Translation
Algol
Hamish Tait, Robin Hastie & Jim Hepburn
Fri 12 Sep 2008 16:48
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After a year in Zidim, I'm ashamed to say
my knowledge of Fulfulde has made little progress. Anne can manage quite useful
sentences and Shona in her three months here surpassed me. I have managed
to learn some useful phrases; have you been sick, have you had diarrhoea and
have you passed wind (for those interested, the last is "A fuuti na?"). I'm
really very lazy and rely on the nurses who are always very willing translators.
Occasionally, there's a surprise. I had one patient who spoke an unknown
language who'd brought a friend who could translate into Kapsiki, a
language a few of our nurses know, so we had a four way consultation. I would
say something which Julienne (the nurse) translated then the patient's friend
did another translation. The patient's response was relayed along the same
route. After about 20 minutes, I was just wrapping up the consultaion when
the patient said "Thank you very much" in perfect English! Boy, did I feel an
idiot!
Dr Djemba is finding the heat quite
tiring, so his "petit déjeuner rapide" now lasts from around 9am to 1pm. By the
time he comes down again, most of the work's been cleared. He's also finding the
stress of being on call quite arduous and chose to remind everyone at a staff
meeting that while they come and do shifts, we're doing a 24 hour stint.
Fine, but the on call isn't generally arduous, although there is always a
certain tension, and during their shifts, the nurses work very hard. Not sure
just how well his observations went down. We've also been having some problems
with the generator again and sometimes it takes longer to get it started. Dr
Djemba feels they should keep it running later to compensate. I felt obliged to
say that some of us value our sleep and since the generator shed is right next
to our house, we'd find extended hours a bit disturbing!
Best wishes to everyone back in the
UK.
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