I am so happy to report that my travels are now complete and
I am settling in at my home for the next 6 months in beautiful rural
Bangladesh. My hospital is on a small
mission compound and my living quarters are at the guesthouse within that
compound. There are other foreigners
(“Budeshis”) living here as well. At the
moment it is mostly other members of my “Gyne” team living in the house and as
I write this we are all lounging on the couches in the common room. We eat at a dining room table breakfast,
lunch, and dinner. I am so amazed that
we take a break every day from the hospital to go home and eat lunch. Since it’s a small compound, it only takes
approximately 3 minutes to walk from the guesthouse to the hospital.
The hospital has a strong British influence so the pace is
much different from the “American way”.
For example, the anesthesiologist suggested we break for tea briefly
before bringing the next patient into the OR (called Operating Theatre here). I love tea breaks! Why was I born in America? J
I am also truly enjoying being a member of an international
community of believers. We had a prayer
meeting last night after work and there were so many countries
represented. It has been both
exhilarating and challenging to learn all of the differences between all the
different cultures. For example, I
learned that Tylenol is called acetaminophen in America and Canada but
paracetamol pretty much everywhere else.
I was looked at strangely when I said I didn’t know what drug
paracetamol was! We eventually figured
out what it was but my Swiss department head had never heard of
acetaminophen. It’s the little things.
Despite my language barrier they are keeping me busy:
putting in and taking out Implanon (a long term contraceptive placed in the
arm), and doing ultrasound. Our Gyne
team is all women. We have 3 senior Bangladeshi doctors and 4 juniors. At the moment we have five international
“consultants” but two are leaving this week, one is leaving next month and the
other is leaving early October. Then it
will just be me with the Bangladeshi doctors.
Thank God they all speak English so it works even with a language
barrier, and they are all lovely people with good attitudes. We have a very nice daily routine of meeting
for handover at 9AM then we read a passage of the bible together and pray
together.
I got permission from all of the team members to post this
picture of our team.
Our department head was off for a long weekend holiday today
and one of the senior Bangladeshi is preparing for her board exam, so they are
not pictured.
I know this was a bit long, but thank you for taking the time to read this and for supporting me with your prayers.
Specifically pray for:
- me to quickly learn the differences in practice management
- continued language skills
- my first “on call” : I’m terrified of things I just haven’t experienced first hand thus far in the US (eclampsia, etc.)
Angela
