Second Week of Classes: Wednesday, September 5, 2012

Schedule

9-12pm: PHM Lecture 5: Non-Communicable Diseases

12-1pm: Lunch

2-5pm: CIEE Lecture: Human Rights in Thailand by Dr. Sriprapha Petcharamesree

Lecture on Non-Communicable Diseases

• It completely surprised me that Thai's top chronic disease is cardiovascular disease, which is the same as in the United States
• There is high incidence and prevalence of diabetes among Thais (again, some of the risk factors include eating sticky rice, sugary foods, etc)
• Double burden of disease in Thailand

Notes on lectures: 

Some of the difficulties of lectures that I have encountered thus far:

1. Language barrier

2. Change in lecturers 

3. Not engaging

4. Too broad of topics

Some of the successes of lectures thus far:

1. Small classroom of eight students

2. I feel comfortable to ask questions

3. Professors give breaks (and snacks sometimes) during our three hour long lecture

4. Thailand specific lectures

Lecture on Human Rights by Dr. Sriprapha Petcharamesree, the Chair of the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission of Human Rights 

Second Week of Classes: Tuesday, September 4, 2012

Schedule

9-12pm: Thai Fun Activity: Survival in the Market

12-1pm: Lunch

1-5pm: CIEE Lecture: Thai History and Politics

The best group (although we lost) for the Thai Fun Activity: Alex, Sam, Caroline and I

Objective: Buy everything on the shopping list with the least amount of money. 

We were given 300 baht to buy bananas, a kilogram of mangostein, 20 bananas, red toothbrush, toothpaste, pink shoes, chicken on a stick, fish sauce, large white socks, a plate, fork and spoon, pens and pencils, etc

We lost, so apparently we either could not bargain as well as some of the other groups, translate the shopping list correctly, or find all of the items on the shopping list.

We nevertheless got free ice cream at Mister Lees after the activity!

Thai History and Politics Lecture presented by Ajaan Dave

Thai History and Politics Key Points

1.  Red shirts vs. Yellow shirts
2. Current Lese Majeste Law of Thailand
3. Present state of political debate and condition

Brief: After the Thai History and Politics lecture, I got a little worried about the possible political changes that could occur while I am abroad and the dangers that could come with it. However, hopefully everything stays stable and that everything will be fine. In any case, there is an escape route to safety!

Second Week of Classes: Monday, September 3rd, 2012

Schedule

9-12pm: PHM Lecture 4: Infectious Disease (Tropical Medicine)

12-1pm: Lunch

1-4pm: Thai Language

4:30pm: Team 1 Discussion Preparation

Key Points of Lecture: Liver Fluke (Opisthorchiasis) and Cholangiocarcinoma

1. Northeastern Thailand has high prevalence (almost 80%!) of Opisthorchiasis due to their cultural value of consuming raw fish (such as Koi Pla and Pla Som) infected with Opisthorchis viverrini.
2. Opisthorchiasis can further develop into Cholangiocarcinoma, cancer of the bile ducts, due to free radicals that damage DNA released from inflammation and oxidation of nearby cells
3. There is medicine available to treat the infection, but people rely on the  medicine too much in that they continue to eat raw fish and become re-infected, causing a broader range of complications such as a heightened chance of developing Cholangiocarcinoma. 

Main question: How do you control the incidence of Opisthorchiasis? 

--Do you educate the individuals about the infection?

--Do you change the cultural value of consuming the raw fish?

--Do you take away medicine to treat the infection?

--Do you create better sanitation systems in order to avoid fecal matter from being deposited into the water source?

Lunch: Paneng Curry at Jayporn Ratatouille restaurant. Still not as much curry as I would have hoped!

Thai Class

We learned words that would be useful in the market such as:

-soap, toothbrush, toothpaste, shampoo

-shirt, pants, skirt, purse, bag, shoe, sock

-pen, pencil, book, notebook

-all the colors!

-large, small, discount, try on

This will definitely come in handy-- especially when I ask for discounts!

Thoughts on Thailand thus far: I am definitely still in the "romantic" stage of my study abroad experience. Everything is amazing, no matter how small it is, everyone is nice, even if they don't even make eye contact with me and the food is delicious, even if I don't necessarily receive the food that I ordered. 

Sunday: September 2, 2012

Back to the Forest Wat for an afternoon activity!

Activity: Get Yourself and Your Partner Safely Across

Setup: Small rocks, bowls of water and candles are laid throughout the entire floor, with few shoe-size shape areas without obstacles. 

(For those more advanced and trusting, the small rocks are replaced with right-side up thumbtacks)

Objective: Get yourself and your partner across the field without touching any of the small rocks (thumbtacks), bowls of water or candles.

Rules: One partner is blindolded, while the other partner will either 1) Use verbal communication or 2) Rely on non-verbal communication (touch) to get his partner across the minefield.

Trickiest part: You are so close to the finish line, but you feel that you have touched a rock. Do you start over? Or pretend that it never happened?

Free day: Saturday, September 1, 2012

I have no idea what is going on here. We came to the Complex and everyone was just taking pictures and screaming, so I decided to take a picture as well! I think he must have been some sort of celebrity-- too bad I did not recognize him.

After the crazy stampede in the Complex, Megan and I left to Central Plaza (the big mall in Khon Kaen)! We went to Tops Market where I bought myself a salad for lunch, some delicious pastries filled with spinach, and some fruit for breakfast including apples and kiwis!

Look at what else we found! Obama labeled mixed spirits! I hope this helps his campaign, haha

After the mall, we cooked with some of our Thai roommates. 

