Une Petite Blague à la française

par Ms. Guntur Suyasa

A la ferme, le cheval est malade. Le vétérinaire dit au paysan :
Je lui injecte un remède, si dans trois jours il n’est pas remis, il faudra l’abattre.”
Le cochon qui a tout entendu, dit au cheval: “Lève-toi !”
Mais le cheval est trop fatigué.
Le deuxième jour le cochon dit: “Lève-toi vite !”
Le cheval est toujours aussi fatigué.
Le troisième jour le cochon dit: “Lève toi sinon ils vont t’abattre !”
Alors dans un dernier effort, le cheval se lève.
Heureux, le paysan dit: “Faut fêter ça: on tue le cochon !”

Moralité : Toujours s’occuper de ses affaires et fermer sa gueule.

Une Excursion Au Bord de La Mer

The incomplete members of Agatha L to R: Bayu, Dewi, Ana, Rachma, Sharie, Thiwit, Age, Yoga, Me, Achmad, Ertsda

Le week-end du 28 février, nous, les médecins stagiaires à Trenggalek, sommes partis à la plage de Pasir Putih. Elle est située à environ 30 kilomѐtres du centre-ville de Trenggalek. Cela n’était pas justement la premiѐre fois que j’y vais, mais car j’en n’avais plus de bonnes mémoires, ce voyage m’a fait du bien. Il faisait beau le long du trajet de 30 minutes. Mais lors que nous y sommes arrivés, le ciel était un peu couvert. Quel dommage :’(

On s’est fait payer 5000 roupies de droit d’entrée. Nous nous sommes figurés parmi les premiers à mettre pieds sur le sable de plage. La plage n’est pas si longue, mais trѐs ravissante. Au loin il y avait plus qu’une douzaine de petites îles inhabitées. Aoutour d’elle il y avait beaucoup d’arbres de coco et de collines vertes qui nous donnaient l’impression qu’elle restait non affecté par l’exploitation humaine. On peut y voir aussi le vent faissant des vagues calmes qui pouvaient être fortes parfois. C’était magnifique tout simplement. Je pouvais sentir son éternité. Aprѐs avoir marché au bord de la plage, nous avons rencontré un homme qui nous proposait de faire un voyage en son bateau. Il était assez chѐre de louer son bateau, mais heureusement nous pouvions partager les frais. Alors nous avons passé 45 minutes en traversant la baie qui forme la plage. Nous avons pris beaucoup de photos!!! Asurément, je n’ai oublié pas de me faire prendre en photo ;) Nous nous sommes bien amusés en bateau. Nous profitions du beau paysage côtier. Le temps s’écoule lentement. À midi on a déjeuné dans un petit restaurant qui sert un menu superbe de fruits de mer qui était bon pour la santé et les papilles ;) La plupart de nous a demandé du thon grillé au feu de bois qui nous a livré une saveur délicate. Ça se vendait à 9000 roupies piѐce. Et puis nous avons continué notre excursion à la grotte de chauve-souris qui est la grotte la plus longe dans la région Asie du sud-est. On a dû payer 4000 roupies à l’entrée per personne. Pour y arriver, il faut traverser un petit pont suspendu sur un ruisseau. Aprѐs une courte promenade de 500 mѐtres, on peut voir la bouche de la grotte. Il n’y en avait pas beaucoup de lumiѐres mais cela ne nous a pas fait peur. Dans l’obscurité on peut toujours regarder de innombrable stalactites et stalagmites qui se présentaient sous diverses formes. C’était superbe. Dans la fin de l’aprѐs-midi nous sommes rentrés chez nous. Nous avons passé une journée trѐs agréable. Nous attendons nos prochains plans de vacances avec tant d’impatience. Au revoir!

P.S.: En fait, c’est toute la premiѐre fois que j’écris en français donc je crois que j’écris mal. Corrigez-moi s’il vous plaît, si vous trouvez des erreurs de grammaire. Je serai le bienvenu.

Idyllic sea side. Just a perfect temptation

The sturdy rocky cliff facing the ocean (up) and me posing at a corner of the road overlooking the bay (below)

La deuxiѐme partie: The Need to Nail Down the Support

Le 23 février 2011

Seems like I’ve been running out of inspirations to fill up my blog page these days. I’m stucked, frankly speaking, and it surely happens for some reasons. Today marks our second day to work at a community health centre (widely abbreviated to Puskesmas in Indonesian) of Gandusari, Trenggalek. On a été bien accuelli, but anyhow we can tell we’ve been spotting some unkind faces smiling around. But not all are detected, the list of those who deserve to be slapped may potentially extend. We should be more alerted next time. FYI, the list has had some lead figures’ name in it ha ha.

Aside from all the screwed up things, all is going well basically, all happy. The small group of 5 was laterly split up on a personal basis to run and assist the medical service at five diferent units, each for a week term. That’s how the rotation works. This week I’ll be working au cabinet médical (j’ai aucune idée comment exprimer cette phrase précisement en anglais, it’s kind of a GP’s consultation room). In it are 2 doctors and a nurse. The room is compact, but luckily it’s shiny. On average the daily patient visits revolve around 20-25. So I was partly relieved knowing this info he he. Most of the patients come with a number of diseases such as acute respiratory tract infection, non-dehydration acute diarrhea, hypertension, diabetes, gastritis, osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, dermatitis are on our daily menu. I felt somewhat funny cuz I nearly forget a series of drugs I had memorized the night before, you know most of the patients had multiple chief complains which led me to an utter confusion (as a newbie doctor he he) to pose the diagnosis. Thanks God I had dr.Mariana who helped me a lot with the art of prescription he he. She taught me also the drug combination to write into the prescription. That was way sooo refreshing. But shame on me he he.

