Somos Amigos

Last week Anna and I joined up with a medical mission to translate for a bunch of American doctors and other medical volunteers. The group is called Somos Amigos (which in Spanish is “We are friends”). Anna and I got to the hotel on Saturday afternoon around 2 and I hadn’t eaten anything all day except for two bananas and some crackers. We overslept in the morning so we rushed to the bus stop without breakfast only to end up waiting for two hours for the bus (which turned out to be only a pickup truck) to show up. I went to the hotel front desk and said Somos con somos amigos (We are with we are friends). The clerk smartly replied, “Oh, I didn’t know we were friends.” I just stared at her blankly and her laughter subsided. I looked at Anna, who repeated the joke, and slowly it dawned on me. But I was far too hungry to laugh so I just repeated my request for the room key.

I like to joke with people in my campo (the Dominican word for rural areas), but mostly I am the only one laughing. I am never quite sure if they don’t understand my Spanish or if the joke doesn’t translate culturally. Nevertheless I keep trying even though Anna has often suggested that I give up trying to make jokes to my neighbors. I think the receptionist’s joke was rather clever, but of course it figures that the one time a Dominican makes a joke I love (and can understand) I’m too sluggish to laugh.

Sunday we helped the doctors set up the clinic and then they saw patients from Monday through Thursday. Anna helped out in the pharmacy and in the dental clinic.. In a little rural village Somos Amigos has set up a real dental clinic where dentists can perform root canals and other rather painful (but extremely important) dental procedures. They also make a lot of dentures on site for people who have lost their teeth. It is an understatement to say that it was amazing to watch the dentists work and have them explain to us procedures such as root canals or denture making. Another PC volunteer actually got to assist on a root canal and helped out with multiple tooth extractions.

I was the personal translator and medical assistant for a pediatrician and had a fabulous time. Not only did I learn a lot of Spanish medical terms from translating, I learned a lot medically because the doctor was kind enough to explain a lot of her thought processes. It was an exhilarating job. A large number of Haitians also visited the clinic. At least half of them didn’t know Spanish. We only had one staff person who spoke both Haitian Creole and English and she did an amazing job trying to translate for everyone but there was no way she could keep up. So several times I found myself in a room with two Haitians. The one was the patient while the other translated from Creole to Spanish while I translated Spanish into English for the doctor.

It was an exciting week, quite the change from the slow pace of campo life. I don’t know the exact number of patients Somos Amigos was able to help but I’m sure it was in the hundreds, and they do this several time a year. In case you are interested, check out the Somos Amigos website. They are a non-profit organization supported entirely by individual donations of time, expertise, and money.

Not only did I greatly enjoy translating, working with patients, soaking up medical knowledge, and hanging out with everyone, I was immensely inspired by the doctors and other professionals who took time off from their busy lives and paid their own way to the DR to donate a week of hard work in a clinic. Cheers to you all!