I'm managing to survive seemingly non-stop business meetings. They're SO painful. Here's what the last trip consisted of: I'm told to be standing somewhere at a certain time on a certain day and someone will meet me there to pick me up. I'm told I'll be gone for 4 days and that the trip (to Songkhla Province in the south) is an 8 hour drive. I'm eventually picked up and upon questioning the persons involved, discover that I'll be gone for 6 days, and that the drive is actually closer to 12 hours. My boss has chosen to fly, and "suggested" that I not fly this time, as this would be a good way for me to see the countryside. Great.

At meals, they pretend to be interested in what I want, but then when I tell them what I want (usually fried rice or phad thai), they ignore my request and say they'll order me something better than that. This often consists of some "sour curry" or mashed up fermented shrimp and fish heads served with bitter, raw vegetables. As gifts, I received a large bag of fruit that I would never be able to eat on my own and that were bruised beyond recognition by the time I got home. I also got a bag of dried, deep-fried fish, that had expressed a pool of oil by the time I got back. "You eat them at breakfast with boiled rice." Can't wait.

At the meeting (conducted all in Thai) I'm only called on to help put up posters, pull posters down, introduce myself in Thai, and lead the group in stretching exercises (don't ask...I have no idea). I am, however, brought coffee or tea and snacks at breaks, which is very sweet. Oh--and this time, I got to skip the morning session of the first day to go sight-seeing on my own, which was GREAT. The rest of the time, I study Thai, physiology, or just read a pleasure book. In general, I have no idea what will happen in the next 6-12 hours.

At the end of the meeting, we dropped off a big group of people at the airport in the next town over (at which point I narrowly rescued my bag from being put on the plane (twice) in their haste to empty the van of every single bag). At this point, we were set to spend the night in that town, then take the next TWO (2) days to drive back to Bangkok. All I do in the van is read and sleep. Suddenly, I had the brilliant idea to take the overnight train back to BKK, saying that it would be a fun cultural experience for me. They bought it, and within an hour I was on the train and on my way home. I arrived the next morning almost 2 days ahead of schedule. So nice to be back. Now I have to be standing in front of a bank at 8:30 Monday morning for the next one. Sigh...

Today, my boss asked me to come in and talk to her students again, to give them practice with their English. As I've mentioned before, this usually involves me correcting some of their papers for them in front of the whole class. However, this time, I didn't have any papers, and my boss hadn't mentioned what I would talk about. So I showed up at the scheduled time, and got up to the front of the class. Oh--actually, I got there a little early, and the students were playing some sort of game in which the winners were given juice-box sized green teas (which is everywhere here). There were also two larger, liter-sized boxes, one of which was very formally presented to me as a gift at that point. The other was sort of casually handed off to me at the end of class, and I was told that this was for Khun Troy, my friend who's been staying with me. Odd.

Anyways...I got up in front of the class, and was handed the ubiquitous Thai microphone (they use them for ALL presentations here, no matter how big or how small). My boss then said "Well, as Pii Richard (Pii is the respectful term younger people use for their elders) is going to be a doctor very soon, why don't you all ask him any questions you have about bird flu!" Apparently, she doesn't think there's much difference between a medical student and a microbiologist. Thankfully, I had been reading the newspapers and could answer most of their questions. However, I did not know the mechanism of how the virus causes disease (and then felt like an imposter when I heard her scold them because she claimed they had already learned that and should know it!). Talk about being put on the spot. Not to mention they asked me how I thought the Thai government had handled it (not well at all--they basically covered it up), and open criticism of anyone, much less the government here always seems improper.

I have yet to really settle in at work, because of the tumultuous year I've had so far. After returning home to the US twice--once in October to see my dad who had just been diagnosed with cancer, and then again in November for his funeral--I returned to Bangkok but didn't return to work immediately. I played tourguide for two friends who arrived while I was gone, and then the three of us went to Hong Kong and mainland China for a week for a meeting I had there. Now I'm back, hopefully this time for good.

Work continues to be a mix of interesting and bizarre adventures. I went to another factory with my boss; this time we were accompanied by all of her students as well. It was fun to get to spend some time with them, as I haven't really gotten to know them at all. Twice now I've taught in their classes, trying to correct reports they've written in English. It's utterly frustrating, as Thai students generally don't ask questions or provide any sort of feedback. So I have no idea if what I'm doing is helpful or even if they really understand what I'm trying to teach them. Still, it's fun to interact with them. I wish some of them would invite me to go out with them so I could talk to them outside of the university environment (and the watchful eye of my boss, who seems to always err a bit on the cautious and conservative side for me).

