One of the man problems in Third World countries is the lack of medical care. People here suffer the most dreadful disease without knowing now they got it. Nepal is a country located in South Asia.
My international internship in Nepal is beyond price. I have to admit that I would surely not learn and practice medicine in any other place than Nepal. The first few weeks were hard for me. I could not help any patients due to communication gap. Indeed, I was truly an intern medicine student for I would just observe and do whatever the doctor ask me to do.
I crammed learning the Nepalese language. I ask someone to accompany me to a bookstore and buy a dictionary of their language and mine. After 18 hours of work, I would insert an hour to learn a few words per night. Sometimes I cannot even seem to remember what I learned the night before because I am far too exhausted to digest the words.
Yet, circumstances taught me to push myself to learn the language because I had to. Patient come everyday, sometimes emergency cases that I have to help. I am forced then to learn, communicate and understand.
I pity more the status of women and children in Nepal. They suffer the most because of the economic status of their country. It was the first time that I experience the word hopelessness in this world.
I could not help but be pleased of what I have compared to people in Nepal. I have learned to love those I worked with in Nepal. The people who witnessed my hardship and my success also learned to accept the blonde haired doctor from the western world who does not even understand a single word way back then.
My internship in Nepal is beyond price for I was not only an intern. I was doctor there. I felt the responsibility of being a doctor in Nepal. I got first-hand experience of being depended upon.
My mentors were even great. They taught me things that books lack. They taught me how to read situation and how to care for patients. I will never regret being in Nepal for my international internship.
This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 24th, 2008 at 2:00 am and is filed under International Internship Destination. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.