Benin V

PFTE Part VIII Episode V
I’ll have to mention it again: the pineapples melt in your mouth here! I think I was still partially delirious with the last email I sent out, and I realize it probably didn’t make a heck of a lot of sense, so I thought I’d clarify; I was, I think, talking about the Chinese restaurant that I had just eaten at, mainly cause it was also the first food that I had eaten in three days! I was actually rather ill for a while there, so I think with the first taste of food and stuff, I think my poor brain got a bit over-stimulated.
Also, a couple of other notes of apparently being “Chinese” over here (cause clearly, I either really am, or else a very ignorant one, or else make a pretty good imitation ;) )
1. People find it very hard to believe that I can be Canadian. I guess it also doesn’t help that the rest of my team is white. I’m kind of like the pet monkey, that they bring around to show off. People here have actually been astonished that I speak French. Actually, English, even…
2. One guy was so surprised that I was actually from Canada, and not from China, he pulled aside one of the other team members and asked whether China was within walking distance of Canada… because clearly, I must’ve walked over and joined them for the flight…
3. Another guy we’ve met here is actually a ping-pong champion in Benin, like, on the national team. We had lunch with him, and, turning to me, wondered if I would like to “sponsor” him to come to Canada since I’d obviously be very good at ping-pong (right, Swong?)… right… I think he thought that that would be appropriate, hooking up with a “Chinese” ping-pong girl who happens to live in Canada… What a sweet deal for a ping-pong player in the developing world… ;) (biiiiiig rolling of the eyes…)
Otherwise, some notes on food (obviously I have a lot of time banked today…): They eat a lot of fish here. Well, it is on the coast… we’ve been eating a lot of it, though sometimes, I look into the waters and wonder what the heck I think I’m doing… maybe that can also explain a bit of the brain fog… They also eat a surprisingly large amount of rice here… the black market has connections to Thailand or something, and that’s how they get their rice supply….
Voodoo is huge here… it’s the inherent religion here, though a good proportion of the population are Muslim or Christian, though apparently most folks practice a bit of voodoo somewhere along the line… yeah, slavery and voodoo… those are the two big thematics of Benin culture… I think to try and describe it in a witty manner isn’t really doing it justice, particularly as slavery isn’t a funny subject at all, and well, neither is voodoo….
Anyways, that’s about it for now…
julia

Benin IV

PFTE Part VIII Episode IV

Thx to all who’ve written; I’m sorry that I haven’t had the time to respond to you (thx ems, big A, Mic, Joy, Nance… yes I agree that’s a good reason to return…) individually… but your emails are all very much appreciated… Did you know (I think it’s Steve Wonder-boy who told me this one…) there are no Chinese restos in Iran, but there are everywhere else in the world? I just went to one this evening… owned by a Chinese guy… I tell ya, the Chinese are everywhere…. ☺
Why? Cause it’s funny, for one thing. Secondly; there is only so much pili-pili a girl can eat before she starts thinking of even considering chicken feet… no; wait; that would be chicken head, wouldn’t it? ;)
Anyways, my time is quickly running out, and I may get logged off soon, so I’m gonna go. I promise to have something wittier next time, promise… love you!
julia

Benin III

PFTE Part VIII Episode III

Did I mention how the pineapple melts in your mouth here?
Anyways, I haven’t learned that much Fon since I’ve been here, which is the dominant language in this part of Benin (the south end of the country). But the one sentence I have learned (fun with Fon!!!) has been: Un no nyi Yovo ahhh, which basically means, “My name is not ‘Whitey’”. That’s been about it so far. So nothing else particularly useful in terms of language.
I was at the most amazing place on the weekend, a town called Ganvie. It’s a village entirely built on a lake, established in 1717 by people who were trying to escape from the slave traders ( A LOT of Benin’s history is tied up in the slave trade, as they were some of the biggest traders of their own peoples, as well as their captives, to the Europeans and Americans). Anyways, but the slave trade is another story as well as other places, and pictures.
It’s pretty amazing.
At any rate, Ganvie is this town built on stilts in the middle of this lake. I dunno how it occurred to them three hundred years ago to just paddle into the middle of a lake and start building houses. I guess if it’s that or be transported to the Americans to be a slave, I think I’d opt for drowning in my home country… and I took lots of photos there, which, as some of you know, I’m not that terribly trigger happy with the camera usually… It was a totally –other- type experience, if that makes sense.
julia

Benin II

PFTE Part VIII Episode II

Oh my goodness!!!! I have soooo many stories to tell already but I can’t cause I don’t have the time or space for it yet, but there’s bunches already. One observation: Cotonou lies very close to the Nigerian border (about 30 km) and a lot of its economy is based on the black market. At any rate, this has to do with the air quality, which will all make sense once I come home and explain it to you, if you care to hear.
The air here is blue. Like, grey-blue. Like, during rush hour, if I breathe too much, my lungs start to hurt. Most of the zemijhans (or zem-zems) use illegally imported petrol from Nigeria to run. However, this means totally unrefined and nasty fuel into the vehicles, hence leading to ++++ dirty exhaust and air. It actually gets hard to see here because of it. That’s kinda gross, I must say… so for those of you envying my skin take note: it really has taken quite a beating here, and is becoming quite frightful…
However, it is rather interesting as there are ‘petrol stops’ every few blocks that are just jars of illegal petrol that you can buy for half the price of the gas station’s stuff… weird…
julia

