Photos: Carrying heavy loads, Guatemala.

Dr. Pott is back at work, which means I am back in clinic and the OR with him. My work with him doesn’t have anything to do with my telemed project, but I do it simply because I love surgery, and I learn a lot from Dr. Pott. Now that I understand some Spanish, I’m able to assist the Cuban surgeon, Dr. Cruz, as well. Yesterday I assisted Dr. Cruz in amputating a man’s leg.

If it weren’t for the Cuban doctors, our hospital would be extremely anemically staffed. The majority of the hospital doctors are Cuban, as are the operating room staff. The resulting language barrier can make working in the OR a little extra challenging and frustrating. For example, when Dr. Pott, who speaks English, asks the Spanish-speaking scrub nurse for an instrument, he often gets the wrong one, or sometimes just a blank stare. Luckily his Spanish is proficient so he can ask a second time in Spanish.

Speaking of Cuban doctors, Cuba provides doctors for many third-world countries who are short on doctors. As incentive for Cuban doctors to provide service in countries like Belize, the Cuban government offers $50/month to doctors who choose to do so. Although the term of service is 2 years, the $50/month payment is a pension they get for the rest of their lives, and is in addition to their base salary of $35/month. Yes, $35/month is the salary of a Cuban doctor. Belize gets many doctors from Cuba, not only because Belize doesn’t have many of its own doctors, but because from the point of view of the Belizean government, Cuban doctors are cheap labor. Belize provides the Cuban doctors with a stipend of $250 per month, while a Belizean doctor gets paid $3000 per month. Thus Belize saves a lot of money by hiring Cuban doctors. It pains me to imagine how the Cuban doctors must feel, getting paid 1/12 the salary of their Belizean colleagues.