 I had
a bout with a cold -- bad sore throat followed by a severe cough. I mad a couple of
visits to the ship's doctor, and in Odessa we went looking for a supply of
antihistamines. I got a packet of 8 tablets of antihistamine (I think) and a bottle
of cough tablets; I still don't know what they are. The girl totaled the items up
on the abacus, seen by her cash register. The abacus appears to be the adding
machine of choice, or at least of practice, particularly in Odessa. The total was Hr
1.43 -- about 35 cents.
A note about visiting the ship's doctor. The practices were somewhat different than
what we are used to. He took me into his office, looked at my throat, and proceeded
to swab it out with iodine, a practice abandoned in the U.S. 30-40 years ago. After
he was done, he through out the cotton and wiped off the forceps with his towel (the same
one that he dried his hands with) and put it back in the cabinet. He pulled me back
in a couple days later and repeated the process. Postscript: I lived.
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