the times they get sick.

After we left the pharmacist we walked around the streets a bit and Story said she needed to use the potty. We came up on a Mickey D's and went in to run to the bathroom. It was a two story building and we had to go upstairs for the restroom. When we got downstairs, I suggested when get some ice-cream. It was funny seeing Andrew try to order. I think the lady taking it got a little frustrated.

Notice what she is wearing. Everyone working there looked so nice and clean. :)

Finally we got some ice-cream and sat down it eat.

 After ice-cream we got a taxi and headed back to the base. The girls feel asleep on the way over which only took about 10 minutes. As we left the taxi Andrew handed the guy an American $10 and the guy looked at Andrew and didn't know what to do. Andrew told him we need 5,000 won back and the guy finally realize and gave us our change. Andrew told me later that he saw the guy had a sash of money on the dashboard that he took from to give change to people. But with the American $10 we gave him, Andrew saw him put it in his wallet. I wish I could know what this guy was thinking at that moment.

Andrew's part of the blog:

As far as my job goes...I will be in charge of 113 Korean workers. Some of them are KN and some KSN. The difference is the KN are just civilians; the KSN's are a civilian/military mix. I am taking over a position that has not been filled for 4years. It has been taken care of by 3 people for the 3 different areas that I will now manage. I will have 5 camps that I will have to keep going. The good news is the 3 guys that ran the place while there was not anyone over the entire region will still be on board and available to assist me while I get my feet under me. 

On top of learning all of the regions that I will have to be over, I have a lot more manager responsibilities that I will have to take care of. I will have to take care of time cards, Billing official for credit cards, safety enforcer, on the job spot check, learning the difference between the 20 Mr. Kims and 10 Mrs. Kims that I have already met, performing mid point and year end evaluations, on call 24/7 and arranging with foreman when calls come in at night (luckily I have been told that calls are down from 30-40 a night to around 2-10), and communicating with people who barely speak or understand very much English.

We are definitely way out of our depth outside the gates and will have to learn some of the common phrases to not completely frustrate the locals. This weekend we will probably not go anywhere since it is Korean New Year. None of the Koreans even show up for work today and tomorrow . I'm keeping my fingers crossed that no major calls come in because me and hand full of guys are all that will be available.

If you would like to know anything in detail please feel free to ask in the comments or through Facebook. Hope everyone is safe and avoiding the snow and ice! It is a comfortable 50 degrees and sunny here ;)

WARNING!! TMI ->Funny sentence from Story this week: "The poopie came out."


Until next time!
God Bless