New Experiences

Maybe my favorite moment of many good ones this week was when I was too tall to be in the front row for our group photo with the senior Lao doctors at Christine’s going away dinner. Not only was I too tall to stand in front of any of the attendees without obstructing their view, but I may not have been the shortest person there. Maybe I’m more sensitive about my height than I think I am. . .

I drove to Setta by myself 4 times this week. The first time I missed the last turn and on Thursday I went right at the first round about on the way home, but given the absence of street signs, I think I did pretty well. I also learned 2 new things about driving. The first is that a turn signal on a motor scooter is actually less helpful than nothing. The baseline status of motor scooters here is that they could turn left or right at any time. If you drive based on that assumption things seem to go well. When a motor scooter has their turn signal on it either means that they have recently turned or that they might at some point in the future turn. So basically, it means nothing but if you mistake it for meaning something, you may be wrong. (Like, that right turn signal means that they will be turning right, and then they turn left right in front of you.) The second thing I learned is that red lights only apply at moderate-high traffic times. Red lights during low traffic times are uniformly ignored. Sometimes people have the courtesy to flash their lights before running them. And they usually slow down, but not always. Exciting!

In Lao, your nick name might be “fatty” (Dtui) if you’re very skinny. The Lao are not generally a particularly bulky group of people, so there are quite a few people nicknamed Dtui. One of our residents is nicknamed Dtui, but because he is actually pretty giant compared to his colleagues. Tall, and what would be considered overweight in America, but is obese by Lao standards. On Thursday night, my lecture was “Introduction to Dr. Libby,” and then I had the residents introduce themselves to me. Too get a little bit of a sense of who they were, and as an ice breaker, I asked them what their favorite foods were and what they liked to do on Saturday night. I picked directed questions because when Christine came, she asked them to write down one thing that no one in the room knew about them. She got a lot of “I love medicine” and a lot of “I have no secrets” but not a lot of personal info. So I directed them while still trying to encourage them to express themselves. It sort of worked. Almost everyone said their favorite food was Lao food, but about half of them expanded on this with a dish or two (Fish, chicken, and papaya salad were popular.) One of the interns who is quite skinny reported that he only drinks milk, which is why he is so skinny. I’m almost certain he was kidding. And then there was Dtui. His response started “ I like Lao food.” He then followed with “I like Japan food, I like Korean food, I like Falang food. . .” and so on. (Falang means white people.) It was funny. Many of them reported that they like to study on Saturday, but no one claimed that was the only thing they did on Saturday - some of them work (at pharmacies or small shops they own / manage), many like Karaoke, picnics, hiking, sports, watching TV, and of course shopping for the female residents. It was a good introduction.

We had two teachers meetings last week - the first with the chief residents (2nd and 3rd years elected by their classmates) and assistant director of resident education, and one with all the major Lao teachers and administrators. Most of the meeting both times was conducted in Lao, which is good because it means the Lao teachers are taking more responsibility for decision making and teaching. Since the ultimate goal is for the programs to be independent and sustainable without outside leadership or support, that is great. However, between two meetings mostly in Lao, rounding on the wards where presentations to me are in english, but communication with patients and colleagues is in Lao, and resident topic review and case presentation (which is in English on the screen but in Lao verbally) my ‘sincere’ active listening skills are getting a work out. The decision from the two teachers meetings was to go back to a monthly focus curriculum. This month is neurology month, so I’m preparing a talk on bacterial meningitis for this week.

I finally got some fruit. I succumbed and purchased at 17,000 kip mango at the Falang grocery store that is 1.5 blocks from home. That’s just over 2 dollars, which is what I would pay for a mango in Minnesota, but this was a giant, ripe, delicious mango, so I’ve reconciled it with myself. In fact, after the first one, I got a two pack the second time. They are yellow mangoes, more like the ataulfo mango sold at the coop than the orange ones I ate in Africa. I also tried pomello, which is like grapefruit but bigger, with bigger grains of fruit, and sweeter and milder. It is delicious, but somewhat hard to prepare. I also ate at “Nudle”, the new noodle take away that is 2-3 blocks from our house, and conveniently on the way home from the hospital after late lectures. Apparently, they have a giant noodle box costume that someone has been wearing to advertise the grand opening, though I have not been fortunate enough to witness this. Amy saw a smallish person manning the costume somewhat clumsily with a large British man tailing him/her and saying “take it slow. . .” last weekend. I am too hot in a skirt and t-shirt, so I don’t even want to think what it would be like inside a noodle box costume. But the noodles are good and the price is right ($2.25 for a box which is enough for at least 2 meals) so I anticipate I will become a regular, and one day will get to see the giant noodle box.