WEEK VIII: Beyond Barriers

I got some routine in the hospital by now, the days flow by with some special encounters in between. For the first time I get to talk to a woman who wears niqab, the additional piece of cloth which only leaves the eyes uncovered. I find it strange to choose this attire and it must be quite hot. I don’t really know anyone in favor of it, especially my veiled friends pointing out that it is not only not necessary, but also dangerous. The mother of a patient wears niqab. As long as no male doctors or nurses are around, however, she uncovers her face. I discover that I would not have been surprised if she had behaved in a reserved way towards me, white, unveiled, with short hair. But she is not, not at all. She speaks some English, I speak some Arabic, we talk about her child as would be the case between any mother and nurse assistant. Her husband holds the next surprise for me. From the couples I see in the street I expect a man with at least some beard, possibly a long one, possibly wearing galabeya, the traditional long dress or at least slacks. Wrong again, he is clean shaven and wears jeans and a polo shirt. You never know in advance…

Apart from special inter-cultural discoveries like this, other patients also keep on reminding me of one of the most rewarding aspects of direct clinical work. Even when not in charge of treatment, some short conversations while preparing food or after measuring blood pressure or the like are a kind of contact I enjoy and I think the patients also like these opportunities to share some part of their experience, of their life and not just being worked at. For me these short stories make it easier to see the whole person, not only the patient and – not only in Egypt – I also learn a lot about different ways of life and thinking, different kinds of work.

One patient speaks a mix of German and English with me. Until the fall of the Iron Curtain he had been working in the Egyptian Embassy in the GDR. He tells me many Egyptians like French, but say German is too sharp, he says, he likes exactly this point and he likes that everything in German (or Germany? I’m not quite sure what he means.) is clear and either white or black, not grey. At least that was how he knew it. Maybe it is not like that anymore, he says…