I
wasn’t sure of what I’d be doing before I got here, but I have my schedule now
and I’ve done most of it this week.
My days are split between mornings and afternoons, so I do one thing in
the morning and something else in the afternoon.
Mornings
Two
mornings a week I go spend time with the patients at the psychiatric ward. Generally, there is an occupational
therapist there who helps them make crafts which are then sold at a Christmas
bazaar. My role is to help them
with their crafts and just generally keep them company. Many of there patients are in the
hospital for several months, so having someone new to break up the monotony is
important. Mental illness is also
stigmatized in the Middle East (even more so than in the US), so they do not
have as many visitors as other patients in other parts of the hospital.
Three
mornings a week I work with the chaplains. One of the chaplains is a full-time chaplain at the
hospital, and the others are all local Christian volunteers. We go around and talk to the patients,
and pray for them. ( I thought
this wasn’t something that would be allowed at an American hospital, but
apparently hospitals in the US are required to offer spiritual support for
their patients) This is rather far
outside of my comfort zone, because I’ve never spent much time in hospitals,
and talking and praying with strangers is not something I've done much of in my life. So far, however, I’ve rather enjoyed
it because all of the people I've talked to seemed to really like having someone to talk to and pray for them (even if it was this random American woman who doesn't pray in Arabic yet).
Afternoons
One
afternoon a week I help another volunteer, Rosemary, with her English language
class at the nursing school (it’s at the hospital). I’ve never done this type of teaching, or any kind of
teaching really. I’d like to think
I’m helpful because I speak some Arabic, and can help if they get really
confused. I also have spent a lot
of time studying Arabic grammar (the adjective ‘crazy’ comes to mind), so I am
aware of the reason behind some of the students’ mistakes (since the same adjective could probably be used to describe English). For example, they
often forget the verb ‘to be’ because you don’t use the verb to be in the
present tense in Arabic. (so
correct Arabic is “he tall”, but that’s not good English).
Two
afternoons a week I help in the sterile supplies department, which is the part
of the hospital where they fold sheets and package tools and bandages for the
rest of the hospital (and for one of the other hospitals in town too). They always need the help, and it’s a
very cheerful and happy place. I
like to feel productive and like I’m contributing tangibly, so this is probably
a good place for me. The workers there also help me with my Arabic.
One
other day a week, I have the afternoon off so that I can go to the youth group
bible study at the Church of the Nazarene in the evening. I went this past
week, and it was a lot of fun, though rather difficult to follow because it’s
all in Arabic. Luckily some of the
other people speak English very well, and help me manage with functioning and
learning something.
Starting
in October I’ll also be helping with a children’s afternoon club somewhere
close by.
I will post more specific and stories about my various
assignments as they come up. In
the mean time, it’s the weekend, so happy Friday! (the work week here is generally monday through friday, unlike in the rest of the Middle East, where it's often sunday through thursday)
