Amazing Day

The past couple days, I have been lucky to be able to attend the Oxford Tropica Network annual meeting. It is usually closed, but Paul did some finagling and local NGOs were allowed to send a representative. I don’t understand a lot of the research presented, but it is really cool to see how hard some really smart people are working on malaria, dengue, TB, and other diseases that disproportionately affect poor countries. Last night after a dinner for one of the Lao teachers, who has been promoted to the Ministry of Health, I was able to see them jamming together as well at their annual musical review. Scientists and musicians - a talented bunch of people.

This morning I went to the last session of the meeting, as I had a lunch meeting but not the truck, and no way to reliably get back from Setta in time. I’m glad I did (though I missed seeing the residents again this week) because it was again interesting. Talks on antibiotic resistance, new drugs for malaria etc were interesting. But the best was a talk on a neonatal unit in Thailand - basically a hut - but where good training in identifying at-risk babies and treating them quickly and correctly is saving many lives - of preterm and term infants - and all for 200$/month for the sickest. It was really interesting. I also really enjoyed the last talk - about giant crocodiles in a remote part of Papua New Guinea. Mostly because it reminded me of the book Dingley loaned me on crocks and how scary they are. Which made me miss the pub quiz.

Lunch was at our office, signing a “MOU” Memorandum of Understanding with an Australian / Chinese mining executive to pay for pediatric CME for the next 5 years. He told us about how they are helping the Lao government learn about sustainable, environmentally friendly mining practices - they took them to a reclaimed mine site in Indonesia that is now a stunning national park - and will visit Tasmania, which has some examples of bad mining practices and their long lasting effects. It was really nice to know that there are some companies that are trying to use sustainable, environmentally appropriate business practices, and even in a place like Laos where with some well placed bribes and pay-offs to the government, they could certainly get away with doing whatever they wanted and leaving the mess for the Lao people. As a child of the American West, it’s easy to assume no one has learned the lessons from our mine messes.

Then this evening I went with Yannick (our computer repair specialist), Dr. Leatherman, and some conference attendees to the Lao-Taipei soccer match. It started before we thought it did, and it was a long drive, so by the time we arrived it was half-time. (Or whatever we call that in soccer.) The second half was interesting - there were 8 or 9 pauses while players were carried off the field on stretchers - all of them to get up on their own power within a minute and most to cheerfully return to play - so it was all theatrics. The Brits we were with reported that the quality of play was not great, but it was still fun to watch. The crowd dynamics were much the same as an American sporting event - chanting go go go! counting when the players were down, and one crazy guy with a flag running up and down encouraging and leading cheering. After the 7 additional minutes added on to make up for the stretcher-related delays, the game was still tied, but Taipei won the previous night, so unfortunately Lao lost the series.

Dinner at La Terrace with Cindy (former IM coordinator) joining us late - one last camembert salad and pasta binge before I go off to the hinterlands - and tiramisu for desert, and then home to finish some e-mails and pack. Now, at 2 AM I will go to bed, for about 4 hours of sleep. At 6:30, we take a tuk tuk to the bus station, where we get a bus to Xieng Kuang to visit a pediatric grad there. 2 of my IM residents currently are from Xieng Kuang, so I’m interested to see it. Then I will go on alone to Sam Neua, where I will visit another former IM grad. I hope to also have time to see the Vieng Xay caves, where the Pathet Lao lived during the revolution.

Commence radio silence! (likely no safe internets where I am going, and I know you guys don’t want me spamming you after my passwords are stolen)