Belgium Part D

Friday I met with a representative from the General Nursing Faculty. I wanted to set up an exhacge with them also. The first thing he told me was “All of our courses are held in Flemish. Mastery of Flemish is essential.” Well, that was the end of that idea. We did work out something else very useful, though. All of the former EU institutions offer midwifery as a marjor in medical schools, not just part of another program. We don’t have midwifery at all now, since the birth rate in Lithuania has dropped so much. But we’d like to, and this guy offered to help us out a lot. “Don’t bother inventing the wheel from scratch,” he said, more or less, “We’ve done it and we’ll gladly teach you how to read our blueprints.”

So that’s quite useful. Something else about my meeting with him was even more useful, though. When I went back my main coordinator asked me how it went, and he was genuinely surprised when I told him they have no classes in English. Their buildings are adjacent, and they’re both high up in the administration. I have tons of problems communicating with the various departments of KLK, sometimes it feels hopeless, but seeing the same problems in a big, successful institution made me feel like maybe we’re not so bad, after all.