One word comes to mind when i think about this place and our trip - barriers. and signatures. Our health program workshop was an uphill battle, figuratively and literally. Starting from the numerous permits and tourist restrictions to the overwhelming level of bureauracy that we faced every day (to get out of this freagin insurgency-ridden town, i needed to walk through 5 security checks and get 4 signatures just to board the plane. Even my carry-on needed 2 stamps) to the fog that almost forced us to reroute our trip in order to catch all our connecting flights through the rough terrain (a 1 hr plane equals about a 35 hour busride), everything was a challenge. More importantly, other barriers included lack of communication, lack of coordination, high cost medicines, restrictions on supply chains, language barriers, lack of human resources, lack of education, little to no funding and political instability. Probably the biggest barrier was ignorance that perpetrates the minds of the government officials. The ministry of health of this state was a racist, blaming the ethnic minorities on pretty much all the problems of her state and beyond. "They bring over drugs, HIV and malaria and crime". During dinner at her house, she explained to us the horrors about 'bee wee' a local yeast that supposedly quickens the fermentation of bootlegged liquor here (this is a dry state) that the burmese use which causes major bleeding and ulcers all the while she is forcing fosters beer and red wine down our throats that she illegally smuggled in her government issued car. she claimed that rape was the biggest crime and that a chin (burmese ethnic minority) is usually the perpetrator. She also said that hiv/aids is a consequence of bad things a person does like sex work and druguse, but it you get HIV, at least you don't die right away and you have time to pray and repent for your sins. Whereas with Malaria, it doesn't discriminate between [good and bad] people so this is a disease that she is fully addressing in her state. Her idea of fully addressing this health problem? Passing out untreated bed nets at drug depot centers (that don't serve migrant populations), using sub-par antimalarials, and breeding drug-resistant malaria by giving chloroquine to the army as a prophylactic once a week. besides her being a big disappointment as a strategic health partner, everything else was inspiring. The health workers in our workshop were eager to learn about the health status of their people, they're equipped and ready to go out in the field to do some malaria screening and data collection. But we're still figuring out channels for drug supply distribution. The 4 of us had a ball every morning eating our dal and chapati, where the waiter, having finally figured our routine, out didn't seem to mind serving us anymore. And our also routinized lunch over at Hotel Chief was always good, where the menu read "designed for smart people". We're now in Kolkata, happy to be sitting in this airport for several hours and i'm looking over to see tom and luke trying to connect to each others' laptops, chatting away about the next program they'll design, and once in a while asking me for the umpteenth time if i don't just want to head down to maesot with them for another week of more workshops. As for me, i'm health-programmed out and all i want is to be home, taking a crap like a normal person and then taking a hot shower and extracting the multiple layers of exhaust out of my nostrils that was blown into my face every day for the past week or so in this hilltop of a city.
.jpg)