During my last night’s shift with colleague, Achmad, we found nearly the same pattern of the diseases except for a case of CVA (a 60 something nan having difficulty to talk some 9 hours prior to her admission, BP 210/110, we found impaired 7th cranial nerve in form of labial palsy, weakness in left upper and lower limbs). We suspected her to suffer from hemorrhagic stroke. Since there’s none of diagnostic tools available in the centre and patient declined to be referred, we could only administer intravenously kind of neuroprotector which was actually insufficient. Shame on this fact. What bothers me often while working here is that the questionable use of AB in this centre. For example: a KID coming up with acute diarrhea would likely be treated with antibiotic(s) despite the absence of suggesting indications as such bloody diarrhea, mucous stool, diarrhea with seizure etc. So my biggest apology to all the paediatric professors, vos rѐgles ne sont pas valables ici. But all in all I’d suggest that the delusional use of AB here must be reviewed.

La premiѐre partie: Notes Des Médecins Stagiaires à Trenggalek, Le Déménagement

Sun rises over nearby hills in Trenggalek

Meet the gang,there are 15 of us. Fresh grads of Airlangga med school, adventurous, smart, cool, energic, loveable and low-paid (not jokingly said cuz we think it’s something to be proud of T_T). And this is Dian Prakoso, MD writing ;P
Since February 5, the East Javanese small town of Trenggalek has officially been a place I call home for a year ahead. Trenggalek is 186 km away from the provincial capital of Surabaya that equals some 4-hours trip by car. People might not have any ideas how much I really wanted it to be. I had waited for long to live separately from my mom and dad, and at last that day arrived this February. I couldn’t be happier. Trenggalek is at the very opposite pole of Surabaya. Both are simply incomparable in terms of the pace of development. Completely like heaven and earth. Trenggalek is very much a sleeping laid-back hamlet. The town centre is not supposed to exceed 2x2 km in dimension. Fringed by endless rice fields, nearly surrounded by hills and mountain, the town occupies an area of fertile valley making it naturally susceptible to annual floods. The worst of it took place back in 2007. To make the thing sound worse, people really need to have a proper insight that touring the town center after 7 pm is like attending a funeral ceremony. It’s nearly no signs of life you can observe at every corners during these hours, not even the townsquare that’s just filled with dozens of street vendors selling tasteless food. Mama mia. The rumours have it that the town is moderately haunted, but luckily we’ve not yet seen any ghost sightings here, not once. T_T

For housing, we decided to rent a quiet fashionable house not far from the town market. Only 6 out of 15 who’ll live in the house, the others go with their own preference for housing. Our new house was formerly resided by a local tycoon owning more than a dozen of jewellery shops scattering across East Java. For the rent we have to pay 9 millions IDR a year. We thought it was a good bargain since we knew our colleagues who got stationed in neighboring town of Pacitan had to pay some 34 millions IDR for a house shared by 12. By the time we set foot in the house, it was a complete mess. The floors and the walls are all awfully dusty. The ceilings are covered by spider webs, not to forget the missing lamp bulbs there and here and the dysfunctional water pump machine. It was like a wreckage that it needed tons of clean ups. But fortunately all of us were willing to give a hand and we started to work on them. All set by the end of the day, except for the water pump since we had to call the mechanic from the nearby town of Tulungagung. We got it fixed by the next day.

For transportation we brought here 3 motorcycles and a car all the way from Surabaya. Transportation is rather difficult here. The only way you can get out of town is by taking a bus.

Two days after we met some lead figures of the medical service in this town, but most importantly we got introduced to our dearest supervising doctors i.e. dr. Fonyta Sugianto and dr. Lilik Rahaju. They’re among the senior general practitioners at the hospital in which we’re going to work. They, just like everyone we’ve met here, are extremely nice, supporting, and helpful. They are the ones responsible for making this internship stay on the right track. We promise to carry on this program as well as possible in a hope not to let them down. We do love them both just like we love our own parents.

We’re split into three smaller groups of 5 to do the working rotations as follows: community health centre, out-patient unit, ER for 4 months respectively. We’ll start working by February 21, so for the time being we’re on our 2-week orientation period.

A road scene in Trenggalek, Jalan Soekarno-Hatta

Doing the errands in the traditional markets of Trenggalek (up) and another road scene, Jalan Kartini (below)

Tips for Traveling in Bangkok

Wearing headscarf is more than welcomed. The inhabitants of Bangkok are tolerant, respectful and open-minded as the city itself has a moslem quarter.

Understand that Budhism is the most predominant religion in Thailand and the Thais profoundly love their king as the unifying figure. Do not say something bad about these unless you want to viewed as a rude person.

Try to avoid eating in non-moslem restaurants as they tend to use porky products on processing the food. Even when having breakfast at your hotel, never hesitate to ask the staffs if the dishes are okay for moslems. Be cautious when ordering a simple omelette since they usually add the minced pork in it. If you’re still worried, it’s safer just to take some breads, toasts or baguette along with mini-packed confitures and butter, cereals is mostly available. Several moslem (halal) restaurants can be found along Thanon Petchaburi (Petchaburi Road), next to Rachatevee flyover. I’d suggest Makyah Muslim Restaurant as it seems pretty renowned among moslem people there. It serves delicious Southern Thai dishes. A nearby mosque called Masjid Darulaman is located only a block away from it.

Love in Bangkok