Fitter, happier, more productive?

If there is a bit of sarcasm and scorn in this post, apologies. It has been a tough couple of weeks in the office!

Sweet relief

So I toddled off to Chiang Mai a couple of Fridays ago at lunchtime, not a moment too soon (had been singing "St Petersburg" by Supergrass to myself all week - "...in three days I'll be outta here, and it's not a day too soon..." with time frame modified daily/hourly). I hopped in a taxi and headed straight to Jen and Dave's place; I confess that I spent most of the ride in a flush of excitement and sentimental "ohhh"-ing. So good to be back!









Some desperately needed wine and cheese in Chiang Mai; reunited with Jen and Zach (at the Kate/Seamus/Tyler farewell)
Below: Jen borrowing the gorgeous (and growing) Tyler

Anyway, spent the weekend eating, drinking, shopping and kind of just hanging out with Jen and Zach most of the time. I didn't realise how much work stress had been getting to me - it's not even the stress of the work itself, more of the things going on around work and the general feeling of having spent WAY too much time in the office over the last few weeks. It was great to get away, do some fun stuff, and generally have a relaxing time with people around whom I feel really comfortable.

Now I just have to make said people come to visit me in MHS.


Like a pig in a cage on antibiotics (otherwise known as the office)

Unexpected obstacles continue to pop up at work. Now the other doctor on the team has casually dropped the bombshell that even though he is contracted until May next year, he thinks he might leave late September. Of course, he didn't think to tell us. Brilliant. Perfect timing. 5 weeks into the our intensive 6 month medic training. I pointed out that perhaps in the interests of working in a team and communicating effectively he might have volunteered the information without being asked (I asked him) but the health coordinator (about whom many of you know) went all conciliatory and pacifist and told him it was okay. Now, treating people with respect is one thing, but condoning the shirking of responsibility - I don't know about anyone else, but I think it's really just not on. Sometimes I'm not sure what plane of reality some of the people here live on. There's talk of hiring doctors more or less purely because they speak Burmese, so that "they can translate" - what is the point of hiring a doctor then? hire a translator, sunshine! - trying to make other team members translate in a variety of situations (never mind that they are highly skilled and already work 10 and 11 hour days in their primary jobs, because "we can change their job description")...

I don't know. I really don't know! It just seems that we're not allowed to have valid issues in this office - if someone tries to bring up a problem then the problem must be THEIRS, they must have culture shock or be breaching the code of conduct or have personal problems with others. God forbid there should ever be anything that needs to be fixed or that there should ever be any responsibility or accountability taken for problems. Crazy.

Anyway, despite the cracks that keep appearing, the rest of our little team is going just fine. The workload is pretty huge, but we work well together and I think it'll be okay. Now we're just waiting for news of hopefully 2 more doctors coming sometime in the next 2 months. The sooner the better. Or I hope so, anyway. I guess you never know what sort of people you'll end up with in these situations. I helped to interview a few candidates and it all seemed a bit iffy, but apparently my erstwhile manager plans to employ them nonetheless (when asked about this, all he was able to produce was a lot of mumbling and something about "...and they can help translate." I give up.). I guess all I can do is shrug and get on with it.

In an unexpected cloud/silver lining situation, the disorganisation here looks to be about to work in my favour! Before coming here I was told that my visa renewals would be organised by my local employer. As it turns out, they just haven't quite got it together to do so - so I have to do a border crossing. That is a bit of a pain, but it looks like out of the pain also comes a free trip to Chiang Mai! Hooray!









I cooked this soup in the kettle (the rest of the meal too, but I ate it before having the presence of mind to photograph it) - the first properly Vietnamese food I have eaten since arriving in Thailand; at the local karaoke place all the videos are of Australian scenes (why? who knows?)

Camp 2 is my new true love

Camp work is still good. I did some neonatal training a couple of weeks ago for the midwives which was really good fun, and also involved some highly entertaining lunchtime table tennis matches. I have had a bit more time to just sit and watch camp life go by too (usually when waiting for the trucks to come and pick us up at the end of the day). My favourite time of day is around 4 or 5 in the late afternoon/early evening - it's when all the kids are out running around, playing sport, generally making mischief and reminding me that camp life is exactly that - life. And the more I realise how pragmatic and "get on with it" these people are, and I realise the lengths they have gone to to protect themselves and their family, the more my commitment grows to help them make the best of the situation.


I got back yesterday from my first ever trip to Camp 2 (got my pass last week and went for 2 days) - and baby, I am in LOVE. The surrounds are breathtaking - jungle, jungle, jungle and mountains, streams and creeks, little waterfalls... 2 of the 3 hours it takes to get to the camp is through dense jungle. The road isn't so much unsealed as non-existent - true 4WD territory, lots of driving through river beds (or rivers), over rocks and across creeks. The camp itself is essentially like any other hilltribe village; compared to Camp 1 there is much more space, facilities are better, and it lacks the internal political tension of camp 1 (which has 5 times more people and a different ethnic makeup). "Sabaay, sabaay"... It was a blissful sojourn, really - the medics were so excited, I spent the first day seeing patients they'd been "saving up" for me and on the second day I taught them about skin stuff. They asked heaps of questions, were really interested and enthusiastic. With a cynical eye (me? cynical? about NGOs?) it kind of could be interpreted that where there is less intervention from my employer, the camp functions better. In any case - they love what they are doing, they want to do the best by their community and they are hungry for knowledge.

It's just a pity that the powers that be seem to care a lot less. As long as they meet their donor indicators, right?




























These kids were playing at the Camp 2 checkpoint - clearly checkpoints are serious business ;)

Football

Today there was a football tournament in Camp 1 (the big one). One team made up of people from the office, 3 teams of refugees. Looking at all 4 teams lining up next to each other in their colours, it was pretty easy to tell the difference between the refugees and the office boys - the refugees were all much fitter, cooler and generally had it all sorted somehow.

Anyway, so the office boys got beaten 3-1. Hardly surprising.

















That's me in the truck, firmly ensconced in my role of ice chest bitch/drinks waitress/barracker (but for the refugees, not for the office team)

















Some of the kids who piled in to watch the match

















The office boys are in the blue and the refugees in the red. The reds won 3-1 and I believe the office team's single goal may have been scored by the chicken (complete with chick) in the foreground

















Me with some of the reproductive health trainees - the girls on either side of me are my table tennis buddies and have come up from a camp on the border in Tak Province