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AIDS Test in Damascus
(sign at dier mar musa monestary, syria)
Part of the requirements of Damascus University include an AIDS test done at the special AIDS testing center once you get to Damascus.
Since the testing center is close to where I am living in the old city I decided not to go all the way to the University to get the paper which releases me from paying the 550 Syrian Pound fee. So I went to the center and I had to go into the non-syrian room (the first one) that was not for students, since I didn't have the paper saying I was a student. I played the bumbling tourist with scant Arabic card and made a lot of quick friends in the testing center and got my blood drawn quickly.
You need like 2 passport pictures for this as well as 550 Syrian pounds unless you have a letter from Damascus University (another procedure to deal with that I opted not to given the cheap test cost) and then it's free. You also need a photocopy of your passport of the picture page and your Syrian visa page.
I asked the guy if it was new needles and he assured me and pointed to the box of new needles. It was over in a second and then I left.
The place is crowded with Gulf visitors and maids from Asia. They also have a room marked "Entertainment Industry" or something like that.
They give you a receipt which you have to hold on to until the next day to pick up your results.
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The next day a group of us doing University administrative things went back to the AIDS center to pick up the results around 11am. It was just then that the results came in.
Around the corner of the building is a window protected by iron bars that you have to go stand under outside with your receipts. The guy inside calls for everyone to pass their receipts up to the window. Mine was returned because they were doing students first. After the students got their results it was a short wait until I got mine: Negative!
They give you a little form with your picture and then you are off, AIDS free (Insha'allah), to learn Arabic.
The pain was the crowd under the window. There is a certain way that a crowd of people clamoring for the same thing makes an American, who is used to his very straight ordered lines with clear results, very nervous. But somehow, like the traffic here, it works, like a new dance you have to learn and after awhile you either get to learn how to do the dance or you just go crazy and go home and complain like a tourist who didn't learn anything.
Why do you need a letter from your embassy? Why an AIDS test? Part of understanding the why is inherent in why you are learning Arabic in the first place. You need to understand the culture too. There are many whys you can ask about American procedures as well that are just as convoluted if not more. In the end it's like my dad used to say: "Because I said so."
So get your AIDS test, wait for your letter, and stop crying, start learning.
- Peace
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