Does the dust really settle?

It's been a while since I last posted, I know. I bet heaps of people have stopped checking for new posts just because they don't appear - that's okay.

Town life


I've been in MHS for nearly 3 weeks now. It's lovely - mountains and lush greenery, pretty lake and friendly people. Having said that, the small town thing has started to wear a bit. I guess when there are fewer than 8000 people in a town, it's to be expected that walking down the street, I run into people I know all the time. Everybody is somehow connected to someone who knows somebody who used to have lunch with another person whose daughter is the wife of someone from work. Fortunately since my last post I've moved out of the revolting place where I was being accommodated by my employer, and into a snug little bungalow on a lotus pond further from town. To be sure, it's part of the largest hotel/resort in MHS, but it's actually pretty secluded and gives me a definite sense of being not at work. Which, given recent events (as well as the hours I've been putting in), is definitely a positive.

People

There is a certain phenomenon amongst travellers that I have come to really despise - the expat pack mentality. What is it about being in a foreign country that automatically means that you are BESTBESTFRIENDS with people you would never have had a 3 line conversation with back home, makes people eat together every day and have the same conversations over and over again, makes it a kind of social default that deadens the brain and numbs the senses? What is it that makes it okay - even funny, sometimes - that a person can have lived or stayed in a country for months and yet be unable to order food in the local language?

Needless to say, I am not a fan.

It isn't all doom and gloom though. I have made a handful of friends who I think are fabulous people, people that I would be friends with back home. They make discovering a new place more of a joy and provide endless stimulating conversations. After the amazingness of my time and my friends in Chiang Mai I wondered if I would meet other like-minded people here. I think I will.

Camp

I got my camp pass about a week and a half ago and have already started training medics and midwives there. The camp looks more or less like a massive hilltribe village, but more cramped and a lot larger (19,000-ish people). Amazing concentration of beautiful babies and children, colours and life and laughter and a general feel of getting on with things. The men play real sport in the camp too - proper, athletic, boisterous sport, not this somewhat affected, don't-mess-up-my hair sport that Thai boys have a tendency to play. That is a generalisation, yes - but not an entirely unfounded one!


















Anyway, I got good feedback from my first teaching sessions so hopefully that augurs well for the next 5 months of teaching and training. Even from the limited chances I've had so far to really have a detailed look into the way things go, there's clearly a lot of work to be done on health. I hope I'll be able to get a few things moving and help out.

Desk life is not for me, and some restrained reflections

I've been chained to my desk for the last 4 days. There has been an unexpected - and very unwelcome - shakeup in my team here and suddenly, without notice, we are picking up the pieces after a badly handled situation arose. I'm trying to get the stuff together to do extra trainings next week, and also trying to organise myself to pick up some new and unexpected responsibilities. I guess this was what they meant by telling us we needed to be "flexible". Well, for me and my remaining team members at the moment, "flexible" kind of just means "more work". Oh well.

My team colleagues are fabulous, clever people - perfect examples of great capacity building. It's just a pity that it turns out that internal politics are far more of a problem than cross-border politics where I work, and that amazing success stories such as my talented workmates seem rare. I have some pretty strong views about this, but I won't unleash the diatribe here. Suffice it to say that I am trying valiantly to remember that it is the people in the camp that we are really working for. Organisations are a means by which to get to them. This is all stuff that I knew before coming here, but having it laid bare "in real life" is somewhat different. Potentially pretty disillusioning, but I think trying to stay focused will make it seem less important.

Anyway, I have a new admiration for those out there who work in an office every day. I am going so stir-crazy that I think I might explode. I'm in a bit of a surly mood today and this post probably reflects that. It has been a frustrating and difficult week; as of next week I'll be in the camp most of the time, though, so I think that will be a good thing. And a good few hours of sitting alone by the lake with a good book will definitely help. Thank goodness for the weekend!