Language barrier

If their spirit of dedication supports them in dealing with homesickness, language has proven to be a tougher nut to crack.

“Before we came to Senegal, we were trained for eight months in the French language, but it is difficult to learn it at our age. Moreover, when you arrive here, you find that most local people speak Wolof, a local language that you do not understand,” said Fang Mingda, a 41-year-old otolaryngologist.

Because overcoming the language barrier is so difficult, Yan communicates with his patients through gestures and by paying attention to the expressions on their face to identify exactly the source of their pain.

“Lack of communication hinders accurate treatment. But I always try to do my best to treat them and my French is slowly improving, which helps communication to some extent,” he told Chinafrica.

While their Chinese interpreter is of great help with the French language, the team has had a hard time dealing with Wolof-only speakers.

“Now there are about 100 medical sites in more than 40 African countries, and I think this problem is common,” said team head Zhang.

Fortunately, such concerns will be alleviated gradually in the future with the help of young Chinese talent. Beijing Foreign Studies University plans to add five African languages to its curriculum in the next five years - Amharic, Somali, Malagasy, Zulu and Yoruba. Although these languages will cover only a limited scope of Africa’s linguistic diversity, it is a step in the right direction.

Zhang Maoshi and his teammates will complete their medical mission to Senegal in September 2017, after which another team will take over and build on what they have achieved. “Despite all the difficulties, we are helping the Senegalese population with our limited medical capacity, and it is absolutely worth it,” he said.

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