Last week, I travelled with Dr. Sara to Nakhonnayok, a city about 200 km north of Bangkok. We stayed at a beautiful hotel (pictures to be posted) and conducted a meeting to train a group of people to be trainers in the workshops we run in rural provinces (not so eloquently called "training of trainers (TOT)). This trip was much less frustrating than my first trip out of town, as it was shorter (2 days vs. 4) and I feel like I've gotten a little better grasp on my Thai. Stress on the "little" part of that last claim.

Yesterday found me being whisked away unexpectedly (which is quickly becoming expected) to yet another meeting, this time in Prachinburi, a province "near the Cambodian border" (it's nowhere close). Again, we're staying at a beautiful resort, but it's sort of depressing as it's pretty dead--none of the fountains were filled, nobody was using the beautiful pool surrounded by elephant statues, and the restaurant was empty. It would also be more fun if I had some friends here rather than coworkers. We're leading a workshop for a group of farmers (primarily rice farmers), again teaching them ways to improve safety in the course of doing their jobs.

First we went through a checklist of potential problems they might have around the home, then we actually went to a nearby house to see what problems were present. Now, (after breaking for a lunch that only a native could love) we're breaking into groups and discussing what we found. I still don't get a lot of what they talk about, but I'm slowly picking up some words and phrases.

Ultimately, I suspect that I won't be able to get enough of the language down this year to make a significant contribution to the workshops and field acitivites we do. So instead, I hope to maybe bring in some money or publicity to the projects my boss is working on. As an expat in Bangkok, I have a lot of connections to people and organizations that my boss does not. I hope to get her some publicity in one of the local English-speaking newspapers and to apply for some grants that require applications written in English.

I'll start by explaining why I live in Thailand. I'm here on a Luce (not Loose) Scholarship, which is a fellowship supported by the Luce Foundation. Each year, the foundation sends 15-18 Americans to live in a country in East or Southeast Asia. The primary purpose of the fellowship is to increase Americans' awareness of Asia and of Asian cultures. In an effort to maximize the scholars' cultural experiences, the Luce Foundation works with The Asia Foundation to find a job for each scholar in his or her field of experience.

I just finished my third year of medical school at Duke University, which entailed taking classes to earn my Masters in Public Health at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Somewhat confusing, but not important. My point is that my background is in medicine and public health. Ultimately, I hope to study the effects, both positive and negative, of globalization and urbanization on people's health. I want to use my education to tackle social justice issues. I don't know right now what that would be, but I still have a lot of time to think about it.

My placement has me working at Mahidol University (I hope you can read Thai) in the Department of Occupational Health and Safety in collaboration with a local NGO called Homenet. At the moment, I'm still trying to figure out exactly what I'm supposed to be doing. My supervisor, Dr. Sara Arphorn, is involved with a variety of projects in addition to her responsibilities as a professor at Mahidol. Most of her projects involve educating rural communities of agricultural workers and homeworkers about ways in which they could improve the safety of their workplaces. Homeworkers make up a large majority of the work force in Thailand--somewhere around 80-90%.

Homeworker jobs include handsewing fishing nets, handweaving cloth, making packaged desserts and snacks by hand, forging bronze and other metals for flatware, arranging silk flowers, molding plastics and ceramics, etc. Needless to say, there's a lot of potential for injuries in these occupations. Typical suggestions that we make include improving ventilation, improving lighting conditions, clearing work areas of obstacles, covering chemicals, labeling chemicals in local languages, using masks and gloves, using carts to carry heavy loads, building shelves and other areas for storing tools, and providing clean drinking water for employees.

Unfortunately, very few laws exist in Thailand to protect homeworkers and agricultural workers. We hope to change that.

Later this month, I will travel to Northeast Thailand with my supervisor, close to the border with Laos to inspect a silk-dyeing enterprise in a small village. For years, they have been hand-dyeing silks by pouring the dyes over the silks on the ground. Lately, they have noticed that some of the indigenous insect species have disappeared, and now they're concerned that the toxic chemicals they've been using could also be leaching into their underground water supply. Not such a good situation, huh?

My travels for work have been interesting cultural experiences as well. I've been quite impressed with the public health programs that my supervisor is working on. They are incredibly community-oriented and go to great lengths to ask for input from the community members. They train local community members to conduct the workshops, so that the programs will be sustainable and will continue to operate long after we've left and gone back home.

These are all desirable aspects of good public health programs, but what has struck me is how much easier it is to do here than it is back home. In the US, there is often a lot of tension (often racially driven) between community members and public health officials who are often (and often rightly so) seen as outsiders, coming in and trying to tell people how to live their lives without really knowing what their lives are like. Here, when we want to conduct a workshop, entire villages show up--kids, parents, grandparents, dogs, everyone! Most of the Thai communities are very welcoming and are genuinely interested to hear what we have to say. When we return to see sites after making our recommendations, they often proudly show off their new and improved worksites. A couple of times, they've even had their checklists of problems and proposed solutions tacked up on the walls of their houses! It's really amazing, and extremely motivating for us.