reproductive health clinic goodbyes

as many of you know, i've been volunteering at this local reproductive health clinic for the past six months or so, and today was my last day there. i had been super slacker about doing some data entry for some data they had given me awhile back, so frantically tried to finish that during my time at clinic ( and i did! ) i was also touched because i was incorporated into a similar ceremony to that performed at RIHES last Friday (see previous entry) where the emeritus director of the clinic was honored. after he got his gift basket and scented water, he gave a small talk giving the requisite advice and blessings/well-wishes for the year. One piece of advice I appreciated from his talk was that in our (work) lives, we should try to always do the best we can and be nice (or do good) by others. Sometimes it's easy to become discouraged/disheartened when you feel like you're nice to someone or are doing good work, but they're not recognizing you or trying to work with you to achieve a common goal. At times like these, sometimes you just want to be super weh to that person, but you shouldn't be, because you know that you did your best to work with them (or whatever), and the only time you would be sad (or regretful) in the future is if you remembered a time when you were mean to them, or did something that you weren't proud of later. it's kinda common sense advice and a modification of the golden rule, but it was nice to hear from an elder and i think it's really true. especially in a small clinic, it's easy to get caught up in petty politics and drama, and sometimes it's important to take a step back from all of that and put things in perspective.

after his talk, the emeritus director decided to honor me too since it was my last day at the clinic. this consisted of a number of awkward moments, including:

1) Having me give a little talk on Songkran, the celebration of Songkran in the US, and how I felt about celebrating Songkran in Chiang Mai this past year.

2) Asking people to say nice things about me, and two people from clinic I work with being embarassed and kinda arguing with each other about who should say nice things about me. "No, you go!", "No, you work with her more." Way to feel honored, right? In the end, a bunch of nice things were said about me anyway.

3) Me having to give an impromptu speech in Thai about my time at the clinic. Although I'm pretty fluent in conversational Thai, having to come up with a speech in formal Thai thanking people and saying how nice everyone has been to me is much more difficult for me. This was funny in light of the conversation I had with Maddie (who kindly offered to drive me to work today in her air conditioned truck) regarding all the different pronouns and their levels of formality in Thai (esp. for women). I'm sure I messed up some when giving my 'speech' today but oh well; I think Thai people just smile and laugh at me or think it's cute.

4) Getting gifts from the emeritus director, including an embroidered pouch and a traditional Thai shirt with the clinic logo on the front and its printed on the back. I also had to try on this shirt with everyone watching me and then people commented on how it fit well (and made me look not fat).

All in all, it was a good experience and i'm actually really excited about the shirt (i even tried it on again when i got home). The remainder of my day at clinic centered around lamenting how hot Chiang Mai is with clinic staff (seriously disgusting right now), putting final touches on my questionnaire that's going to be administered to patients seeking abortions at the clinic, and seeing some patients and giving some clinical advice (i identified strawberry cervix and gave the patient 2 g of metronidazole for treatment of Trich). I've really had a great time at the clinic, gained a lot of experience with a speculum, and felt like I contributed by putting together this questionnaire that will be used to improve data collection at the clinic. I'll also be involved in analyzing the data because it will be sent to me (if I don't come back to CM) by clinic staff, so that's something to look forward to in the coming year.

The last really nice thing that happened to me at clinic was that this nurse who was originally super wary about me getting involved with certain procedures and having access to data offered to give me a ride home today. she said she really appreciated all the help i'd provided in clinic over the past few months and said i was easy to talk to and trustworthy. she also offered for me to come crash at her place anytime i was visiting chiang mai in the future. this meant a lot to me (even though i probably won't take her up on her offer) because i think it took awhile for her to see what i was all about, but since she's decided that she supports my research project, she'll definitely help me out when it comes time to collect data and interpret it. she's a great nurse and really good with patients, so i appreciate that she thought i really cared about my work and would be a kickass doc. i am very excited about being a doc and know that i am, and will continue, to find ways to contribute to communities around me through my own (tanyaporn-style) practice of medicine. ;)