Praise helps medical team working far from home
On October 9, a team of 12 medical workers from five hospitals in Jiading District left for Morocco. Team members hugged their relatives and colleagues, posed for photos with them and fought back tears as they were wished a safe journey.
For the next two years they will be taking part in a medical assistance program in the north African country at the edge of the Sahara Desert.
Not many of them know the local language and the culture and cuisine are very different to what they are used to but they are sparing no effort to assist local people with their medical specialties to improve Sino-African friendship.
‘Chinois doctor bien!’
After Jiading surgeon Zhang Deyu completed cataract surgery on a patient, the patient held Zhang’s hand, kissing it repeatedly. The patient’s family thanked the Chinese doctors, saying “Chinois doctor bien!,” a phrase in praise of the Chinese medical staff, recognizable by the national flag stitched on their jackets.
The medical team works at Hospital Moulay Ali Cherif in Errachidia City. Though ill-equipped and short of staff, the hospital serves around a million people.
On one occasion, a pregnant woman in great distress was rushed to the operating theater for emergency surgery room and the baby wasn’t breathing when it was delivered. After the local medical workers staff thought that nothing could be done, Chinese team member Zhu Yijun began to give the child the kiss of life.
Zhu’s efforts succeeded after 30 minutes and the infant started to cry. The Moroccan staff were full of admiration for his efforts, saying: “tres bien!,” or “very good!”
The praise means a lot to the Chinese team and is a great incentive to purse their work in the country.
On Wechat, the team revealed that they had all learned to grow vegetables — “ We never thought about doing that before we were sent to Morocco.”
Morocco’s dry and hot desert climate means there is a shortage of green leaf vegetables. After getting tired of eating potatoes, onions and tomatoes, medical team members can now eat Chinese cabbage.
Six years ago, previous Jiading medical teams in Morocco established a vegetable plot beside their camp and it is handed over to each batch of teams as they arrive.
Three days after moving into the camp, team members carried hoes and spades to the field to begin work.
They divided the field into 13 sections and grow different types of Chinese vegetables in rotation to ensure they can eat vegetables at any time during their stay.
Jiang Quanming sowed spinach in the field and cook Lu Quanming followed Jiang to water the seeds.
A security guard at a construction site beside the vegetable plot has become a great friend. A hose is connected to the construction site’s water supply and every time the team need water, they tell the guard: “l’eau,” French for water, and he turns on the tap.
Team members are more than 10,000 kilometers from home and there is an 8-hour time difference.
They keep in touch through Wechat and QQ, both instant message services, but there are still tears when they hear about their children back home or when senior family members are ill.
Zhang Deyu, who is in his 40s, fought back tears as he recalled his first online video dialogue with his parents, both in their late 70s.
“When I opened the video dialogue box at 6:30am local time, my sister-in-law told me that my parents had been waiting for more than 30 minutes and she said that my parents have walked for a kilometer to reach my brother’s house.”
When Zhang saw in his mother combing her grey hair, seated upright in front of the computer, Zhang’s tears flowed. When he heard his mother’s much-missed voice, Zhang found it hard to talk.
“I was feeling my blood rushing to my head, my eyes were sore and I couldn’t stop my tears.” Not wanting to be seen upset, he faked a smile.
“I was always a child for my mom,” Zhang said.
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