- A Nurse makes about $22,000 per year. A teacher makes about $24,000 per year and does NOT need even a high school degree, let alone a college degree, to teach
- There is no income tax here.
- Grand Bahama Island is about 96 miles long and at its widest, 15 miles across
Here are some places we passed along the way...
As we drove to the YMCA, we pass miles upon miles of uninhabited land and trees. Those stretches of land have the skinniest trees and most of which have burn marks on them from brush fires that regularly ignite the area. Apparently, the island was first hoped to be a tree harvesting plantation. I personally am glad they didn't do that as each tree probably is big enough to make a small booklet of post-its.
Throughout the entire island, even in the towns, there are dogs everywhere. The humane society here alone consistently has about 400 dogs in their care. The dogs that have no home are the result of the Bahamians refusing to spay their pets. The men here are macho in general and see spaying as unnecessary. This results in hundreds of liters of puppies which are commonly driven to the east side of the island and dropped off to survive on their own. The nickname for dogs is"potcakes" named after the scraps of food that are smashed together into cake like patties and thrown outside to feed them. It is interesting that the men are like this towards their dogs because relationships, sex and children are very much a male dominated area as well. It is extremely common for men to impregnate multiple women leaving some women with 8 kids, 6 of which from different men. Married men commonly sleep around, but women of course are not allowed. Young women also are known to sell their bodies for sex in exchange for a $20 or $50 phone card. These trends lead to a high HIV/AIDS prevalence on the island, yet there is a huge stigma around this disease and most islanders won't talk about the subject (also meaning they hardly inform their partner of their status). Mary unfortunately was able to point out multiple houses where she knows people are dying from AIDS.
We arrived at the YMCA which is a bright blue building surrounded by a few recreational fields. We will be putting in hours here helping run some camps for the local children aged 5-13ish. To attend this camp, it is $50 per child for one week. The camp runs from 8-5, which in reality is probably cheaper than any child care a parent could find in the area. $50/week is still very difficult for a lot to come by and therefore many kids are left alone at home to take care of themselves during the summer. We met with the director of the camp program. She explained that of the 168 campers that checked in this week, less than 10 of them had both parents there and most live in single parent homes with their mothers. She was interested in us teaching a lesson on how to say no to sex even to these children who are as young as 9-13. We must have looked a little shocked as she went on to explain that many mothers become grandmothers at as young as 34 when their 13 year old daughter starts getting pregnant.
The YMCA does have a workout gym equipped with a few rooms of weights, treadmills, etc. I was quite impressed by the resources they had here until I walked by the gym snack bar and saw the options to be honey buns and candy with one healthy option to get a smoothie.
Another area of concern for the director was the use of pot in the children and adults on the island. Mary actually chimed in here explaining that most of the light switches and toilets in her house are crooked because the plumber and electricians were always high. Men are brought in from other counties to work in the ship yards because men here can't always pass the drug tests in order to work. Of the 800 employees at the ship yard, only 250 of them are Bahamians for this reason.
We left the YMCA and headed to do a survey of the hospitals and clinics on the island. We headed to the West side and stopped at Rand Memorial hospital. We were greeted by Sister Audrey Rolle who is the Deputy Principal Nurse Officer. This is similar to the Chief Nursing Officer we have in the US. She met us in her all white uniform dress, white stockings, white shoes and a big white hat. It was the stereotypical nursing uniform that they are still required to wear only she was more distinguished in her role as her hat was bigger than that of a regular floor nurse. The term "Sister" is also used to help distinguish her role here.Here is a picture of the former nurse officer.
We started at the Emergency Room that was equipped with 5 beds separated by curtains in a room not much bigger than a living room. We headed to the labor and delivery unit where rooms have 2 patient beds per room. Women are admitted here and immediately told to get in to bed and lay on their backs (one of the worst positions to be in in order to help move along labor). They are also put on NPO (nothing by mouth) status. These rooms are dark and have curtains hanging on the small windows that must be from the 1970s. Doctors then come in and immediately hang Pitocin (a drug to stimulate labor) for every woman.
