Culture Shock

Today two of our many orientations dealt with culture shock. These presentations were geared towards the armed forces that were present, which by the way is everyone but the 6 civilians. They were teaching about how to identify and prevent one's self from becoming culture shocked. I then realized I was culture shocked but not by the Pacific Islanders. I am now living with the Military culture. Everything the military does is, not surprisingly, very structured. We all meet at our pre-arranged times every day at the same time even if there is nothing much on the agenda. I soon found myself planning around when my next meal would arrive (0700, 1200, and 0530). As the chaplain said today "You may not be military, but for this mission, you are."

All of this aside, the people I am living and working with are wonderful. I've made friends of French engineers, Canadian dentists, a South Korean dermatologist, Australian engineers, and a variety of healthcare providers from the armed forces. The Commodore and his crew have gone out of their way to make all of us "newbies" feel at home. The majority of officers on the ship do practice a certain medical specialty.

The ship itself is about as large as a cruise ship with a helo landing pad where the pool should be. I find it very akin to staying in a hotel. The major exception is that this hotel has a tendency to sway back and forth. The second busiest parts of the ship behind the mess halls are the fitness rooms. Everyone is encouraged to participate in daily physical fitness in order to prepare for the intense heat and humidity of the islands we are visiting. At 2100 it was about 90 degrees and humid enough to make it feel like you were breathing in water. I guess this is to be expected as we are now nearly on top of the equator.

Dr. Marks and I eagerly await our turn to go ashore either aboard the helicopter or the rigid hull inflatable boat. The next couple of sites they are predicting upwards of 750 people a day. Reports have even come back from the advance echelon team citing instances where people will travel for days for medical aid and patients will often show up by the truckload.