I am Sam in Siam!: The Final Post

Hi everyone,

I’m writing this safely back in the USA, having finished my GHAP fellowship just a few weeks ago. The last few months I spent in Thailand were packed and busy, and blogging simply got away from me! I’ve put together this last post with a few updates and some reflections on my experience.

Some updates from the past several months:

-I took a trip down to the Thai beaches with Allison Kay ’09 and a couple of other friends. It was incredibly beautiful. Here are a few pictures:

Sunset on Ko Lanta

A Thai longtail boat

Allison Kay and I in Maya Bay on Ko Phi Phi Leh, the beach featured in the movie The Beach!

Overlooking the Phi Phi islands

-I’m sure most of you saw Thailand in the news these past couple of months. The military crackdown on the Red Shirts in Bangkok was quite brutal, and turned Bangkok into a war zone for a few days. While Mae Sot remained extremely calm (after all, the population is over 60% Burmese), the situation did make us nervous. Bangkok has since returned to normal, but the general political situation in Thailand has not. The conflict has deepened the divisions between wealthy citizens of Bangkok and Thailand’s rural, poorer populations (who the Red Shirts seek to represent), and nothing has really been resolved.

You can read more in the Bangkok Post and also on the New York Times Thailand Page.

Central World, the biggest department store in Southeast Asia, burns in Bangkok

-I traveled to Mae Sariang, Thailand for Level 2 (Malaria) Village Health Worker Supervisor Training. The training lasted two weeks and covered an incredible amount of information. While Beth and I helped, most of the training was done by our Karen partners in the Karen language (yay for capacity building!), so we spent a lot of time coordinating and organizing supplies and handbooks, and taught a few modules on Training-of-Trainers (teaching methods). We also tried various methods to keep cool in the 110 degree heat, and Beth taught me how to read some Thai language!

Me with a few of the Karen VHW Supervisors

Supervisors practicing hanging an Insecticide Treated Net (ITN) to prevent malaria

-I took a trip to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia to get a new Thai visa, but also to play in the Malaysia Ultimate Open, an ultimate frisbee tournament. I played with Angelina’s Orphans, a team from Cambodia, with several other players who came from Sri Lanka, the Philippines, and Burma. It was quite an eclectic group, and a ton of fun!

Angelina's Orphans

-For my last couple of months in Mae Sot, I was fortunate enough to be able to shadow at Mae Tao clinic once a week. Mae Tao is a huge clinic started about 20 years ago by Dr. Cynthia Maung, a Karen physician. The clinic is a free source of medical care for Burmese migrants in Thailand and refuges fleeing across the border, as well as Burmese who travel to Mae Sot to get care before returning to Burma (as you know, the Burmese healthcare system is underfunded and virtually nonexistent). The clinic is really impressive and provides comprehensive healthcare services, as well as a place to stay and food to eat for those who need it.

During my few weeks at the clinic, I was able to visit the reproductive health, surgical, pediatric, and malaria departments. In surgery, I watched a man under local anesthesia struggle silently in pain during his hernia repair and then simply stand up and walk out at the end of the procedure. I witnessed two women in the course of an hour come into the reproductive health outpatient department with complications from induced abortions, and watched as another woman came in complaining of vaginal discomfort for the past two years.

Most of Mae Tao’s patients lack access to basic medical services close to home, and traveling over the border from Burma to Mae Sot is dangerous and far. This situation forces them to only seek medical care in the most dire of circumstances. My experience at the clinic opened my eyes to the desperate circumstances in Burma, and made me realize how necessary the clinic’s services are.

Read more about the clinic, and its need for funds, in this Bangkok Post article and at the Mae Tao Clinic website.

-I traveled to Chiang Mai several times and took a Thai cooking course, as well as visited Elephant Nature Park, a sanctuary outside the city for working elephants that have been abused.

Som Tum, or spicy papaya salad, made by yours truly

Pad Thai, also made by yours truly

Getting an elephant kiss

Elephants bathing in the river

-I also spent a day in Bangkok on my way out of the country, soaking in the sights.

The Grand Palace in Bangkok

Giant reclining Buddha at Wat Pho in Bangkok

So—my fellowship is over. I’ve moved back to the USA. Now it’s time to think: What did I accomplish? What did I give to these communities? What did Mae Sot and my work experience give to me?

To keep it brief, I’ll only say a few things. I do feel that over a ten month period, I left an impact. It took me a while to get my feet on the ground, but as I look back at myself ten months ago, I thin I’ve come a pretty long way from where I started.
I’ve seen the successful implementation of the second phase of the Village Health Worker Program, playing a significant role in ordering malaria supplies and re-writing and organizing the Village Health Worker handbook. I’ve written a near-60 page report for Back Pack Health Worker Team’s ten year anniversary, working with Back Pack and GHAP to brainstorm ideas, collect and present data, and to get feedback on what I wrote (Note: this report should be available in the next couple of weeks at www.backpackteam.org). I helped organize the Trauma Management Program trainings and taught a Training-of-Trainers module for the medics.

And, most importantly, I can see an impact on our local Karen partners. All of that one-on-one time that GHAP calls “capacity building?” Well, it works! The Village Health Worker Program Coordinator, Hei Ku Wah, now writes the mid-quarter updates for our donors by herself. She has begun to notice programmatic problems and issues before I do, and takes the necessary steps to take care of them without any instruction. Her capacity has grown so much that next year she won’t have a specific GHAP fellow to work with her; instead, she’ll run the program mostly by herself with GHAP assistance from time to time. That’s awesome.

And for me—it’s been an incredible experience. Not only have I solidified my desire to go to medical school and to incorporate an international and perhaps public health component into my education, but I learned so much about cultures which I knew basically nothing before I arrived. I learned about the Karen people, who I never knew existed until about a year and a half ago. I learned some Burmese language. I learned about Burmese politics, and the plight of the people who live within the country’s borders. I learned about “cross-border” humanitarian aid, and the arguments of those who are against it. As I move forward with my life, I want to keep in touch and keep learning—there still so much to learn about Burma, and to be done for its people.

Thanks so much for reading, everyone! I hope you’ve enjoyed it.

Keep in touch,
Sam