We moved right along to the ICU that consisted of a room with 4 beds lined up against 2 walls. They are capable of taking care of ventilated patients here, but don't expect to get much time to visit your family if they end up here in this hospital as the visiting hours are ridiculous. Each patient is allowed 2 visitors for 10 minutes and only if these visitors are their immediate family. This is the policy for the hospital and the hours of visitation are from 2:30-3:30 and 6-7 pm. Most of the ICU patients end up there from a lifetime of uncontrolled Diabetes, Hypertension and Obesity and consequently have some sort of cardiovascular attack. Men mostly refuse their antihypertensive medications as they interfere with their libidos.
Moving down the hall to the pediatric floor was the most shocking of all. We walked in to a room with metal cribs lined up one after the other against the far wall. The children stood up in their cages...I mean cribs...and held on to the rails that appeared like prison bars. Breathless, we then walked to a smaller area here where there were 2 isolation rooms. These metal rooms were no bigger than a closet and had one window so that people could peek in on the children. No hope here for visiting hours either as you are required to leave after 8 pm even if you are a parent. One child some years back was here and when her mother came to see her in the morning she was covered with red ant bites that had attacked her during the night. While I'm sure she was screaming as they bit her skin, not one person came to help.
The psychiatric unit was your stereotypical place with one hallway and a few rooms there. The unit can hold 12 people- 6 men, 6 women. The women have 1 room and the men another. This means that each of these rooms has 6 beds lined up right next to each other for the patients to stay in. There are gates on the windows and a "punishment" room. Normally these types of rooms are padded, but this one was tiled. The attendant explained that patients can be in here for up to a week, but if they are psychotic enough to need this room for that long then they are shipped to Nassau to another facility. The unit boasts a sign that states they adhere to to the "Mental Health Act of 1969". The great thing about this unit, however, is that there is a room where doctor-patient conferences are held each morning and every patient gets time to meet with them.
The walls throughout the hospital were painted all sorts of blues, pinks, greens and other bright island-type colors. There are operating rooms here or "theaters" as they call them. Almost every patient, doctor or nurse said hello as we walked by and wanted to know how we were doing. National health insurance is free for everyone so no need to worry about your medical bills. The units all get 20 sets of sheets for their beds at the start of the year and these are expected to last until the start of the next year. To give birth here, it's $100, but if you can't pay, that's fine too.
Later in the day we headed to the very west end of the island. We passed dozens of houses that have still not been rebuilt after the latest hurricane disaster. Some places had been rebuilt by the government and some were halfway there but the builders had run out of money to finish the project.
We drove down a road with the ocean directly to our right. Along the entire shoreline were piles of old conch shells that had been torn apart for the meat of the animal living inside. Conch is a staple in the Bahamian diet. Due to the high demand, there are fewer and fewer conch around the area and a single one takes about three and a half years to mature. The government therefore is trying to mandate a limit to the amount of conch you can harvest, but this is proving to be difficult due to how much the islanders eat it.
We passed one of the 3 public high schools on the entire island. This particular one had barbed wire spread along parts of the fence.
We arrived at the local community clinic on the very west end of the island (8 mile rock) and were greeted by the nicest lady. She gave us a tour and here are the pictures of the "emergency room" and the dental room that the dentist comes to once per week.
Nurses and doctors for these clinics are provided with living quarters so they can be ready to help when needed. Here is a picture of these quarters for one of the island clinics.
At the clinic we stopped at, there were signs and brochures about safe sex and talking to your partner about it. Shockingly, one of the brochures influenced by strict Christian values boasted questions like, "Will I go to hell if I have sex before marriage?". Here is a picture of his brochure.
Again, the health care here is cheap or free. All of your medications are $1 except antibiotics which are $2. Here is the sign of costs for this clinic:
On a fun note, we did stop by the Bahamian Beer Brewery! This was also where we purchased handles of rum for under $15. The last thing my mom explained to me before I left was that the rum here is cheap so I should drink it....well mom, you were right and I certainly am following your orders to drink it. OH DARN! .
To close the day, we stood out in the water and watched the sun set while enjoying some Bahamian inspired rum drinks. Plan for day four: kayak trip to a blue hole for snorkeling.
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