The Jolly Cypriot Radiographer

We need to share a brief tale about medical care Cyprus style.  As part of our local immigration and working visa process, we and the kids all need to complete some local medical tests to check that we're all healthy and not bringing any exotic Australian diseases onto the island.  Yesterday afternoon we were duly informed that our 'fixer' Kostas was going to meet us at the office and would escort us through the process which involved a round of blood tests at a pre-arranged clinic, and then a separate chest x-ray.  The blood tests were all fairly routine (apart from the fact that there were 3 staff instead of one carrying out each test...all wearing the official designated uniform of a white labcoat).  Once blood tests were complete, we jumped back in the car and followed Kostas to a non-descript apartment block and were led to the third floor and ushered into a makeshift waiting area in what appeared to be someones living room.  After a short wait (and some awkward questions from the kids about what was happening), a very jolly old Cypriot gentleman greeted us, pointed at Ross and Jessie, and in his broken english said "you and you, come with me".  We duly followed him down a short hallway and into another part of the apartment where he had installed a somewhat antiquated looking x-ray machine.  There was another young girl in the room, who turned out to be his 8 year old grand-daughter.  She was visiting grandpa for the afternoon whilst mum was having a manicure.  Whilst he was preparing the equipment for our chest x-rays, he mentioned that his grand-daughter had a touch of sinusitis and he had taken the grandfatherly precaution of taking an x-ray of her face (which he duly showed us and pointed out where the sinuses were blocked).  Fascinating stuff for Jessie as you could imagine. 

Anyway, Jessie and this girl became good friends over the next hour and a half while we were in the apartment getting our x-rays done.  One by one our x-rays were fitted in between other patients who had wandered into the waiting room with various ailments.  Each patient was greeted with a jolly welcome, and much discussion in Greek (which may well have been refering to the various chest x-rays of our family that had been taken.......a fairly liberal interpretation of patient confidentiality).  It wasn't entirely clear what the order of proceedings was, and there was no dressing room or gown provided.  When it was Sarah's turn for her x-ray, she undressed as instructed, only to be surprised when she turned around to find that the next round of patients had wandered in.   Never mind, the jolly Cypriot walked in and ushered them back down the hall to the living room/waiting area??  Meantime our four kids were moving freely around the apartment, including the main office where at one point Ross counted 12 people gathered around the radiographer's desk as he prepared the various x-ray documents.  Fortunately Kostas was on the case for us, and ensured that our paperwork was completed and all in order.  We made it out in under two hours - 6.30pm and four hungry kids, a roadmap, and 30mins peak hour Nicosia traffic to endure.  Plenty of time to debrief on the experience.

ps. did we mention that the jolly radiographer had a very stone faced dour looking wife who moved quietly through the apartment, xrays in hand constantly crossing the crowded waiting area to get access to the unfortunately placed x-ray developing room.  This is how everybody there came to know that Sarah and Angus' x-rays had to be repeated because Angus moved and apparently Sarah had an extra rib??!!