First few days

I was a little nervous spending my first weekend in Cameroon after hearing that a lot of the missionaries were actually going to be out of town. But I have found out that you can never be lonely in Cameroon. I got to sleep in and decided to read for a while outside my room before lunch. I only got maybe half of a paragraph done before I was greeted by my new friend, Presca, as pictured above. She speaks French and Pigeon English, so the first part of our conversation consisted mainly of saying something in our native tongue-smiling-and trying to understand each other. She’s 18 and is living in Mbingo to take care of her mother who has a sore that won’t heal on her leg. As she left to check on her mom, one of the patients who I had seen yesterday came up to sit near me and talk to me. He was waiting to take a look at the progress of his prosthetic limb (a very cool process and I’ll have to post pictures of it in the future). After lunch, Presca was waiting for me outside of the dining hall. She told me that she does not have any friends in Mbingo and thinks that I would be a good big sister for her. So, I told her that she would be a good little sister and we adopted each other  We walked through the market place and I was glad I had her with me as people who were selling fruit were wanting to shake my hand and greet me and she was able to semi-translate. We went on a walk hand-in-hand as people who are same sex friends in Cameroon walk. Presca said “it is all so beautiful and God made it all’. The scenic picture above is of the scenery of the mountains by Mbingo. I don’t know if you can tell, but there are a few waterfalls over there. Presca said that we should walk up there sometime.
Everyone is very friendly. I have been in the hospital for a few days and still trying to orientate myself to it. Some of the techniques of physical therapy treatment remind me of something you may have seen in the 60s. I am still trying to define my role here and how much to intervene to say that this treatment will not do anything and to teach more of exercises. There is not a high stress of exercise, more of modalities which are very contradictory to evidence based practice in general for physical therapy. Most people have a hard time saying my name and just call me ‘doctor’. They call me ‘doc’ for short, but wanted to make sure that I knew they were calling me ‘doc’ and not ‘dog’ as the way they enunciate the words are similar.
It is also hard to communicate with the patients as they all speak either Pigeon English and/or French. I never realized how good my Spanish skills were until I had to attempt talking to a patient in French. It was so hard to know exactly what the patient was trying to explain! Some of their words are the same or similar and it makes me revert back to my Spanish. I have 4 languages (Proper English, Pigeon English, French, and Spanish) that are swirling through my head when I talk to patients and it’s hard to keep it all straight. Some people’s Pigeon English I can understand perfectly while other’s I can barely make out at all. Likewise, I try to simplify words and talk distinctly- but often what I am trying to say gets lost in translation. Just something simple like “when do you go eat?” is confusing for Cameroonians who do not know that much Proper English. I’m learning-but I wish I could learn it faster! One thing that I found funny was that a lot of four letter words are not considered swear words in Pigeon English. For example to ask ‘do you have diarrhea’ you say ‘you di shit wata-wata?’
Another short term missionary family is coming in tomorrow. I’m glad because I’ve been eating in the dining hall by myself this week and the company will be nice (although I absolutely love the 3 kitchen staff ladies who come out to talk to me and make sure I am liking the meal). I’m going to eat with another missionary at her house tonight, and so I’ll be glad to have the company.