I'm tested, I know...

I have had the most nerve wracking 28 hours of my life.

As you may know (or at least have guessed from the timer ticking down at the top of the site) I am going to Jordan at the end of the year. While there I have decided that I would like to see Damascus (Syria) at the same time. My tickets are bought, the hotels in Jordan booked and the next task was to investigate visa's.

Jordan was easy, they like South African's there. The visa's are free and you can collect them at the airport when you land, just show them your permanent SA passport and they give you the visa no-questions-asked. GREAT. THEN there is Syria. These can take up to a month to organise AND they require laboratory results of a recent HIV test. WTF was my first reaction...

Where the hell do I even start with this? was the thought going through my mind. I have had an aids test before for my life insurance policy earlier this year, but then they came to me to draw blood and then disappeared never to be heard from again. Well, my policy was approved so I assumed that the test result was negative. This time however, I had to purposefully find somewhere to specifically get tested for the HIVirus. The one place that I knew of close to my place of work seems to have closed (or moved or something, but no-one seems to know where it is). So, next best bet was my GP, luckily I had the paper to prove the visa requirement in response to the skeptical looks I got from him :)

"Do you have any reason to be concerned about the results?" He asked me.... well No, but you never really do know, do you?

Yes, I have started a new relationship recently, and yes I have taken a few unnecessary risks in the last year given our current AIDS situation in Southern Africa. You look at a person, take into account their history (or at least what they have revealed to you) and you take the precautions you deem necessary... but you can never be 100% sure until you are tested. So NO, I didn't feel that I had anything to be concerned about... However, think about what it is that is being tested... this is SERIOUS stuff, and to not be a little wary would be simply stupid.

So, anyway, this afternoon (about 28 hours after the blood was drawn) I returned to my GP to get my results. NEGATIVE.... YEAH.... THANK GOD

Now I can get my Syrian visa... let's see if they can get the paperwork done and get my passport back to me before I leave.