Profiles in Medicine: Saskia

Saskia will be upset with me for anything I say here. And that is precisely the place to start in meeting her. Saskia likes to hide. She’d rather not have direct attention. Only slightly ironic, since she is a 6’7” white woman in the middle of Africa. (I apologize for any earlier, exaggerated estimates that I’ve told anyone.) I call her my “off-line Skype” friend, since she likes to hid behind the off-line symbol and then text-chat with you when you are least expecting it. I haven’t ever asked, but I bet she was good at hiding as a kid.

Saskia is also Dutch. The C&MA has a sending office in Holland and so we work alongside a good number of Dutch people here in Mali. She resents the fact that the American C&MA has a booklet called, “Working with the Dutch,” which warns of all the cultural differences between the Dutch and Americans. She feels that is not necessary. Very direct, which is very Dutch. I’ve never seen said booklet, but that hasn’t stopped me from referencing my constant need for it.

Saskia is also a general practice physician, with special training in tropical medicine. She is kind of like a jack-of-all-trades. She does surgery, OB and delivery, pediatrics, and general practice. And she calls in trouble from all directions when she is on-call at night. I call these “Saskia’s late-night hospital parties.” Her two specialties: pregnant teenagers who refuse to push and fistula repair. (Her late night parties usually center around emergency C-sections.)

Saskia is also known as Sasha the Fierce. (Long-story-short, we had a visiting surgeon who called her Sasha the whole time he was here. I added the fierce part, in parody of Beyonce.)

Saskia is learning slang English. Her English is impeccable. (Dutch, English, German, French, and she struggles with Bambara…a true linguistic failure… ;)) However, I’ve made it my personal mission to teach her idioms and slang in English. I never realized how many of those things I used in my everyday speech. I have used an idiom and then used two more to explain it to her, and then realized I just needed to say it literally. She is very patient.

Saskia has a favorite patient. Ne (like a horse says…) is a 10 year-old who had typhoid, which caused her bowel to perforate. We’ve had to do 4 surgeries on her to get the thing repaired. Ne dislikes me because I only come by to change her ostomy. She loves Saskia because she comes by to give Ne coloring books, candy, cookies, pink lemonade, and to take her into town. Ne is a good judge of character. When’s the last time your physician gave you a manicure?

Lastly, but most sincerely and most importantly, Saskia has been a great friend to me. I mean, she owes me, since she is the one who got me into this whole ordeal in the first place. I met her in 2008, in Gabon, where she was just finishing up a year-and-a-half term there. Earlier this year, when I was looking into “short-term” opportunities, she came up with the idea that I could come over for a longer period of time. She set in motion the chain of events that led to my coming here. And she has been a very receptive and wise ear for my whining about the difficulties of transition. She has patiently endured my constant talking about my Somali friends that I’ve left behind and miss dearly. She has been instrumental in making me feel welcomed and plugged-in. All this despite having her own share of challenges.

Saskia is not on Facebook... and neither am I. (Except that I once started to sign-up which I aborted, and a million people have found that start-up and have now added me as a friend.)