war

One of my favorite local health assistant coordinators has already left for war. He was one of the most happy go lucky, positive human beings I ever met. Such a hard worker. This is truly a sad day for me. I really do hope he keeps safe.

Fortune was told

Today I was having a conversation with the resort owner about including more vegetables in our meals, and then he asked me if I was happy with somtam. I thought he was talking about green papaya salad, so I said yes, I love Somtam and it makes me happy. "No! not somtam! No! Are you happy sometimes?" I smiled and emphatically said yes! most of the time. He told me the mole on my right cheek is preventing me from being happy. Wow, my mother has been telling me this for years. Is this an Asian thing? He subsequently took my hands into his and stroked the tips of my longest fingers, saying I had a difficult childhood and that is why my second and fourth fingers are uneven. It made me think about my parents divorce, being burned by scalding water, being separated from my sister, in an orphanage, and sojourning to the US and not knowing a single soul. He proceeded to tell me that he could see from my hands I help many people and that no one helps me in return. And so because of this, I should never expect people to pay me back or help me. I thought well, that is pretty reasonable. Could be just good advice, something I'll totally heed. He did reassure me, though, that when I hit rock bottom, someone will be there to pick me up. At which my new coworker, concerned about my destiny, invited me to stay with him if I am ever having problems. Glad that is covered! He also told me that I am a bullheaded person and that when I want something, contrary to the advice that my friends and family might proffer, I will go for it. He nailed that one. Then he got into the juicy stuff and told me that I have two people who are in love with me right now. I asked him who they are because clearly I've been left out in the dark. He proceeded to tell me that I am not really good at saving money. I was starting to not want to believe him. And that I also have a sixth sense and can occasionally know things are going to happen before they happen. OK, now he's becoming my friend again. And that I have a very deep secret only in my heart which makes me very sad and nervous.

hanging

Some of the best times i have here in MS is just hanging with Cate and taking pictures of random dogs. We've come up with a classification system of the thai dogs: Burger, BFF, and Polio Dog. How many degrees of separation are they away from these 3 dog types? we ask ourselves. Then we dash for the dogs and take numerous photos. It's raging fun. Then we go and look at random T-shirts.
This one is definitely 1 degree away from Burger with his scruffy factor. It was so sad, why was he eating poo on the road? I didn't know dogs eat poo.

Then we came across two little puppies. They were many degrees of separation from the 3 dog types, but their puppiness still warranted a pull over and oogling.

an afternoon at the beach

-rayon shawl passes by

-handkerchief bandana passes by

-tribal henna tatto passes by "Not permanent! Only lasts 2 weeks!"

-duvet cover floats by

-bamboo flute passes by, music emanating

-leather braided shell bracelets pass by

-curtains stroll by

-roasted corn on stick passes by

-rayon shawl passes by again

-oversized oriental motif fan walks by, dramatically thrust open for details of oriental motif to be seen

-fried broad beans pass by, with a few, eerily, almost landing in my hand without my volition

-rayon shawl passes by, again

-linen sundress walks by, i'm tempted. the white ones always tempt me.

-the musical bamboo passes by playing a different tropical tune

-wooden carved lamp passes by

-wow, an oversized carved wooden wall clock but designed like a wristwatch walks closely by.

my dream vacation

when i'm not working these days, my mind daydreams about the vacation i will finally be taking at the end of may. agenda: yoga, warm crystal aqua green waters, spa, watch DVDs, read, surf and access to internet (just to check a few work related emails in the morning after my breakfast and coffee). or maybe i'll hit the beach first and then come back to a nice and lazy afternoon.

How I will achieve immortality

Lobby the Committee of Small Body Nomenclature of the International Astronomical Union to have an asteroid named after me.

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.