Nicknames

I love our national staff... which is a good thing because we have about 144 nationals compared to 10 westerners working at the hospital. They really make the place hum, and flavor our whole work atmosphere. It's been amazing how many nicknames they invent for me. Perhaps it's partly because my name doesn't really have a cognate in Hausa, so I am left with 'Matiyu,' 'Matta,' 'Mattheus,' 'Magyll,' etc. But other influences also affect their thinking. The previous tall white doctor in my role was called 'Likita Chop-Chop,' - Likita means Dr. and Chop-Chop means fast. So I often get called Likita Chop-Chop, especially if I am moving quickly. This name is definitely preferable to the name another predecessor had, Likita Brake, and so I am always trying to dodge that appellation. I have tried to promote Likita Tsaka - "Doctor Just Right" as a speed somewhere between chop-chop and brake, but it has not really caught on.
Another one is 'bokan turai.' A 'boka' is a 'sooth-sayer, wizard, quack doctor,' while Turai is the word for Europe... so a bokan turai is a European medical man. This does reflect one of the realities of work here: as a a medical doctor, my cultural authority is much less than it is in the West. Rather, I am viewed as a not entirely trustworthy, certainly very western, and remarkably expensive source of advice... to be listened to or not as inclination as financial resources allow. Indeed, a majority of our patients are seen by a traditional boka before they ever make it to us: in a country with so few medical doctors, they are our principal competition.
Probably my favorite nickname is 'Likita EKG.' This reflects the fact that I brought the EKG that the hospital bought this summer, and am still the only doctor using it. Admittedly, an EKG has pretty limited usefulness in this context... we do not have any pacemakers available for implant! But it sometimes does have a role... and I am glad to be associated with that little technological marvel.