This is my final week working with the Noite Saudavel project. They seem to be caught up on their data entry, medicine inventory, and kit assembly. Last night the van was stationed in an area where the majority of the visitors were just there to exchange their syringes (my friend Kathryn tells me that these programs are really good, she learned about them in school http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=1307728).
After only two weeks I am recognizing some of the patients. But in Portugal, where anyone can go to the hospital and get help, it is concerning that this clinic exists. What I have learned is that the people that show up for the “Healthy Night” project have been sent away or received poor treatment at hospitals so they prefer to come to this van where the nurses can hand them a few pills than go to the public doctor.
There wasnt a lot for me to do, but the Ukrainian driver continued helping me learn Portuguese (although apparently he makes a lot of grammatical mistakes himself, but i’ll take all the help I can get). One guy, who was recognized by MdM, came up to the van. This time it was for more than just the routine kit exchange, he told the nurse of some problems that he was having. I was standing outside the van, but the door stayed open so I couldnt exactly hear what was going on, but to see it was clear enough.
Watching someone being told that they have a serious problem is not easy. This guy who looks like hes 45, very tan and seemingly fit, with little cuts all over his body, shorts and dirty flip flops, shaved head, blue eyes, Portugal head wrap (i dont know what they’re called.. not quite a dew rag but basically) comes in to the van and sits on the stool, takes off his head wrap and is wringing it in his hands. The MdM nurses learn as much as they can and ultimately can do nothing but insist that he goes to the hospital. This guy now looks scared, but of course he also looks like he’s trying to not look scared. MdM does all they can and sends him on his way with a bus card and a sealed envelop from MdM which will help him to more efficiently get the care that he needs when he goes to the hospital.
Just watching this makes me feel weak. I try to justify my lightheadedness because I must be dehydrated because i’ve been a little sick since Africa, so my body has to work harder to get the blood to my head, so my homeostatic responses to stresses are not as efficient.. but reallly, watching this guy diagnosed and watching him leave and hop on a bus down the hill.. leaving the so called zona das drogas, was not easy. It wasn’t the same emotion that you feel when you’re watching Greys.. maybe because this one was real.
I spent the entire afternoon getting myself a metro/bus card… Just another step to blend in with the locals. haha. I had been using this rechargeable card but you’re still paying for every trip. I have upgraded to the plastic card that you can keep in your bag and just stroke across the card reader for unlimited rides in the thirty days. Unfortunately, obtaining this card was not a smooth process.
I walked down to the nearest metro station, Martim Moniz, to get the form. The attendant there was very helpful, told me that there were these other stations that i could use that would process the card in 1 day as opposed to 10. I had forgotten my passport and also needed to get photos taken, so I walked home (all uphill) in the beautiful sunshine to fill out the form. Then, i got on a bus to go to the other metro station to get the bus pass. This bus mysteriously ended before where I thought it would go to, which allowed me to work up a sweat before finding the photo booth. There was another attendant at this next metro stop and she told me the only photo place she knew was inside the station, so I had to pay to get in as if i were riding the metro, then pay four euros for my sweaty face document photos to be taken.
I returned to the attendant and now she tells me that she’s at the green line, it is only the red line where they have that one day processing.. this metro station is a green/red junction, but to avoid paying to “ride” the metro again I need to leave and walk up and down several different stairwells on all different sides of this huge intersection to find where the attendant for the red line is working. Finally I found it, but there was construction at this entrance, and there is a temporary wall separating me from here.. the only way to get in is to swipe my card again (and remember, i am paying per trip at this point) to enter the information area. Fine, i do that.. and then she tells me that it costs ten euros for the card since it’s my first card. She might have told me other important things too, but for some reason there is this plexiglass wall that we’re talking through (without an opening) at this noisy metro station and for some reason the microphone doesn’t work so I coundn’t distinguish anything more.. With the combined costs that I now know about it’s probably not worth it for me to have this card, but remembering how much more suave I’ll look when i can just brush past the reader as opposed to the the finicky paper card, i decided to get the metro/bus monthly pass.
Tomorrow I will return and pay the final thirty euros and then I will be that much closer to being a completely normal Lisbon resident. Even though, to get my money’s worth, I will need to step it up and ride the bus, trolley, or metro at least 58 times in the next thirty days. This doesn’t seem hard, but for me, the one who walks everywhere, it will be a lifestyle change.