It is rare to cook here because a kitchen is not readily available and all of the kitchen appliances are not present. Also, it turns out to be more expensive to cook your own meals since fresh produce is more expensive than getting a single meal for 20-40Baht. People mostly go out to cafeteria's and fast food restaurants for lunch and dinner.

However, because it was Mary's roommate's birthday, we made her a homemade meal. It was this white curry with coconut milk, chicken, peppers, tomatoes, spices, and other vegetables. This has probably been the best meal in Thailand thus far. I will need to  get a recipe for this, practice making it here a couple of times and then make it back home all the time!

A perfect end to a fun and free day!

Fifth Day of Class: Friday, August 31, 2012

Schedule
9-12pm: Thai Language class (quiz)
12-1pm: Lunch
1-2:15pm: ROO V: Stereotypes and Generalizations
2:15-4pm: Newsletter Discussion

Studying hard the night before the Thai quiz!

Anxiously waiting for the Thai quiz to start!

Thai Language Oral Quiz consisted of 32 questions including:
--stating my name, nickname and last name
--describing how many people (and who) is in my family
--describing what are my parent's jobs
--stating which languages my family can speak, write in and teach
--describing what my family and I like (and not like) to eat
--describing what my family members and I like to do during our free time

Treating ourselves during lunch after Thai quiz

We went to a bakery where we ordered some crispy chicken, french fries, milkshakes and brownies.

ROO V: Stereotypes vs. Generalizations

We did an activity where we analyzed the difference between stereotypes and generalizations

Mainly, stereotypes (either positive or negative) is inclusive of all individuals and does not provide any sense of individuality. 

---For instance, "All Thai people are nice"

On the other hand, generalizations have quantifiers such as "In my experience", "Most/Many" 

--For example, "Through my encounters thus far, I have met really nice Thai people"

This simply helps us be more aware of the statements that we make when we are talking with someone, or when we describe our experiences abroad through blogs, etc.

Newsletter Discussion:

I wrote my newsletter on the Thai course that we take during the program. They should be preparing that soon and hopefully the whole newsletter will be available online soon!

Dinner. I had a spring rolls and chicken shishkabob with pineapples and tomatoes.

Coming back from the KKU night market where we ate dinner.

Celebrating Adrienne's 21st Birthday!

A scorpion in Thailand in the middle of the road? Yes.

Midnight munchies. Can never go wrong with chicken on a stick or pad thai.

Fourth Day of Class: Thursday, August 30, 2012

Schedule:

8:30am-3:30pm: Site Visit to Health Promoting Hospital

On our way to one of the Health Promoting Hospitals (HPH) in a rural village.

The outside of the Health Promoting Hospital. It almost looks like a resort.

Our conference room where we were given information about the responsibility of the Health Promoting Hospital and the villages that they oversee.

Main Health Care Concerns in Thailand

Diabetes, obesity and cardiovascular disease have high prevalence. I was very surprised by this since I thought that most Asian countries eat healthy foods and have active lifestyles; thus avoiding some of main problems that America is currently experiencing. However, we learned that one of their side dishes, sticky rice, has four times as much carbohydrates as regular rice due to the nature of the rice grain and the method of preparation of the rice. Thus, since sticky rice is cheap, it is a staple in Thai's diets, causing greater incidence of chronic diseases.

Further, most of the drinks here are extremely sweet and most street food is fried, adding to the diabetes, obesity and cardiovascular problems.

Health Care System of Thailand

There is a high shortage of health professionals, particularly in the public sector and the northeast region (where I am studying), including: nurses, dentists and physicians (not pharmacists though). 

In order to overcome this challenge, Thailand's health care system attempts to focus more on preventative rather than curative measures. Further, nurses and midwives play a larger role in treatment of the patient, rather than having sole dependency on a physician.

An HPH will usually have only a nurse available, and only occasionally will a doctor be present. These are not the only staff, however. Every HPH has multiple Village Health Volunteers (VHV) who are each responsible for 10-15 families in their village. Their main role includes visiting assigned families monthly to survey their health, ensure that they are taking proper medications and provide any health information to the families as needed. These VHVs form the foundation of Thailand's health care system and to me, it is completely amazing that the health care system can rely so strongly on just volunteers. Would this type of communal commitment be possible in the United States?

HPH: It does not have a lot of technology and machinery needed to treat patients. It's main role is prevention of disease, where it focuses 75% of it's budget towards prevention and 25% of the budget on curative means.

Benefits:

• smaller economic burden
• small incidence of infectious and non-infectious diseases

Disadvantages

• is it always feasible to prevent all diseases?
• how do you implement a public health policy that interferes with one's lifestyle? For example: smoking, eating certain foods, exercising, sexual activities, etc

Martin, our translator and presenter on the HPH, shows us the record profile of a patient. 

Here, we are able to see a patient's last visits' weight, blood pressure, current diseases, etc. Interestingly, however, if the patient is infected with HIV/AIDS, this information would not be written down into the record book and thus this information would not be accessible to the public. In contrast, if the patient has cancer, this information would be available to the public. Why do you think there is such a difference?

As seen, in Thailand, there are almost no confidentiality policies as compared to the United States.

After the presentation, we had a chance to go  visit Martin's village. He talked about these main points:

• Communal effort can change a village from being defined by it's violence and drug use to it's education and farming
• Ordinary people deserve a good life
• Planting a single tree in Thailand will provide a future for one's child

Just look at the view of our lunch spot! We are eating a restaurant at the Dam that we visited a couple of days ago.

Some of the courses we had during lunch. So delicious!