During his previous trips to Ecuador, Dr. Jack Myers had to wait until the hospital’s English-speaking surgeon was available to have those important conversations following surgery.
This time, Joey Ballard translated for him.
Ballard became fluent in Spanish through years of reading Spanish literature. He learned his medical vocabulary while volunteering with the Global Health Initiative as a translator at the Montgomery County Free Clinic. But being completely immersed in the language with only three English-speaking people in the entire hospital was “an adjustment.”
“In the beginning, I would translate in my mind what they were saying, but as the week went on, I could just think in Spanish.”
Ballard also faced a disconnect between conversational Spanish and the medical terms he needed to be able to convey to nurses.
“I would stand there next to him, and, if Dr. Myers said anything, I would think, How would I say this if I were to translate it? If I didn’t know the words, I had a little journal that Joey gave me, and I wrote it down and met with the head surgeon afterward.”
Beyond the language barrier, Ballard says their work united all of these doctors.
“Their commitment to medicine is universal, whether it was Dr. Myers or the team there. How much time and concern they give—it transcends their language barrier.”