Cuban Doctor in Siaya Impresses Many By Speaking in Both Swahili and Dholuo To The Patients!

Yackline Castillo is a Cuban doctor that was posted in Siaya as part of the contingent of 100 doctors that arrived in Kenya in June 2018.

The aim of their arrival was to join hands with the local medics and help improve service delivery in the country’s public health sector, but unlike her colleagues, she has turned out to be a very special family doctor.

Just like her Cuban colleagues, Dr Castillo could not pronounce a single word in any of the local dialects, including Swahili, when she landed in Kenya except English and her own Cuban official language, Spanish, and others.

Today, most of the Cuban medics who were deployed to the 47 counties after a two-week induction, are said to have acquired a few local habits and blended in the locals despite communication barriers, but some of them have even mastered the local languages.

“I have been practicing me and myself. I practice when I am back in the house using a dictionary… but you also need people to help you…people in the community who speak the language. I sometimes ask the security officers at my apartment to teach me Swahili,”