Starting Off On The Wrong Foot

"So I'll be the king, you can be the queen, Mommy will be the guard, Daddy will be the Duke and Matheus can be….the horse!" Sennen offered while playing with his sister on Petra Beach. It was a shockingly low status for their beloved Matheus who had already suffered today. When I reacted in surprise, they rethought their plan and offered Matheus the position of unicorn – which he accepted. On further consideration, the king and queen decided to elevate Matheus to Earl. I'm not sure what part any of us played in their game which they mostly played themselves – but at least Matheus' dignity was restored.

Matheus' day didn't start out much better. After more than a day with sea urchin spines still in his foot and having tried both olive oil and vinegar as advised – as if his foot was a Greek salad – the spines had still not come out. While not in pain, Matheus was concerned that he still had foreign objects in his foot and certainly didn't want to risk an infection or some other unforeseen complication. So, we decided to take him to the Patmos Health Center this morning. 

Patmos doesn't have a hospital. It has a few doctors in private practice and then the Health Center which is a hybrid urgent care – emergency room. Any accident or medical problem beyond the Health Center's capacity gets sent – usually by air lift – to a hospital in Samos, Kos, Rhodes, Athens or Crete for pediatrics. Thankfully, Emily and I have never had occasion to visit the Health Center – which left us not knowing what exactly to expect. 

Logically, the Health Center is located  along the road between Skala and Hora – giving access to both towns, but requiring anyone in need of services to drive or be driven there. Matheus and I arrived a little after 9am and parked next to the only other car in the lot. 

As we walked up to what looked a lot like the entrance of an American emergency room, a nurse in blue scrubs came toward us and asked, "What happened? Tell me…"

Matheus explained about the sea urchin and we were asked to wait at a bench at the side of the hallway. There appeared to be moo other patients, just some clinical staff members. We waited no more than a minute when a nurse and two other people came out from the large double doors that appeared to be the entrance to where the medicine takes place. The three people were all speaking Greek and I could make out the key terms of ear and antibiotics from their conversation. One of the ostensible patients then left the facility and the other, dressed in yellow pants and a t-shirt, looking as though he had just come from hanging out with friends at a barbecue walked toward us and asked Matheus to describe the problem.

The man who turned out to be the doctor then waved his hand and shrugged saying that there was nothing to do about it. Then he asked us back to what turned out to be an exam room and surgical area and asked Matheus to lay down on his stomach so he and the nurse could get a good look at the Matheus' left foot. The doctor had Matheus sit up, explained in a somewhat lengthy way that the sea urchin spines are organic and that they will completely dissolve in time. Tryin to extract them would essentially be minor surgery and to no real benefit as it might expose him to infection whereas the spines pose little to no risk…excecpt maybe for tetanus…. The doctor then thought to ask when Matheus' last tetanus shot was, which turns out to have been 14 years ag0 – four years too long ago.

The doctor said that while getting the shot within 24 hours of the spines going in his foot would have been the most effective, he still strongly suggested Matheus get a tetanus shot. He then got a piece of paper, wrote something on it and told us to go to a pharmacy (either of the two in Skala) and get the tetanus shot serum, bring it back to him and he would administer the shot.

Without asking questions about why the facility didn't have vaccines on hand or whether what he wrote constituted a legal prescription, we thanked the doctor and I asked what we should pay. 

"Greece is a rich country! Everything here is for free!"

The nurse then remembered she should have Matheus register his name in their ledger. He gave his name, but no passport number or any other identifying information was needed, no paperwork was done, no medical record printed out.

Matheus and I went to our car – now the only one in the lot – and drove down to the nicer pharmacy in the front of town where we showed the paper, immediately received a box of tetanus vaccine and paid 10.77 euros. We then drove back up the hill and as we walked into the Health Center, a different nurse walked up and asked us back to the exam room where she took the box from Matheus, removed the vial of serum, put it in a syringe and administered the shot. We were then sent on our way with nor further ado.

And that's how a medical problem gets solved in Patmos.

From there, the rest of the day was a breeze. First we stopped by the Marechiara Gelateria run by Andrea, a very nice man and a great gelato maker from Naples. He allowed the kids to watch him make gelato and gave them a brief lesson on his craft. Afterward, we visited Nichola, his wife Theologia and family and brought them flowers as a thank you for their kindness and hospitality during our periodic visits. Of course that triggered more hospitality and we were all served fresh, homemade zucchini pie, orange cake and cookies and the kids were given stale bread to feel to the goats and chickens (and the couple of giant rabbits in the same pen who seem to think they're goats). Sennen and Ailyn ran around the grounds and discussed the names and personalities of all the goats.

Emily got to say her goodbyes – always sad to leave Nichola and family as well as Patmos.

We then went to Ktima Petra, my favorite restaurant with its own organic farm, for lunch before going to adjacent Petra Beach for the afternoon. Petra with its gorgeous, intensely blue calm water, pebble beach and island across the way remains the favorite of all the adults while Sennen often denounces it. However, today he revisited his assessment, moving its ranking to his number two beach – a major gain for Petra. This may be in part because he remembered how fun it is to throw rocks into the water- especially with his mom, and also because it's an especially great beach for swimming. Sennen also said that he liked that there were more people at Petra this time – and it was shockingly busy. The irony is that one of the reasons the adults like it is because it's usually one of the least busy beaches on the island. Nonetheless, we had a family swim and a really nice time on the beach. Because Emily leaves tomorrow night, this was her goodbye to Petra and she was a little sad when we departed.

After a brief stop at home, Emily and I went out for our last dinner out on Patmos for the summer. We chose a small seafood restaurant on the beach in Skala that we hadn't yet tried. The tables are all candlelit and we have seen the restaurant full almost every night. We went for what is considered an early dinner – 7:30 – so we could get a table. We sat and had a slow, enjoyable meal for two hours. Much to our surprise, the enormous Blue Star 1 ferry from Athens – the same one that brought us here this trip – pulled in at about 8:45 and took at least a half hour to unload, board and continue. Usually the Blue Star ferries come and go in the middle of the night. When I asked the restaurant manager why there was a ferry at this time, he said that during the first weeks of August, the ferry line adds an additional ferry to the region to meet the demand and that Saturday gets an extra boat from Athens.

Strolling back through town after dinner, we ran into Nichola's eldest son, Yiannis who explained further that this week will be the busiest of the year for Patmos with 100% occupancy. Yiannis explained that during the second week of August, even the cheapest houses and apartments go for 500 euros a night. While we were talking with Yiannis, Nichola and Theologia came walking up and we all had another chance to visit.

Emily and I took time at dinner and later walking around town and sitting on a bench by the water to evaluate our amazing summer and revisit all the highlights. We were both pleasantly surprised at how well work and life in general went here. We were equally surprised the kids did so well going to the beach so often and they didn't need to have a busier, more diverse environment. Sennen's ability to access books via the iPad had perhaps the most surprise effect in that his ability to consume books and information has gone off the charts. This summer has been a learning explosion for him. But the most important thing is that we're both so happy to have had this opportunity, to have made it work – and that we hope to do summers like this again as many times as we can. 

For Matheus the day started off on the wrong foot, but for Emily and me it ended on a high note with recognition that this was just another step in our lifelong journey and perhaps the beginning of a new phase of our international adventures as a family.