Mom and Dad visited me in Lisbon, I took a week off work, and we had a very busy vacation. Including
- Lisbon, Portugal
- Faro, Portugal
- Meknes, Morocco
- Fez, Morocco
- Granada, Spain
- Cordoba, Spain
- Sevilla, Spain
- Castelo de Vide, Portugal
- Porto, Portugal
I go back to work this afternoon.
Portugal is in good spirits, we just beat Czechoslavakia for the second victory in Eurocup 2008, and it’s Portugal Day tomorrow!
Just as I was starting to get a routine things are changing! My parents are visiting so I’m taking a week off of work to do a bit of travel, which will be nice as I haven’t left Lisbon yet. I have been learning and observing a lot. Please do remember, however, many of the experiences that I’m describing are through the haze of me understanding Portuguese or someone that sort of speaks English explaining it to me..
Work– This week I’ve been riding along with the Médicos do Mundo Noite Sáudavel Project in Lisbon, which Literally means Health Night. I go to work at 3:30 in the afternoon and enter data, mostly. This is the statistical information from their clinic, so that MDM has something to show. The stats include age, type of residence, nationality, diseases (many HIV/AIDS and Hepatitis), and what they were treated for in the Mobile Unit. Then, at 8 we go out to the designated sites around the Lisbon central area. The ‘team’ all wearing navy Médicos do Mundo vests, complete with 7 pockets, includes me and several other people. First, there’s a Social Worker who is amazing. She knows everyone because she’s been working with homeless people in Lisbon for the past 8 years. She remembers their names and pulls out their file and hands it across the van to the nurse. There are several nurses, at least one is there every night. They take the blood pressure and listen to the person describe their problems, and then the nurse rummages through the small cabinet of medicine and gives the person what she thinks they need. She’ll snip a few pills out of the package or squeeze some of the cream into a different container and hands it to them, free of charge. If the person needs something that isn’t currently stocked in the van they can buy it and give it to the patient later. THey also have a cabinet full of drugs in one of the main offices that I am well acquainted with, as one of my first tasks was to sort and organize.
Also working for MDM is the van driver. It’s a Ukrainian guy who has lived in Portugal for eight years. He translates if anyone speaking Russian or Ukrainian shows up at the clinic. The final person that has been out with Noite Saudavel is a person from MDM who is doing a study on illegal immigrants. He waits around the van in the event that some people show up. He also tells me about Lisbon and Portugal, especially some of the issues that you would not notice as a tourist (poverty, police, prisons, etc.. whatever I ask).
The van has its schedule and people just show up and line up for their turn. Most are returning patients, I would estimate an average 2-3 dozen people are seen every night (Monday through Friday). MDM gives away lots of condoms and ’kits’ for the drug addicts, if they bring in old needles MDM will trade for sterile needles.
My mom said she is going to train our dog, a floppy Spring Spaniel, to be a therapy dog. This relates! because one of the nurse’s boyfriend comes to visit the van and brings his spunky dog on a leash and a lot of people enjoy the company of the dog. I suppose most people walking their dogs down the street dont stop for the bum to pet the dog… Clearly not everyone was interested in a playing with this little dog, but it did make some people really happy for a moment.
Lisbon— For some reason, lots of shops in this city have decided to advertise with nearly life-sized plastic men that have huge smiles, peachy colored flesh, and are dressed for the occasion. At the butcher I walk by regularly their plastic dude is holding a big knife and wearing an apron, at a café he’ll be holding the menu, or at a restaurant he’ll be holding a bag of snail shells, advertising the fact that they serve snails there.. which i haven’t tried yet. These dudes are propped up on the sidewalk in the day, and when the shop is closed they’ll stand inside, to surprise you, just a little, when you might be walking home from work and not expecting to see anyone in the shops.
I walk a lot, as I’ve previously mentioned. I usually carry my dictionary so, for example, i can go into the grocery store and learn that I am buying sheep cheese, then, with my little pocket knife I can sit in a park and eat my bread and cheese and whatever else for lunch. And, FYI, about groceries, a GO-UP ≈ MilkyWay, a SNACK ≈ 1/2 Twix. I haven’t done much cooking yet.. i eat a lot of bread, cheese, and fruits. It’s easy to miss the dining halls.. especially Mexican food.. like that Cesar Chavez BBQ at collins with the Mariachi this year, soooo good. When I do start cooking, i’m going to make some guacamole.
