Crossing Niagra Falls on a Bicycle

Crossing Niagra Falls on a Bicycle or "Pasar el Niágara en Bicicleta" is a Cuban idiom used to describe overcoming a difficult situation. It is also the title of one of my favorite songs. It's by Juan Luis Guerra.

Eeeeeek.. I swear this entire blog won't be about him (or even the rest of this post)!

Any who, listening to my daily dose of this song, which describes the "near impossibility of obtaining medical treatment in a developing country", got me to thinking about how real of a situation this would actually be in Mexico.

I thought back to the last day of my semester abroad in Madrid, when my roommate got sick and we had to get her to a hospital ASAP. Our host mother was of no help, which was no surprise after a semester of stomaching dreadful food and experiencing first-hand her total disinterest in being...helpful. Victoria and I took a cab to the hospital and as soon as we walked in, we knew we were NOT going to get help anytime soon. We weren't Spaniards, didn't have the right documentation and since Spain has a socialized health care system, the emergency room was packed. And to think, Spain is no developing country.


Similarly, during my Alternative Spring Break trip this year to the Dominican Republic, the dilemma of receiving medical treatment popped up when we realized that the nearest "medical center" (or 3 bedroom shack) was a 30 minute walk from our home in El Guayabo down this incredibly difficult mountain path that kicked our ass on a daily basis.

The only picture I could find of the medical center near El Guayabo. Pictured are myself, Valerie Kuznik and Julia Peredo of ASB 2011: Three Little Birds

When we went to visit this place, the doctor, whom apparently was the latest of a slew of temporary physicians,  seemed to be accompanied only by a receptionist and an alarming amount of sass. She was the most stylish doctor I've ever seen, trading in that drab old white coat for a tight spandex shirt, skinny jeans and flip flops. Girl was looking gooood.



When Emily, one of the Site Leaders, came down with a case of pink eye, she had to haul ass down to the town 30 minutes away with Peace Corps volunteer and former Vandy student, Leigh, just to be told she didn't have pink eye and that she'd be fine. FINE?! Anybody who has ever seen pink eye, or has eyes in general, could see there was something wrong with her eye but it took a stern demand  for eye drops for the lady to finally help them out. Not surgery, not an eye exam, not any kind of medical treatment at all...just eye drops.

So as I head out to Mexico soon, I wonder how pertinent  this song really is to medical care there. Mexico City is HUGE so will it face the overcrowding we saw in Madrid or the lack of concern we saw in the DR? In reality, neither situation was urgent, so how concerned could we have really expected the doctors/medical staff to be? Is it really that much worse than walking into an overcrowded emergency room in New York with a stomach ache? I don't plan on getting ill in Mexico but hopefully this is something I can explore there too. What's real? What's hype?

Listen to the song. It's good, I promise.

No me digan que los médicos se fueron  

no me digan que no tienen anestesia       

no me digan que el alcohol se lo bebieron 

y que el hilo de coser fue bordado en un mantel

                                                                                                                                

No me digan que las pinzas se perdieron 

que el estetoscopio está de fiesta            

que los rayos X se fundieron                  

y que el suero ya se usó                          

para endulzar el café                              

                                                                                                                          

Don’t tell me that the doctors are gone.
Don’t tell me that you don’t have anesthesia.
Don’t tell me that someone drank the alcohol,
And that the thread for stitches
Has been sewn into a tablecloth.

Don’t tell me that the forceps are lost,
And the stethoscope is on vacation,
That the x-ray machine has burnt out,
And the serum has been used to sweeten the coffee.

Full Lyrics and Translation in the NYT: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/18/arts/18bgue.html