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Saeber_tooth
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Name: Sae-Rom
Location: Chicago, Illinois, United States
Gender: Female
Interests: Jesus, farting, AA studies, activism, medical jargon, David Shin.in that order
Expertise: Jesus, farting AA studies, activism, medical jargon, David Shin.in that order
Occupation: Medical
Message: message meEmail: email me
Member Since:
8/25/2005
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| 3 weeks in Nairobi already! A recap of my Kenyan goings-on... HOME: I live very near the city center and the University of Nairobi (awesome except when the students stage one of their infamous riots like they did a couple of weeks ago, preventing me from going home for a few hours). It's not an area where a lot of expats live, which I appreciate, and the city center is definitely a bustling, lively downtown with crowds of people. I live with a wonderful Kenyan girl and an Austrian workaholic (World Bank-er=hardly ever home) in a midrise in a complex surrounded with barbed wire and guarded gates. I pay cheap rent compared to other areas of the city but still have a fabulous swimming pool (and the weather in Nairobi has been amazing! 70s/80s with zero humidity and tons of sunshine), balcony, and a sweetheart housekeeper who does our dishes, changes our towels, and makes our beds daily. Our "backyard" is like a bird menagerie---huge kites and storks sweep through all the time and occasional pretty red birds peep around the flower bushes. All are pretty fantastically vocal (including the lizards, sometimes) so quiet moments are (happily) rare. Supposedly, there are monkeys that come and steal your stuff so I was advised never to leave any doors open but I've seen no evidence of them. One of these days, I am going to make a mango monkey trap. At night, my mosquito net is my best friend, though there isn't supposed to be any malaria in Nairobi (sort of). WORK: It amazes me how many projects are going on at the CDC office here: influenza, malaria, nutrition, burns, HIV, TB, typhoid, cholera, aflatoxin. People from all over are always coming through for a visit or for temporary duty. Never a dull moment. I love the office staff a lot and my supervisors are amazing people. I am officially part of the TDY crew (Temporary Duty Yonder---best acronym ever) and we have our own section of cubicles. I feel very fortunate to be based in Nairobi, and specifically to be assigned to the International Emerging Infections Program, as it allows me to regularly visit Kibera where a major portion of our surveillance happens. At the moment, I am helping with a study evaluating the safety (adverse events) of the 10-valent pneumococcal vaccine (preservative-free, 2-dose) in Kenya---just rolled out nationally in late January. Pneumonia is the #1 killer of children under 5 here so it's a salient intervention that will hopefully have some significant mortality impact. Hooray! Kibera is indescribable. Actually seeing it and walking through the narrow corridors...peering into faces and homes....I've never felt so concurrently inspired and helpless. It is an extremely complex place with complex problems---I haven't even begun to scratch the surface. But there's something about the community there that I love. More on Kibera later... (And no, no Bradgelina sightings yet.) CULTURE: Surprisingly, I don't blend in here at all. Keeping a low-profile (safety tip #1 from the U.S. Embassy) is pretty difficult. Even though people say that there are a lot of Chinese in Kenya (building roads), there are really no Asians in the gritty city center area which is where I run all my errands. So, pretty much everywhere I go, people are calling out to me, "Ni hao!" "Chinese!" or "Ching chong chang!" Kenyans are very friendly people. :) I guess this is how celebrities feel? Two weeks ago, a Chinese man saw me in the grocery store and was so excited, saying "Ni hao!" with a big smile on his face. I happened to be on the phone so he patiently waited there in the aisle next to me for 2 minutes while I finished my conversation (even while I was whispering to him, "I'm not Chinese!"). After I hung up, I told him I don't speak Chinese and that I'm Korean (in Mandarin, which helped to ease some of his disappointment, I hope!). Quite special. The food (with the exception of the CDC canteen) is excellent. Kenyans eat lots of meat (roasted, stewed, or boiled) and tilapia but also a lot of rice and beans. Their starch staple, ugali, is a thick porridge/polenta made from ground maize. My favorite meal so far is ugali with fresh tilapia cooked in tomato stew. There's this shack in an outdoor market nearby the office that makes the best "samaki fresh" for just over $1. Shopping at the local wet market is my favorite thing to do--the produce here is so fresh! Most come from Kenyan, Ugandan, or Tanzanian farms. I cooked my first Kenyan meal last night---pilau (Kenyan/Indian fusion rice) with kachumbari (a kind of salsa made with tomato, hot green chilis, cilantro). Yum! I've been working hard to learn Swahili. I started private tutoring my 2nd week here and have sessions 2-3 times a week. It's super-fun and Kenyans really appreciate the effort made to learn their language. But even the English keeps me on my toes---they use British words like "alight" and "lorry." My typical introduction: "What's up? I am called Sae-Rom. I am not from China. My parents are from Korea. I am from the country of America, the state of Illinois, and the city of Chicago. I like tasty food." *Sorry no pictures---PCs suck. It won't do it. Next time, pictures and stories from the Kenyan coast!* | | |
| i'm almost at the end of my psychiatry rotation...and i've been loving it.
want to blog more in depth about it later but a funny story really quick in honor of one of my patients who was discharged yesterday...
i'm working at a state mental institution so the patients wander around this large common room called the "milieu" all day.
so i'm walking and talking with my patient in the milieu, asking how he's doing, etc. and he turns to me and asks, "medical student, are you married?" glancing at the ring on my right hand. i, of course, say no. conversation proceeds as follows...