Benin I

Postcards from the edge Part VIII Episode I

So here I am, back in the wilds of West Africa (oh no some groan, julia’s off on some other silly trip again), so yet another installment of the ever-thrilling PFTE…
This time I’m in Cotonou, Benin (that’s Benin, Andrew, not Ghana): it’s kind of like the Toronto equivalent of Canada… I’ve eaten so much fried plantain since I’ve been here, it’s silly… and some of the yummiest pineapple ever… For those of you who remember my moaning and groaning about how hot it was in Niger… it’s hot here… although admittedly not even remotely possibly close to how hot it was in Niger… for those of you freezing in Canada, it’s about 32C out here and humid, since the rainy season is coming to a close… which means I missed mango season, big time… out here, in mango season, you can get mangoes almost the size of my head (ok, maybe not my head, maybe Tim’s ;) )
Otherwise, not much to say so far… I’ll write about my first impressions later… it’s always kind of strange, the feelings one gets when one walks off an airplane… also: I have a limited amt of time on this machine and it’s ticking away so I will speak to you all later!!!
Love you all!
julia

Pembroke IV

Y'know, I think I may have West Nile with all the bites that I've been getting. One staff was quite horrified with the red polka-dots all over my legs.. almost looked like chicken-pox, they thought... ?jokingly...? It's been awful.. if I don't down at least 50mg of benadryl, I can't sleep through the night...
Other quaint snapshots of living in a small town:
1. There are more than two asian docs here. There are, in fact, at least six who work here at the hospital (plus me). The newest one is a young female surgeon, who, when it was noted that she was moving here a year ago, made the front page headline in the local paper apparently. She was stopped for speeding soon after that, and even though the officer, when stopping her car said, "Good evening, Dr. Huang", still gave her a ticket. Too bad she wasn't driving anywhere remotely towards the hospital...
2. I've already gotten my first "Hello, Doctor!" on the streets of Pembroke by some random passer-by. And, I've only been here three weeks...
3. I've hung out at the local Canadian Legion with the community band...
4. Had my first intact lobster. Had to wrestle it to the ground, as I couldn't for the life of me open the sucker. Gave the head with the green goopy stuff to one of the wives of one of the Chinese docs. Eventually just put it on the table and started whacking at it with that nut-cracker thing... and you guys thought I had a hard time with shrimp at that restaurant... :)
That's about all! Still have yet to encounter a bear. I'm told you can see them from time to time...

Pembroke III

OK, well, back to my stunning and amazing adventures... :)
One thing of note: It's amazing at how people know people in small towns. They sit and they chat to each other if they bump into each other in the emergency department, or in the doctor's waiting rooms, instead of studiously avoiding each other's gazes, reading four year old issues of Reader's Digest. There's no such thing as six degrees of separation here. Try more like three. "Oh well, Moira did the flowers for my best friend's cousin's wedding. And boy, she makes a mean apple pie"... that kind of thing.
But, I think, that helps make things a little bit more community-minded. Yesterday afternoon, we went out to ride the "Big Bike" for the Heart and Stroke Foundation, which involves 30 (36?) people all riding this big honking machine that kind of looks like a bicycle... kinda... kind of like a bicycle on steroids, maybe... or maybe like a deformed Tonka truck.. or maybe like an engineering experiment gone wrong... well anyways, we had our little hats made out of coffee filters, windmills and heart-shaped stickers, and our team shirts, and went along our merry little way through town to "It's a Small World after all" and "Itsy bitsy teeny weeny yellow-polka-dot bikini" and yelling all the way along. That wasn't the scary part. The scary part was that people on the bike were yelling hello to specific people through downtown and vice versa. That was scary.
What the heck? I don't go bicycling through downtown TO (well, I don't like deliberately dying, maybe that has something to do with it), yelling hello to people... on the other hand, why would I? I wouldn't know their name from a hole in the ground... :) On the other hand, I don't think I usually look that ridiculous either... (I hope...)
Hope you're all having a wonderful day!
julia

