Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed by this author are their own and do not represent the official position of the Barbados Today Inc.
by Jade Gibbons
“I’m an early riser. When it’s 4:30 a.m. my eyes automatically open. My biggest defect is that I kind of stutter when I speak. Not because I have a problem. I talk fast, and I always have to go over and say again what I wanted to say. I’m Christian and I’m Indo-Guyanese.
I’ve lived in Barbados for most of my life. My family moved here when I was 5. I believe that everyone should be honest, be loyal. In this day and age, everybody is trying to have this appearance that they have it in life. But if you really be honest about who you are, you accept reality about where you are at. Just be honest about who you are and what you do.
I haven’t start working officially as a medical doctor. I’m just doing COVID-19 swabbing now. Taking this time off has actually helped me realise that being a doctor isn’t just about seeing a patient, prescribing medication. There is more to it than that. So I’ve gained a new perspective from taking a step back.
“In 2019, I was in Cuba. There was this bar where we used to go to play pool. And every Friday, after we finished our last exam for the week, we would go there and relax, play pool, de-stress from the week we’d had. On a scale of 1 to 10, I’d say my Spanish is between an 8 or 9.
[The question was: do you feel comfortable and competent that if you had to treat a patient who only spoke Spanish, who was in a high trauma situation, so they really need a doctor who can talk them through and calm them down, do you feel as though you are competent enough to do that?] Yes, because I spent seven years in Cuba.
My whole education from 2012 to 2019, I had to speak in Spanish for everything. All of my tests, exams, writing, the social interaction was all Spanish. For seven years straight, except for the two odd months that I would be home, I was speaking Spanish the majority of the time. So it gives me that level of confidence to know I can do that.
“Before Corona if I needed to blow off steam, I would drink wine. I like red wine. It doesn’t have to be a particular brand. 2019 specifically was a transition year for me. So I have to speak on two different levels.
When I was in Cuba, the average day was getting up, going to work at 7:30 in the morning, coming home at about 6pm and studying. Sometimes I would be on call for 24-hours, so it varied. And then once I graduated, when I came home, it was different because I was just home relaxing. I didn’t focus on anything. Then later that year I went to Canada where I was studying to do my medical licensing exam.
“I went to Canada in October of 2019. I had to get my documents, legalise before I could apply for the exam. After I had all of that out of the window, the exams were scheduled. The first exam was scheduled for March 2020. There were medical two exams I would have had to take.
After I passed the March exam, later down, September or so I would have done the second exam. Everything got pushed back because of the lockdowns in Canada. While I was there, I got a side job where I was taking care of the elderly just to pay the bills. I was a personal support worker.
It’s like being a companion to someone old. You help them. You feed them. You change them. I was doing that right before COVID-19 struck. When it struck in March everything was at a stand-still. I was just at home with my uncle, his wife and their five-year-old. I made the decision to stop working because I didn’t want to be the person to bring COVID-19 into their family.
For about four or five months, I got up, left the house only once a week. Then, I was just trying to get out of Canada to come home. But as you know, Barbados was closed so I couldn’t leave. On October 18th, my birthday, I got a flight to leave and that’s the day I came back. That’s what my 2020 was. A blur you could call it.
“Christmas 2019, I worked on Christmas Eve. I went to stay with this old lady because I used to stay with her overnight. I left home on the 24th around 7p.m. and came home at 11a.m. Christmas day. It was the 3rd of January 2020 when I first heard that there was a new disease stirring in China.
Why I remember it so clearly is because that was the day I did the English equivalent exam. If I recall, it was a Friday. That day, as I was on the train heading to downtown Toronto to do my exam, I saw people wearing masks. They were of Asian descent. And I when I came home, on the news, I heard people saying there is something in China.
I hadn’t started wearing a mask. No one had then. But if you have ever been to Toronto, you always saw Asians wearing masks before then, so it wasn’t an odd sight. But on that day, I noticed an increase. Literally everyone, of Asian descent, I saw on that day was wearing a mask.”
Jade Gibbons is an arts and business graduate with a keen interest in social issues and film-making. See https://www.jadegibbons246.com
