What a fun meeting!

I met with AME-SADA’s medical team today.  They introduced me to everyone, their accountant, their social worker, a health teacher.  I spent almost two hours meeting with two doctors (Dr. Remy & Dr. Paret) and Miss Fleuimont (Miss is the preface for nurse).  We laughed the whole time.  It was a very laid-back meeting and went much better than my previous SADA meeting (maybe because the manager- the paper-lady – was out).  Dr. Paret and Miss Fleuimont speak a surprising amount of English… and between their English attempts and my Creole attempts we laughed a lot, and I learned a ton of new words.  We had so much fun that we agreed that I don’t need a translator!

They started the meeting by asking me what I do in the US, where I work, what the hospital is like, etc.  Then they opened the floor for me.  I asked them what they see most commonly (malaria, typhoid, skin infections, and pneumonia).  After explaining that we don’t have a lot of malaria and typhoid in the US, we talked about everything that they will be able to teach me.  I told them how excited I am to see patients with them and to learn from them, and they agreed to be my teachers.

As for the villages, they warned me to wear good shoes and a hat and bring lots of water with me to Delis.  They said it’s a very poor community.  In fact, they have 2 posts in Delis.  Delis 1 is 2 1/2 hours from PAP.  That’s where we’re going now.  Delis 2 is a 4- hour ride from there on horseback.  We won’t be going there now.

I don’t know yet know how many communities they visit, but they said they go to each one for a week at a time, about once every 2-3 months.  In the meantime, when people get sick or get hurt, they walk to a clinic post somewhere, where there might be a nurse, sometimes.  All-in-all, it’s an ok system, but I wouldn’t want to get sick there.

What they’re doing is great, but I’m hoping that once they get to know me a little better, they will see a role for a health promoter with basic first-aid skills.  I don’t mean to fixate on this concept, and I certainly hate to sound like I have an agenda, but even basic EMT-level training could really help these communities.

Well, we closed our meeting by flipping through my medical Creole-English dictionary (thank you, Father Frank!!).  They corrected a few of the Creole translations, and I helped them with some of the English pronunciations.  And we laughed at everything!

We agreed that we both are looking forward to “hanging out” aka “working together” on Tuesday.  J