About a week before I left for Eritrea I had an amusing experience while I was trying to change my mobile phone service. When I walked into the store I was still wearing scrubs, having just finished covering a shift in the emergency department. While attempting to make friendly conversation with me, one of the customers next to me asked if I was a nurse. Semi-exasperated, I responded that no, actually I was a doctor, commenting that "girls can be doctors too." The guy back-pedalled and tried to explain himself, stating that his neighbors were nursing students, etc, etc. I assured him that I was not overly-offended, that indeed this was something that happened quite often. In fact, my exasperation came from the fact that I had *never* been asked if I was a doctor. The first assumption on finding out that I work at a hospital or seeing me in scrubs is that I am a nurse. (Actually, there is one man in my building who still insists on calling me "nurse" even after I have corrected him several times.) I finally finished my buisness, and as I was on my way out when I overheard the same customer mention to the guy behind the counter that he would never make that mistake again. He figured that no matter what the evidence to the contrary was, in the future he would probably begin by asking a woman in the health field if she was a doctor.
So this morning I was on my way to the hospital when I decided to stop for some juice. After the usual questions about how I was finding Asmara and Eritrea, ensuring that I was enjoying my stay, the man behind the counter asked me how long I would be here for. "Six weeks," I informed him. "Are you working at the hospital?" (which was just down the street) he wanted to know. "Yes, I am." To my astonishment and delight, he responded by asking if I was a doctor!
It took coming half way around the world to a developing country, less than 15 years old, but someone finally assumed that I was doctor!
2 comments:
i'm impressed with your reactions. considering the comments you get, i think that your reasponses are an example of restraint.
keep writing
don't have a clear response, but it's a deep experience reading and feeling what you're
going through.
Just goes to show that enlightenment doesn't need to be tied to material goods and education.
I like your response to the gentle in the states. Just adding the comment that you were mostly disappointed that you had never been taken for a doctor taught the man something that he may well remember in the future and pass on anecdotally to those he meets
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