There is an Internet place near my house that i have been to a couple of times because the guy that runs the shop is friendly and tells me all about lisbon. THe first time i walked in he was with his friend and they couldn’t tell where i was from but they said i talked like an elder. What?? i was confused. THey continued to describe the black pants and white shirts and the name tags that the elders wear. Finally, i realized they were talking about the LDS missionary guys that come here! I havent seen any yet, but something about my Português reminded them of the mormons’ Portuguese, and they didnt know anything about Mormonism, just about the elders with the name tags.
And about the speaking Portuguese.. I’m going to start taking lessons soon. I have a few schools to look into and also have met with a private tutor.. I also have a couple of friends that want to improve their english so when we meet it’s a language disaster trying to speak both languages.
The Portuguses people will tell you themselves that they are fichadoes, or closed. Its taking a while to get to know people. The Brazilians that i have met have been very helpful, and theres lots of them here, and the chances that a brazilian speaks english is lower than a portuguese person, which is good for me and learning Portuguese. The Portuguese have an advantage learning english because many of the US popular telvision shows are here and they are never dubbed, always with the original voices and subtitles.
I had a visitor!! Anna (CMC ‘09) and her mom were traveling through lisbon for a few days before Anna starts her research project in London. We did one touristy thing that I hadnt done yet– rode the trolly up the hill to where I live, and I showed her some of my favorite views of Lisbon. I want to take pictures there some morning when there’s some good dramatic clouds in the sky.
I am going to start writing more frequently when I get back from the Morocco and Spain trip with my parents.. I learn so much every day here.. But now I need to get out of this internet cafe!
The day after I arrived I started my internship at Médicos do Mundo which translates to Doctors of the World. This is not the same as Doctors without borders but I think they’re sister organizations or something. I think that they explained to me that where Doctors without Borders responds to emergencies and is in an area for a shorter period, Médicos do Mundo establishes projects with a longer time frame and goals of health and education for the communities. I know some basic information about a lot of their domestic and international projects, but I’ll write about those in future blogs. After next week I will start rotating around to the different projects in Lisbon. This week I’m doing miscellaneous stuff in the office to get a feel for it and meet the people. When I first arrived I was introduced to all 12 or so working in the office and this involved about 24 kisses. Yesterday I was mostly busy doing tedious data entry stuff, and it took me long enough to figure out this: áàãäâ and ç º ª on the keyboard, and where all the rest of the characters shifted. Today I helped translate the supplies for Midwifery Kits from English to Portuguese, (UNICEF makes them but only retails for total orders over $5000 so MDM is replicating the kits for their own projects). Those are just two examples. It’s going to get more interesting.
The food is fine. I haven’t eaten at any snails yet, although bags of the shells hang in many restaurant windows. They use a lot of olive oil. Coffee comes in very tiny mugs. I walked past an Indian restaurant on the way here which I wouldn’t have noticed except for the smell, although it was nearly empty, I’ll probably eat there soon.
It’s all good so far.
New blog, to be maintained by me while i’m here in Lisbon, doing an internship with Médicos do Mundo.
I arrived in Lisbon on the 26th of May after a long but uneventful flight. It was easy enough to get a taxi to my new home, which is living in a spare room with a woman and her daughter in the Graça neighborhood. Windows maps (maps.live.com) has some cool “birds eye” photos of the neighborhood. You go up a flight of stairs and walk through their house and outside through this garden patio to get to my room. Its spacious, but i have to go inside to use the bathroom and kitchen, and the garden area has been very slippery a couple of times after some rain… The neighborhood is really convenient. I walk everywhere.. although not everyone would walk the amount that I choose to walk. This city is flowing all over seven hills. The Portuguesa like to tell me this, that this is the city of seven hills, almost every time i ask for directions or am speaking with someone about Lisbon. These hills are easy to navigate by, especially since there’s a big castle on top of one near my neighborhood. Plus, there are lots of bus stations, and a fair amount of the bus stations display a map of the entire city with a big “you are here” circle, so walking is good. When i get tired of walking, or leave the central area, there are electric trolleys, buses, and a subway. The system seems very safe and organized.
The old people in this city walk too. The first day I was here i noticed this. I would say that there is proportionally a much higher percentage of senior citizens walking on the streets here than any US city I have seen. Although the sidewalks and streets are really narrow so if there’s someone in front of you with a cane walking slowly it is very noticeable, so maybe this statistic has some bias. They also feed pigeons.
I bought some groceries today, including a maça fuggy (fuji apple). I think this particular store made up fuggy, because I haven’t seen that anywhere else. They didn’t carry peanut butter.
