Journey Through Someone Else's Eyes 2

Meghann Mealbach
Comp 106 Section 19
Prof. Anne-Marie Yerks
March 10, 2010
Profile: Fadia Salamey Aoude- RN
Is it possible to help find smaller solutions to local and world hunger and could one of those solutions be a small compact food bar? That is what I set out to find the answer to as I searched for subjects for this interview. Who I found was Fadia Salamey Aoude- RN a Nursing Supervisor for the Dearborn Health Department and a woman who has a lot of passion for her profession.
Fadia was born in Beirut, Lebanon and that was where she spent her childhood. Then in 1960’s while in High School Fadia moved with her family to the United States which was not an easy transition.“The first year I came here I didn’t have but my high school from overseas, dual languages Arabic and English. When I came here in March, they wouldn’t put me in school until the following year, so I only went to Fordson for one year.”
There were however aspects of Fadia early years that were not typical of an American High School student. “I was married that’s my nationality usually females at that time, your lucky if your parents allow you to finish high school. The minute you graduate from high school you get married, so I was married when I graduated high school”.Shortly after graduating circumstances changed for Fadia, her marriage dissolved and she found herself at a crossroads trying to decide how she was going to move forward in her life. All that her parents wanted her to do is go to college, so that is what she did. Fadia started her college career at Henry Ford Community College and decided to pursue a degree in Nursing. Early on in her education Nadia faced a lot of culture shock and language barriers. “It’s very hard because mentally no matter how good you are in one language you always translate in your head back to your original and back to language and back into what it means English.” I asked her how those cultural differences impacted her in nursing school and she stated that it was a huge impact for her as she was pursuing her passion;
“Here is where your culture plays. I never saw a naked man in my life except for my little brothers. On your first day into the clinical program you learn how to give a bath… and my first time to give bed bath to an older gentleman... I almost passed out…to him it didn’t mean a thing but to me besides being a single mom, being divorced is a taboo in my culture, and here I am giving this gentleman his bedbath… too many things I was bombarded with and to get use to the nursing program was overwhelming at that point.Even with all of the trials and tribulations that Fadia went through while she was in the nursing program at Henry Ford Community College and at Madonna University she was grateful to have accomplished something that she never thought she would have the opportunity to do.
“So I went two full-time years and one summer and I graduated. The minute that I graduated I realized God, what did I get myself into. Even though I love the nursing profession I always thought that I’d be in that field but because of my background I never thought that I would have that option.”After graduating Fadia was still overwhelmed with the pressures of a budding new career but there was one event that let her know that she was in the right place and that she had an advantage that others did not. She recalled,
“I remember one incident from Oakwood Hospital the man was praying, somebody thought he fell down and that were pulling him up off the floor and he was yelling leave me alone and when I walked into that room I figure what was going on, just be open and that opened my eyes too…You come down to earth, you become human, you look at every patient with an open mind…compassion where a lot of people these days…there is no interaction, where in nursing there is always interaction…it made you value what you have and it made you value the other cultures too in my situation,. So, I can understand it from their view and my view.After I learned about Fadia background and her compassion and acceptance for her patients, she gave me important tips to remember when I try to create my food bar. What were some of the things that I needed to keep in mind in relation to caloric intake and vitamins I asked her, she replied
“Your vitamins you have to have all those vitamins in your nutritional bar, but bars should be considered to be for one or two meals not for the whole day.” I then asked What if the bar was the only available food source for the day how many calories would I need to provide. Her response was that“Your body needs if you are healthy, your body needs 3,000 calories at the most. If you are diabetic 1,500 to 2,000 calories a day so your nutritional bar has to have a value between those numbers, let’s say a 3,000 calorie diet then each bar would have to be a thousand.”
I also learned that I need to keep in mind of protein sources and allergies and she also advised that I use a lot if not all raw foods. Conducting the interview was a great experience and provided me with great insight as I continue my research. I think the best part was having the opportunity to see life through someone else’s eyes.