MMN Sept 25 Mag Online - Flipbook - Page 11
Elective Report
Medicine Behind Bars
Contributed by Hannah Bolton who did her medical elec琀椀ve in the Philippines
I
spent two weeks volunteering with Integritas: heart for
detainees, in Olongapo, Philippines. This was under the
invaluable supervision of Dr
Rachael Pickering.
Whatever I ended up doing during
the elec琀椀ve, I wanted to be challenged. The prison environments,
hot and humid air, and general
barriers to daily tasks were, therefore, a welcome experience. It was
humbling and eye opening to be
immersed for a short while into a
completely di昀昀erent culture. During our 琀椀me we saw extreme poverty where people were living in
slums in Olongapo, but also very
monied areas in Manila.
Culture
Right from landing it was clear that
the country func琀椀oned somewhat
haphazardly. A昀琀er surrendering
control of our travel situa琀椀on, we
arrived in Olongapo. We were encouraged to learn about the di昀昀erences in hot climate cultures, and
this became apparent when things
were not as task oriented as we are
used to. The shame/honour culture
was also prominent, and altered
the way we taught and interacted
with others. Simple tasks like get琀椀ng a taxi were inhibited by the
driver claiming they knew where
they were going when, in fact, they
did not, but did not want to admit
this.
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