inspiring medic

Here I am at E-- and I go to bed at 8pm and wake up when the roosters start cocking, which is about 4am. It’s really quite frustrating, but it’s the price I pay for working in such a sexy industry. Today we debriefed with the malaria medics and one new major issue that has come up is lack of continuity. Medics leave and they don’t train the new person who is assigned to take over before up and going. Sometimes or most of the times the medicine cannot be accounted for. Sometimes we know that the medic has taken the medicine with him and sometimes we just don’t know where they left the medicine.

Despite all these challenges, it’s heartwarming when you debrief with a medic and all their data and accounting all make sense, and he’s followed every instruction and then I feel proud that this village health worker approach can and does work. H--- L-- from the Y--- area manages 11 villages in a particularly unstable internally displaced persons area. Yet, as he’s been trained, he’s got a village health worker in each village that provides quick diagnosis and treatment to every villager in each of the target villages. When the B Army comes near a village, and many villagers flee into the jungle, fearing direct confrontation with soldiers, he is alerted to the news and he’ll make sure and go to where the villagers are hiding to make sure that they are being monitored and treated for malaria. They are unable to carry their belongings let alone their insecticide treated nets with them when they’re hiding in the jungle. He’s even set up a malaria committee in each village who actively participate in health education and recruitment of village health workers. His job is to train and retrain the village health workers and make sure they’ve got enough supplies. He makes his rounds his areas and stays in each village several days at a time when monitoring their work. He also trains them as a group, let’s them practice and then debriefs with the village health workers, in order to address their questions or difficulties. He is keen on building up their confidence and skills in to insure that they give proper malaria education and treatment. He says that without the help of village health workers he would only be able to cover just a few villages. However, with their help, he’s able to cover almost an entire population of about 2000 villagers. He’s happy to be the malaria medic. I can tell, he’s an older guy who is always cheerful and always smiling, and it’s infectious, his positive attitude. He always makes small talk with me and anunciates his words so that I understand clearly and he is I’m sure quite charismatic and fun to learn from. He also makes the tastiest tomato and onion and chili pepper salad, which I enjoy very much eating on a hot jungle day, after 8 hours of training in a bamboo hut.

vomiting

The only reason I know that Valentine's Day is coming up is because all the toy stores along the main drag are vomiting oversized stuffed animals out their doors in the shape of hearts and teddy bears and flowers, in very conspicuous colors like red and pink and hot pink, hot red! Red Hello Kitty heart-shaped dolls, heart-shaped pillows, pink non-descript shaped-somethings are spilling onto the sidewalks. I zip by these stores on my bicycle, with absolutely no reason to stop. As much as I would love to meander into one and peruse all the knick knacks they sell (which I actually enjoy doing if I have a few minutes to procrastinate), I've got more practical things to shop for - 2,500 small plastic medicine ziplock bags, some string, a bed net, toothpaste...On other occassions, when I have more free time and I do get a chance to take a 'brain break', I like to look at the endless quantities of either fake Lesportsac wristlet clutches or coin purses or cell phone doilies that cost a dollar or so. This activity makes me very happy. Sometimes on a hot day, I'll indulge in a bowl of Thai jelly dessert served over crushed ice or I'll get real Thai iced coffee brewed with a sock, served in a plastic bag and stroll the aisles and just buy something. Shopping here does not break the bank. Shirts cost a few bucks, a pair of jeans can cost 5 bucks. Other times, I'll go over to the store next to the air-conditioned coffee shop in town because there is a miniature pomeranian there and go over play with the dog. The store owner probably thinks I'm a little coo coo because I squeal just a little too loud every time I see the dog, but it's pretty darn cute. When it was a puppy, it fit in the palm of my hand. And my hands are small.