Today I was on the ship. We had to ready to go at 0545 so I did my exercise the night before by running to the port and back on the beach with some of my colleagues. We went and picked up some local translators at their hotel on the way there. I had been informed how to ask permission to board (a courtesy of formality on naval ships) but since the ramp up to the ship wasn't properly secured yet the whole process was more of a hurry-up-so-you-don't-get-hurt situation. Anyway, we ate breakfast on the ship, where I used some very fancy but worn out silverware. For some reason I was not allowed to have bacon and hash. I am still not quite sure if this was an actual rule or an assesment the cook made of me personally.
I was assigned ICU for the day, isolated from the rest of the process on the boat. It was not really ICU, since the sterile portions of the facility were locked and the lights turned off. All we were doing in there was taking care of patients who needed more focused observation. Three of our four post-op patients had escorts, some kind of family member with them, except one. Since everyone else had someone to come and ask me to communicate with the doctors I mostly camped out by my fourth friend who, on top of not having anyone, was recovering from corrective surgery for a cleft palate so he couldn't speak easily. The rest of the time that they didn't need my services I tried to finish my book and teach the nurses some Spanish.
In the afternoon I got bored and decided to conduct a reconnaissance. I had heard through the grapevine that there were some inadequacies in the translator shifts, so I went around to the different medical bays to find out their needs and see if maybe we cadets could do anything about it. Basically, the answer was yes, there are inadequacies, yes, I could do something about it, no, I was not allowed to take initiative and fix the problem because it might embarass someone who outranks me to fix what is essentially his only responsibility. All I could do what present the information in a concise, persuasive way and pass it on to the colonel so that he could make an informed decision if he decided that it was important enough to get involved. Otherwise there's not much more I can do.
When we got to our room today there was a note on the nightstand apologizing for the fact that the area outside of our room was going to be a rockin' party into the early morn', so that was pretty exciting. We had a bird colonel come eat with us tonight and talk about being a FAO. I think it's something I'm going to seriously consider, if I can convince Ada that it would be fun to live in Africa. Anyway, back to my room to be sweetly serenaded by a professional karaoke salsa singer. Que Dios les bendiga.
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