"you're not married?"
"no, i'm not."
[whisper] "you know, God doesn't like it when you sexualize with men outside of marriage."
"how do you know i sexualize with men??"
"so, are you a virgin then?"
"that's a very personal question, ___."
"alright then. well, God doesn't like that. anyway, i know you been sexualizing with men because you have NGU."
"NGU? what's NGU?"
"non-gonococcal urethritis."
"how do you know i have non-gonococcal urethritis??"
"because you wear pants!"
"hahahahaha."
good times. ima gonna miss him.
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| And even in our sleep pain that cannot forget,
falls drop by drop upon the heart,
and in
our own despite, against our will,
comes wisdom to us by the awful grace of God.
-aeschylus
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| good night, it's been awhile. i've missed you.
things have finally slowed down after taking the boards(!) and running off to DC for awhile. and now half of med school is officially over. red mango opened in evanston to celebrate! :)
the more i go thru it, the more i feel med school is really strange. you have bunch of neurotic, perfectionist, selfish know-it-alls (it's hard to survive med school if you are not all of those things) that are bred to further compete in exams testing memorization & assimilation abilities under high-stress, crappy-health conditions. and that's supposed to make you a good doctor?
at least it makes me question myself and my rotten motives more. i feel like it's so easy to graduate from an experience like med school with a sense of entitlement. that for all the sacrifices, the all-nighters, the neglected relationships, the pimples & new muffin-top, the pee/poo/pus/puke/placenta we have to deal with, yadda yadda yadda, we deserve comfortable lives filled with respect, wealth, and impunity. it's really easy to coast down that road...or actually to sprint like a maniac down that road and jump into her beautiful, rose-scented, feather-soft arms.
and then you can still comfort yourself by occasionally going on trips overseas and "helping out." this is my mom's desperate argument as she eyes the stamps multiplying in my passport and tries to convince herself that i might listen this time.
this isn't to say that short-term trips aren't important and necessary. and that dermatologists and plastic surgeons are automatically sell-outs. absolutely not. and i'm not just saying that not to sound judgmental (even tho i probably totally do). actually, a lot of them do really amazing, lifechanging work. i guess you can't measure this sort of thing---everyone has their own calling.
for me, i don't want to look back in 20 years and wish that i just laid it all on the line...not always made sure my own butt was always covered. because is it worth doing if you're not going to do it til it hurts? because i only have this one life. and there's so much i could do with it...or not do with it.
sigh, i've dug myself in a hole, haven't i?
on monday and tuesday, i was in DC for an award ceremony. i considered myself a spectator because i was supremely embarrassed to be eating at the same table as these people. this is not false humility. take my word for it. but i tried to get over it so i could soak in the heroism & tenacity of these simple but somehow superhuman beings. the jefferson awards were started by jackie kennedy onassis and sam beard to serve as a sort of "nobel prize" for public service, to celebrate the unsung heroes who were changing lives and their communities (clearly, i do not qualify). most were regular working class citizens who one day, decided enough was enough and did something about the runaway teens who had no place to go, the drug dealers who were ravaging neighborhoods, the 20-something war vets who were returning home only to be homeless, the millions of young girls growing up with the idea that sex is all they have to offer... the stories were all absolute miracles. some were in their 90s and could barely get on stage but were still tirelessly clocking in hundreds of hours back at home toward their centers and projects. they raised millions of dollars, built houses & playgrounds from scratch, endured decades of failures & try-agains---to just do it.
these were people who had truly learned to genuinely mourn the brokenness of our world (many would break down while talking of those they served), take others' burdens upon themselves, while simultaneously maintaining obstinate optimism. to suffer with hopefulness. i felt so blessed to have been able to gaze into their faces...share a glass of wine and an encouraging word with them...shake their hands. ironic that they were being celebrated since they were each people who obviously did this things because they felt they had no choice but to do what they ought. to be like them... i never realized how difficult & rare it is to find people who acknowledge that something is the right thing to do---and then actually do it.
and...it was great to have my own hotel room! gave me time to think. and be quiet.
and watch conan in my underwear while eating orange-flavored chocolate squares.
i think i'm slowly becoming addicted to the loneliness of traveling alone.
love until it hurts.
-mother teresa
first ponder, then dare.
-helmuth von moltke
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