You'll be happy to know I'm still HIV-negative. In order to obtain a Russian visa, one needs proof of this negativity. So this summer I got tested, for my student visa. BUT, test results are only good for three months, I was tested in July, my visa lasted from August to November, I am getting a new visa extension starting in November, the first test is no longer good, and so I need a new one for the new visa. Yuck. Why.
Thankfully Megan and Paul needed to be tested as well. Others in my family have had blood drawn and tested in this country before without any lasting damage, so I was less worried than they. But still, thoughts of dirty needles, dirty surroundings, the possibility of actually getting AIDS from the test itself, the removal of my life source from my body, and doctors being bribed to change test results all found their way into my head at one point or another.
So, a little wary, we head to the clinic. After being ordered through a security gate, up the elevator, down the hall, and to TAKE OFF OUR COATS, we arrive. I go first since I am communicating with the nurse lady and understand what is going on. She is the friendliest Russian I have encountered in customer service. She comments on my Ukrainian last name. I am mercifully spared the excruciatingly-detailed interrogation on my (lack of) sexual history. I sit down on the chair and she pricks my finger. Vaguely recalling being tested for iron levels when I donated blood, I thought this was just the precursor. She kneads ten drops out of my finger, scraping them into her little vial, then closes it and SAYS I'M DONE.
Whoa. That's it. Ten drops of blood (at $1 a drop), and that's it. I get up, happier than when I sat down, Megan and Paul get their fingers kneaded as well, and we leave, not 30 min after we entered. Today we came and picked up the results (negative - no bribing there), and that's that.
So there's at least one thing about Russia that is better than the US. Makes me wonder why they needed those multiple vials of my blood in Dallas.......
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1 comment:
so glad to hear about your results. I was worried.
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