Daerah Pedalaman Sabah

It's difficult to believe the contrast of three different cities. Kota Kinabalu, though not a big city like Singapore or Kuala Lumpur, still serves its purpose as the capital city of Sabah and largest transport hub of Borneo. 3 hours by bus away, Tenom, a sleepy farming town, is full of rustic charm and the relaxing atmosphere like the Shire from 'Lord of the Rings'. Another 4 hours away, Kampung Rundum is primitive at its core - no electricity, lack of water supply and even full of mud, stale water and stray dogs.

One nation, one destiny - something we should really think twice when saying out loud.

Temporary

In Sabah at the moment. Will report more when I'm back in Penang on July 10.

Happy holidays!

Positive?

As I was counting down answering my last questions for Integrated II, more and more people flocked up in front and handed their answer sheets and yay! they're liberated! 3 months free of studies, academic peer pressure and learning issues. 3 months of not hearing all the complicated and boring abbreviations used in medical education - PBL, SHIT (sharing helpful information together), CPC, CXR.....


Well, medical school is not all about overrated abbreviations all together. For the first time in a relatively short period, Taiwan is hosting AMSC (Asian Medical Students' Conference). The big event involves 3 days in TCU, which is a much-needed morale boost for us. Medical students from all around Asia will spend 7 days discussing 'stigmatized illness' such as leprosy and HIV/AIDS. I personally find conferences like these are more cost-effective and useful in building a physician's core competence and compassion (rather than the other set of methods emphasized and so-called successfully inplemented by TCU).


Anyway, I won't be able to attend the very expensive event because I'd be spending 2 weeks in Tenom, Sabah. Along with the local Lion's Club and (who else?) Tzu Chi chapter, we're organizing several rounds of free clinics, house visits and 2 half-day camps in the local Chinese primary schools. Typically if we happen to be from any other school a more laissez faire attitude would be adopted, but because we are with Tzu Chi, we have to wear Tzu Chi-branded caps, Tzu Chi uniforms, eat our Tzu Chi vegetarian noodles with our Tzu Chi bowls and chopsticks, use Tzu Chi baggages and so on. As much as I loathe the dominant and for-show principle, I persisted with it because I'd like to give something back to Malaysia. As I completed my 3rd year abroad, I slowly come to realize even if I can speak with a genuine Taiwanese accent and fake myself as the typical Taipei citizen, deep in myself there's always something calling when you hear the Malaysian 'lahs' and 'aiyahs', 'ceh' and 'ladies and gentlemen, please hand your passpoks so I can chop'.
I hope to contribute towards some positive gains in the rural outbacks of Sabah. Thanks to unequal wealth distribution and use of resources, the rich-poor gap is quite distinct. We may stroll along Bukit Bintang gawking at 5-digit priced couture and Mont Blanc, but here in Tenom people may not even earn 10 ringgit a day. I will keep you guys updated on our service trip along the way.
Next up in August I'd be in Jakarta for a 7-day conference. It's a smaller cousin of AMSC but it charges as much. ACTION (Asian Collaborative Training on Infectious Disease, Outbreaks, Natural Disaster and Refugee Management) - can the name get any longer? Principally it is less conference than AMSC and more on lectures in 'extraordinary scenarios' such as wars, the SARS and H1N1 pandemic etc. My senior promised me it'll be a positive experience. However, the new influenza virus, which we're going to be trained in, is terrorizing everybody. Application has been prolonged and the committee is delaying progress in a lackadaisical attitude. We'd see if it gets by in August.
That's all for the time being, folks! Happy summer and have a great one! And to those Aussies, happy winter and persevere through the flu!

The Final Week

Is usually the worst in terms of quality of life and sleep. Piles and piles of accumulated coursework, back-to-back exams, and switching rooms. Luckily for me this year I'd remain in my same old 'penthouse' unit - baking hot as an oven in summer and eerily cold like an icebox in winter.
Nevertheless, what's bad about finals is that you don't get to rest after the exams are over. Packing, cleaning up and sorting out the mess of an entire semester comes next. Then comes the end-of semester gatherings - eat and talk, and worrying about my unpacked luggage, more food and drinks, and complaining I haven't clean up and my train is leaving in 3 hours time.
Anyway, what's bad this year is the stormy weather predicted to last until mid-June. I like thunderstorms in summer, because they are hardcore and violent. The sound of raindrops drumming the earth is somewhat pressure-relieving when you're grounded 12 hours a day studying. The romanticism lasts until it's time for lunch and dinner - when I literally have to wade through streams comparable to the Yellow River to get anywhere.
Back to a more global issue the debris of Air France flight 447 has been found, and most agree that aside chances of finding survivors are next to zero, the black box and flight data recorder might never be found.

Photo from time.com - in Paris CDG airport after the news of confirmed sightings of flight 447's debris in the Atlantic

Read on the paper edition of Time (tried searching for the article online, but with no avail) that men is just celebrating the 100th year of flying and not even 20 years of commercial jet aviation. The ease of getting from A to B means we take many things for granted - what's fascinating a decade ago might just be a plane ride away. Compounded with the ease of communication, mankind became gradually more ignorant and negligible to one another - he's just a phone call away, so I'd save his long 'how ya doing' for next time, I'd facebook her instead of asking her out for a reunion etc.
So when your loved ones suddenly pass, for example the loss of 228 passengers and crew of AF447, the time we saved by taking everything for granted credits itself, with interests. Family and friends find no time at all to react, no time to bid goodbyes or even say something nice. Perhaps the husband might just had a fight with his wife, and perhaps it's something as trivial as the side dish of dinner, and the next thing he knew the plane was disintegrating at 35,000 feet, while passing through a violent summer thunderstorm like tonight.
Globalization does indeed require us to pace up against the world's speed, to boost efficiency and maximize output. But it doesn't mean we should compromise our quality of life and time with our loved ones. This is something we should think about (and less exams next time?).

Uplifting

Most more attached to the internet would have known Susan Boyle, 47-year old unemployed lady from Scotland who wished to 'stun the audience', and got the typical 'Simon look'. Everything changed the moment she started singing. And it so happened to be one of my favourite songs.

Trivial Nothings June

A little delay again, as always.

• Caught a glimpse of Windows 7 during a boring lesson on Wednesday. It's a lot less fancy than Vista but it kept its elegance, minus the busybody nature.
• I'm still clinging on to my XP, and thinks it's a great thing to run on.
• Graduation day today. I'm there to send off two seniors, one whom was very active and influential in school during my freshman year. I planned to hug, shake hands and congratulate him like he's getting married. However the send off was delayed by 30 minutes and when the doors finally opened we were hot and hungry.
• So we just threw him his bouquet and took 3 pictures. And left him to his gang of girlfriends.
• Finals in 1 week. Ever felt so hopeless during the final week of the semester? When a 3-month holiday is just 8 days away but a end-of-the-world exam is just before it. What logic is this? Can't we at least have an open-book test or other forms of less joyless evaluation method?
• And I can imagine how summer will be this year, when the entire world is complaining of economic meltdown, some signs of rebound is already visible - fuel prices up, poultry up.
• Miss France so much. Pity I'm only going to Sabah and Jakarta this year.
• But hey hey, if I'd manage Paris, London, and New York on a yearly basis, I wouldn't be stuck in this Zimbabwean-managed school on a scholarship.
• Saw the new feature on the left of your screen? Well, that's Twitter, but it doesn't look nice on blogspot, because it's primarily designed for Myspace and Facebook users.
• It's quite fun to write something within 140 characters - h'm, train myself not to be so redundant.
• Well, till then, wish me luck for the next 2 weeks and happy holidays to those already on.