A few days back, a pakistani student was gifted with a son. This event invited a swarm of curious and sometimes funny experiences. The day his son was born, they went to the hospital in the morning, but they asked them to go back and come in the evening. Since my friend requested English to be spoken, they became mistakenly known among the staff as the "American Family". They were especially surprised to see that the grandmother of the newborn was also present there. They are not used to relatives visiting or taking care of the family. We went to the hospital to see the child and asked at the reception for our friend. They searched for some time and declared that the name of the mother is indexed and hence required from us. One of us was married, so he had some idea of the name and hence we got to the required room. Guests were allowed to stay only till 7 pm and father till 9 pm. Only mother could stay overnight, if she wanted.
The doctors discovered a bacteria common in South Asia but extinct in Europe on the baby. They did't care much about it. My friend consulted doctors in Pakistan who advised to take the matter seriously. So they took the little guy to the hospital and told the doctor that they had consulted British qualified doctors (actually true) and quoted their advice. The local doctors then admitted their mistake and took the child in for a week for vaccination and checkup. That problem is now solved.
Another critical problem remains: Khatna (circumcision). Local doctors are mostly not prepared to do it or at least not through the health insurance. They don't treat it as necessary so my friend will have to pay for it. He hopes to find a Muslim or Jew doctor who can do it from the health insurance.
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