The people I met in Laos have the widest, and whitest, smiles - Cheshire cat grins hover everywhere - floating down the Mekong in a longtail boat, over the tamarind carts, and while pacing their babies in the pediatric ward at Mahosot hospital.
The project I was attached to has now developed 3 of 5 years of a new medical school curriculum. I'm hoping to get involved for the clerkship component, but will see if this works out later. What I did help with was the Orientation Weeks for the new Family Medicine Interns. These grads are still running on the antiquated curriculum, so basically we try to teach an approach to medicine in two weeks. The family med program is also a U of Calgary baby, but the fumbling infants (first grads of the 2 year residency) are being asked to take over its running.
The quote "banished to paradise" refers to the fact that Deanne and I got assigned to go to the Provincial Hospital in Luang Prabang for our stint visiting the teachers at this level. This city was designated a World Heritage site - it sits on the merging banks of two rivers with lush green rice paddies lining the perimeter. There are more wats (buddhist temples) at the tip of the town than you could imagine, and from these at 6:30 am the drums resonate to awaken the drowsy monks. They don bright orange garb, and take an orange tin to fill with the alms they collect from buddhists who line the streets on their knees to give rice or fruit. The wats are only interrupted by early 20th century colonial buildings in white. In front of these architectural wonders will become the bustle of the night market - women from hilltribes selling woven silk and cotton, chinese opium pipes, and Tshirts with communist propaganda.
We ventured to the district hospital north of town, where Deanne met cholera (which officially doesn't exist in Laos, the communists aren't a fan of bad news). She was hospitalized briefly - luckily in the better hospital - and I never even got sick; for those of you taking bets on what bug I'm bringing home, scratch this one off!
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