(My host family thought it was hilarious that I stepped on a cat and even more hilarious that I went to the doctor for something so small - apparently a cat gave my host sister Aya a huge scratch on her face when she was a baby and they didn’t take her to the doctor, but that was also a house cat and not some random cat on the street.)
First we went to a public hospital in nearby Sidi Said, which looked rundown and completely deserted; however we did find some people manning the emergency clinic who told us that said clinic is closed on Saturdays (as if people don’t have emergencies on Saturdays!). We then went to a similar-looking hospital in Hamriyya, which was also abandoned on a Saturday. There was a notice on one of the doors saying that the doctor would be back around 2:30 PM, so we waited from about 2 PM until he actually showed up at 2:45 PM (that’s Moroccan time for you). He took a look at my foot and said it wasn’t bad, but since we didn’t have the cat and thus couldn’t test it for rabies he decided to take precautions and give me the first round of the rabies vaccine. So I am currently under treatment for rabies! I have to do the second round as soon as I get back to the US next Saturday, and the third round two weeks after that. He also gave me instructions on how to take care of my foot so it doesn’t get infected. All of this was in Darija by the way - thankfully I had some help translating from the director!
The program director had me withdraw money specifically so I could pay the doctor, so at the end we asked about payment. At that time I was wearing a blue shirt with the name of our program on it, and I had a cheap drawstring bag emblazoned with the program name that had all of my pool items in it. He probably thought I was so novel, this white American speaking Arabic, that he said, “I want your bag, as a souvenir for my kids.” I laughed, good joke - he gave me two vaccines, how would he not want actual payment? But no, he just repeated that all he wanted was my stupid little knapsack. So I had to empty everything out of it - bathing suit, change of clothes, hairbrush, book, sunglasses, everything - and hand it to his kids! I withdrew 300 dirham to possibly pay him with and all he wanted was a knapsack that was probably worth 80 dirham ($10) or less!
I was advised not to go to the pool since I received no bandages for my cuts (I don’t think Bandaids are normal protocol here), which was the biggest bummer of the day, in addition to the fact that I now have to worry about finding places with the vaccine in the US. Just think - if I had worn my normal shoes that covered my whole foot instead of flip-flops, or if I had gone to a different store, I wouldn’t have to worry about all of this! And with only one week left in the program - I was so close! But stuff (picture a stronger word here) happens, and at the very least I got a unique medical experience and it will be a funny story to share from my time in Morocco.