Sarah Cooper’s Blog

Translating woes

Today was the first day of clinic for Kristin and I.  We started off rounding as usual in the hospital.  There is one kid with Burkitt’s Lymphoma and they will never regain vision of one of their eyes again.  We started off the day debating whether it was time to surgically remove the eye.  Then I observed one of the doctors in clinic this morning.  I just met him and his wife.  They returned last night from a vacation in Burkina Faso where they were riding camels.  It was very interesting to observe him.  He is a very capable speaker in Mampruli and is able to converse with minimal use of the translators.  When he speaks to a patient or staff person that knows English, he converts into speaking in their broken, accented English.  Then a few seconds later he will teach me and turn his southern drawl back on.  It is really quite humorous and impressive. 

The fun decreased quite a bit when I started seeing patients in the clinic by myself after lunch.  It was stressful to work with a translator even though this was certainly not my first time being somewhere that I did not speak the language.  The most frustrating part of the day was when I was working with a patient and trying to explain something to her.  The translator began yelling at her for minutes.  I kept trying to ask if the patient had questions and she would yell at her some more.  In the end the translator said that she had explained everything, but the patient still did not understand and she kicked her out of the room.  I know that this is a cultural difference not a specific indication of how patients are treated because I have seen similar interactions earlier in my stay.  It is still frustrating to not be able to make a patient understand what I am trying to get across. 

I did see a lot of interesting cases today.  We diagnosed a man with syphilis and HIV and a young girl with meningitis.  We also saw a woman with breast cancer metastases to the skin on her chest and lots of cases of high blood pressure.  I watched several ultrasounds after we were finished with clinic.  One patient had an enlarged liver and spleen that was all the way into the lower quadrants several centimeters below the umbilicus.  Then I watched a D & C. 

I am looking forward to when I will have adjusted to the very different brand of medicine and after I get used to some of the cultural differences. 

We had dinner with the rest of the short-term volunteers, as usual.  The OB/GYN (Joel) and his family joined us for dinner.  We had fu-fu for dinner that the nurse made for us.  It is a doughy substance made of mashed yams.  You are supposed to grab a ball with your fingers and dip it in a spicy, soupy mixture.  It was interesting and fun to try some native food.  All of the other food we have eaten has been “American” food prepared by the guesthouse cook.  It is very good though.  We also had this Ghanaian beverage that tasted like a syrup coffee nastiness.  I did not finish mine.

Below are some pics from our adventures yesterday.  If you want to see more pictures, click on Scott Miller’s blog.  He is a pharmacy student that is volunteering here now too.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2015643&l=c93a2&id=162801085
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another view from the top. notice the hamatan.dscn1343.JPGkristin at rock formationdscn1343.JPG