weekend warriors

i know, ive been really crappy about updating again, but i have a semi-good excuse! chris and i have spent the last four weekends out of chiang mai (i posted on two of them)...and then i got sick. i still have a sore throat now but it's not too bad if i don't talk and don't try to swallow anything. anyway, a short synopsis of what's been going on:

last weekend: mae salong. mae salong is known for tea, akha villages, and chinese-thais.

we just tagged along with gig and aum, who went to visit their good friend goh. goh's family just renovated their wooden house into a guesthouse on this mountain (mae salong). his uncle also just opened 'mae salong farmstay,' where you get your own private bungalow and bathroom overlooking these tea plantations. highlights of this weekend included getting to eat lots of yummy yunnanese food, seeing a tea plantation and an orange plantation, and visiting some akha villages to ask them if they still planted cotton or did traditional weaving. we saw old akha women turn freshly picked cotton into thread using this wooden spool-like device, but noted that no one really did traditional weaving anymore (they just buy everything with wages from family sent to work in the city). gig might set up some projects like he did in lampang out here in the future.

two weekends ago: bangkok.

chris and i hung out with a lot of old friends, including amalee (from fulbright times) and her bf dave, nan and krit , and karyn (executive director of Thai AIDS Treatment Action Group). as usual, our two days in bangkok centered around food and shopping. highlights included dessert at the oriental hotel shop at central chit lom with karyn, katak (fried chicken, papaya salad, etc) in siam with krit and nan, oishi all-you-can-eat japanese/thai buffet with my uncle likhit, and tha chang (thai/western fusion) with amalee and dave. we miss bangkok a ton (esp public transportation!) in the two days we were there, we took taxis, boats, and the skytrain. it is nice to have a motorcycle in chiang mai though.

work update:

leprosy hospital visit:
last thursday i went to visit mckean institute/hospital, which used to be one of the largest leprosy centers in the world. it's now focused on rehabilitation for people with physical disabilities and it was pretty amazing. we got to go on ward rounds with a trauma-surgeon-turned-family-physician, take a tour of the facilities, and talk to one of the missionaries whose worked on disability for over thirty years in thailand and se asia. she told us a lot of interesting stories and talked about how holistic their program was - they tried to not only address medical issues for people with disabilities, but also encouraged independence and tried to help the disabled generate a sustainable income and be accepted in their communities. they had disabled people working in the workshop making prosthetic limbs, special shoes, etc, and also a large store where people were trained to do handicrafts (cards, jewelry, lacquerware, woodcarving, etc, most with a christian theme) - many of them did them at home and then came to deliver their work about once a month to the shop. also on the grounds was a large village for elderly disabled/old leprosy patients, organic farms, chickens/pigs, and more. everyone seemed really excited to be given a second chance there and it was very :) ....i found myself wondering if they all had to convert though, and then felt unhappy that i was thinking about religion especially because it was clear that they were doing such amazing work and having a great impact on these people's lives, who were often abandoned by their families after they were disabled. i wonder if it's from being american and the climate about religion there and the (often) christian right doing things that don't seem very christian to me. anyway, it was also interesting to see how most of the hilltribes had been converted to christianity, although we saw one kid on a motorbike with a bumper sticker that said 'missionaries suck'. i wonder if he knew what the sticker said, but he sped off before we could ask him.

reproductive health clinic:
i made a connection a reproductive health clinic and went to talk to the director there. he had obviously not read any of my email with my cv and was just interested in whether i could see patients (i said i couldnt without supervision) and when i wanted to volunteer. it was difficult for me to get any information about programs they had there. i think what ended up happening at the end was that i agreed to come in on mondays and tuesdays and shadow in clinic (and likely do some pap smears and pelvic exams) and then they would take it from there. they have some interesting projects, like a group with elderly people to talk about sexuality, and some focus on hill tribe issues, so i'll see. the head doc was also supportive in the fact that he said i could likely do a small project if i saw something i was interested in and could have access to their medical records. i start volunteering there on tuesday.

im interested in doing a small project in hiv clinic where i interview HIV+ women about reproductive health/contraception/family planning. ive noted that a lot of women are in serodiscordant relationships (meaning their partners are HIV-, as their previous partners have likely died) and some are interested in bearing children, even though it's generally discouraged by the docs in clinic regardless of their health status. im not sure if the nurses have a role in discussing contraception but i'd be interested to hear patients thoughts about it, so im putting together a proposal right now and maybe will be able to start interviews in jan/feb.