Monday, February 16, 2009

I´m a translatin´

So Chris and I´ve been translating for this group of doctors that came down from Washington State to give medical treatment to 4 communities down here. There are 13 of us; about 4 translators and the rest doctors. Some doctors speak spanish already, but actually Chris and I are the only ¨non medical professionals¨ on the trip. They are all nurses or nurse practioners, or master´s students to be nurse practitioners and are receiving credit for their time and work down here. It´s been really great, a great learning experience. Extremely stressful at times, and most of all---tiring. I have been so exhausted, I think the most tired I have been here. Thursday, the first day, we translated for about 5 hours straight and Chris said he has spoken about a week´s worth of Spanish in that time. I have gotten a lot faster with my speech, which has been great, and brushed up on some vocab that I have forgotten or didn´t know (bichos=parasites, pasar la saliva= swallow, cera=ear wax....)

Saturday was a crazy day and I was about to go nuts towards the end...we saw, between about 6 of us, 197 people. It was ridiculous. But really rewarding. Yesterday we saw 145 people in another community and I was pretty cranky all day because I was just really tired and every single person had the same problem: headache, lower back pain, and stomach ache. So I was like I know what you are going to say, when they sat down. After a while, I felt that people were just coming because a) it was only a dollar for the consult and medicine b) it was something to do c)they all think they have graver problems than they do.

But last night we had this amazing farewell dinner (we moved to a new group of communities today) of tilapia and ancas de rana, or fish legs. It was SO good...I was a million times better after this meal. And then they took us to the city hall, gave a little speech about how appreciative they were of our services and how much these communities needed our help, etc. Anyway, as I was translating, Rita, one of the nurses started tearing up and I realized at that point how much of a good thing we were doing. They all presented us with these ridiculous Ecua-necklaces the women´s group made, so we were all walking around with jazzy dangle earrings and large necklaces. The two guys got necklaces for their novias.

Today was a lot calmer, a lot less people and overwhelming, which was great cuz I needed a break. I really do enjoy translating and I think I´m pretty good at it. I´ve always had a knack for shmoozing people and I´ve quickly mastered that in Spanish, as well. Only seen a couple of gross stuff overall: a badly infected bug bite, a burn from a motorcycle exhaust pipe, one kid fell off a roof 8 days ago and had broken his ribs and his lung was punctered. The air that was escaping his lung was making a bubble pretty much in his back, so they rushed him off to the hospital, poor guy. And the worst was yesterday a mom, who was mentally retarded and victim of rape, had her child who was completely bitten with bugs and scabies and sores (she doesn´t know how to take care of him...). They had to clean a bunch of sores and give it some antibiotic shots. Pretty incredible, but these medicines they are giving the people are also incredible. It really makes you appreciate the health system we have.

Well we are in El Pangui, the county above Yantzaza, today and tomorrow and then we go to Yantzaza for two days and then it´s over. I´m not sure if I could handle another week of this, so it´s going to be nice to have it come to an end. I´ve really enjoyed talking with the other nurses and getting to know them. For the majority of them, this is their first time doing something like this, but they all have a lot of experience so I´m learning a lot about nursing and medicines and whatnot. Plus, it´s been cool teaching them stuff about what I have learned here, about the culture, the language, the communities, etc.

Sometimes they have been driving Chris and I nuts; like just now we quietly slipped away to go to the internet to write and de-translate. But things are just so natural for us, that these new and exciting things for them are not so new and exciting for us.

OH and fiestas finally started in Yantzaza. On Friday I snuck out of translating early to go see the Beauty Queen competition. It was great. I treated my neighbors to the competition, Rosario didn´t have enough money and I was like YOU HAVE TO GO! So she got all dressed up, along with the boys, and they got in for free. It was great night...didn´t rain! First time in weeks! The girls were mighty sexy, and the girl from our barrio, Jesus del Gran Poder, was the hottest I thought. Surprisingly enough. So we waited until 3 AM to see who won, but the results were still not being shared, too many musical acts, so I left because I had to wake up and translate 5 hours later. Still don´t know who won, but will update you guys on that.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Corrie-
You should have definately joined in on that beauty competition! you've got it all girl! (AND you can speak English! Let that be your talent! ;))
XOXOXO,
Anna