Pembroke II

Well, speaking to some of you, you've come to the realization that, really, I haven't done a heck of a lot up here except for work... on the other hand, in a town whose idea of find dining is East Side Mario's, I'm not fully convinced that there would be much more to do anyways. OK, that's not true. Lots of ppl have boats here, as it sits right on the Ottawa River, and there are ATVs and other semi-outdoor 'sports' (well, and real sports too, however, with my co-ordination skills being what they are, I doubt very much that I'd be up to par with the great A...)
Being very struck by the shortage of docs here (but hey, where isn't there one?). Besides my daily (well, about six-ten times a day) question of "Hey, are you related to Dr. Li? Like maybe his niece or something?", I get a lot more of, "Hey, are you going to come and set up practice here, cause we could really use a few more good doctors...?" That's definitely a problem. Anyways, this isn't going to be a political forum about medicare cause more than half of you don't care... Otherwise, not that much to say... I mean, I have been to TO and Ottawa in the time that I've been up here, so it's not like I've been hanging with the locals... :) (My goodness folks, this has GOT to be the most BORING series ever... snorzzzzzzz) The most exciting thing I've seen, clinically, is a 700-lb person and their 700-lb mother. That's just wrong. They're both in hospital. What a surprise.
OK, this is really pathetic... I'm going to sign off this postcard cause if the best thing I can come up with is a once-upon-a-time circus freaks, then I really have nothing interesting to say...
julia

Pembroke I

Well hello, and here's yet another (interminable) edition of Julia's exploits in far lands (well, OK, admittedly this is probably the most pathetic series since I didn't even leave the province, but stil...), and I wasn't entirely sure if this counts as Part V, of if Ottawa stories count, or if I even wrote anything whilst in Spain (I don't think I did), cause if so, then I might even be up to Part VII...
At any rate, this time I'm not in that strange of a land... Pembroke ON, really, for a month, on a rural rotation, to encourage the good family doctors of the land to move out to Green Acres so that the specialists don't have to (hey! says the peanut gallery, and then re-considers when they realize that's true har de har har :) ).
And, I'm not that far... just about 150km from Ottawa, which takes me that much further from Toronto, so I guess it's far... (not that it's -that- big of deal to ppl, say, like Tracy :) ) For those of you who are new to this series, welcome! And to those of you who are groaning, "Oh man, why does she still keep me on her friggin' list??", well, too bad. :) Hopefully, I'll be able to regale you with tales of strange customs and exotic peoples... right... sorry, no more Swedish OR stories, no camels, no accordions, no baby offerings, no Stampede stories... nothing like that in this series, I'm afraid... this one is unfortunately completely self indulgent, since I have nothing better to do out here :) So, surprisingly, I'm finding myself in a town of 10,000 ppl. It has a hospital, which is currently undergoing a $36 million re-construction with the works. Family docs do most, if not all, the work here (of course). They just got their first CT scanner, which is great, cause they don't have to send cerebellar stroke pts down to Ottawa noe (well, as long as strokes happen during business hours... they have yet to have the techs to run it full time.. plus it's broken down twice in the 48 hours I've been here... weird...) Other than that, I've seen a couple of cows, and two East Asian docs(!).. one of whom is a Dr. Li... you can imagine how many jokes I've gotten about how I'm probably related to Dr. Li.... :) of course, cause that would be logical...
That's about it for now!
Later! Love you all!
julia

Hmmm, group therapy....

It's probably just b/c of the hour, or maybe I just miss y'all, but I think I just needed to share this story with you.
I just admitted a lady who is, of course, in her 80s (cause who else would you admit?). Looks obviously copus mentus, well-groomed, non-neglected. Comes in cause she's confused, forgetful. Totally not like her, as she's not demented.
Neighbour called 911 for her.
Short story to the point: She had a massive R-sided cranial bleed. More blood than brain.
Can you imagine? The lady cannot remember what has happened to her for the past few days, cannot remember where she is, how she got there, or the fact that she saw the ER doc before me who also explained to her what happened to her today.
Can't remember what medications she's taking, can't remember if she has family in the Ottawa area, can't remember anything. It's like her life was wiped out, and all she's left with is her name, cause that's basically all she can remember. Yes, and she's got hemi-neglect, and motor and sensory changes too, and massive visual field losses too. But it's the whole memory thing that bothers me this evening. The whole idea that she won't ever be going home, and that she won't even remember that she once lived there. The fact that we'll probably place her in some nursing home, and she will need to be re-reminded every day as to where she is and why she's there and re-live the horror every day. The fact that in this nursing home, she won't even have the pleasure and the pain of reliving and ruminating through her memories, cause they won't even be there to comfort her.
I think this is the closest that I've felt to feeling bad and wanting to cry on behalf of a patient since residency's begun. I dunno if that's a good thing or a bad thing that it took this long to feel that way for a patient. I think THAT'S the main reason why I'm writing this tonight, that I haven't felt that way for a long time, and I'm wondering why THIS patient on THIS night particularly is getting to me. I'm wondering what happened such that it's not that hard NOT to be affected by people's plights anymore (groan! Another COPDers, another UA, another UGIB, another MI, another anxious patient.... and on and on and on....). Do you guys notice that change too? Do you remember me talking about that in first year? Tim, I know for sure I talked to you about that at length.... about needing to become 'harder' for the sake of our own personal psyches. And I know that I have become much 'harder' in many ways. But maybe it's just that I wasn't that struck hard by just how 'hard' I've become...
Anyways, I'm sorry about rambling. I'm going to try to go to bed before the ER tries to page me again. Sorry about the verbal vomit too...