These past two days have been literally insane. We were dropped at Koh Samet island with around 8 new thai students and 3 more american students. needless to say we got to know everyone so quick, it felt like the real world for two nights. we left at 10:20 am on friday and got to the beach around 3. i met my roomate ying. she is 19 like cara but she studied in the us for 6 years in high school and so she speaks perfect english. she loves to party and loves chipotle so we are a match made in heaven. she got into uva but her mom made her come back to thailand for college so she is enrolled in mahidol. so in order to get to the beach we had to take a speedboat. of course me carla and rachel decide to be elevated on the back of the boat. we got soaked, it was a rollercoaster to say the least. my butt wasnt touching the seat for half the ride because i was in the air, the railings were slippery so i thought i might slip out. anyways in america we would have all had safety jackets and the boat would not have been open, so this is why i say america is no fun.
we laid on the beach and ate a literal seafood feast paid for by the program. our program director named pi da is so sweet, she was overheard once saying "i just want you guys to have fun and not be hungry in my country!" she is such a doll. then...we decided to go out. so i took notes on the night on my ipod when we got bak and ill type up what i have here and then go from there:
-12.11 was her time (i was back in bed after the crazy night and watched a little bit of thai track, that was for the 100m dash for women)
- dogs fighting
-dancing with old ladies drinking buckets
-not knowing what was going on
-rachels leg and putting her on a makeshit ambulance
-steal matzah
-huge bug on me...i screamed and literally almost cried. it was a huge green bug crawling on me, i was so paranoid after that
-limbo/ hot man
-looking for young girl with holland boy thought about joran but emerged out the water
-small dog suckling a teat
-eating burgers
-trying to leave btu not knowing where anyone was
-does thailand have an olympic team?
-thai acting...its horrible
-fast taxi
-a lot of ketchup
-american bfast
-pumped our bus
-forty eight hours in thai
-only in thailand
-sniffing scents
-bug bites sea urchin ssting
-crazy boatrides
so we go out ... there is a fire show with a very attrative thai man, so all the girls are trying ot talk to him and hes very cocky. anyways a girl gets really drunk and starts playing with the fire balls, im esssentially crying at this point because it is so dangerous. she is performing with these really entertaining thai children and somehow comes out unscathed. moments later larry tried but he isn't as drunk, feels the heat on his arms, and drops the stick immediately in the sand. this whole situation is just dangerous. there are stray dogs and cats everywhere and there is this one small pup who is very cute but very obviously infected with ticks or something. it sucks on the moms teets. the same girl who played with the fire is now trying to do a backbend. her knee gave out int he middle and shes writhing on teh floor in pain but we just thought bc she was drunk she was being drmatic. turns out she actually cant get up and we have to take her to the pool and off the beach. with my man arms i lift her up single handedly because everyone else was sitting and watching... earlier that day a girl got scratched up at the beach. anyways theres a 15 year old girl on the trip and shes obviously a baby but she likes to party so we were dancing with her, next thing i know she has gone off with some holland boy. randomly this man from morehouse pops up and is like its cool let them go. apparently he did the program two years ago. he has also brought over the coordinators of our program who are partying with us. anyways im sitting down at this point to try and comprehend what is happening.
then like a scene in the movie the crowd opens up and this morehouse man is doing pass de burre's and chasse's in front of me. like a strange hip hop version but hes really into it and trying to make me move. at this point i decide that my life is interesting enough to write a book about so i am determined to remember everything from the night. and then also like a scene in a movie he fades out and i feel sniffing on my leg, oh cute a dog...wait ew hes a stray, o god there is another dog....aaaaaand now they are fighting...on the dance floor. people are partying and there is also a dog fight on the dance floor. they eventually stop and literally no one acts like it was strange.
at this point im like the 15 year old needs to be found. like we dont kno this guy shes like 5 years old we have to search so me and felicia take off down the beach calling her name. she literally emerges from the sea with him in 5 seconds and so that poblem is solved. i eventually go and help rachel get into an ambulance because of her knee while trying to feed her matzah which she took and tried to feed sarah, the cab driver, and a cat. so i was like well if the matzah isnt appreciated ill take it and eat it. ok we dance some mre and hten we go to this random burger place. which was a feat because we feasted a few mere hours before. on two separate occassion lucy and dylon turn to me and say "this is the best f'ing burger ive ever had" and i agreed as i poured a whole bottle of ketchup out on it. i decide to go to bed but have to find my roomate who is eating noodles on the beach and take carla back bc she was crying because she wanted to sleep.
we woke up for an amazing american breakfast. we banana boated (we all ride a banana and fall off the boat and are in the middle of hte ocean) we have life jackets on but felicia freaks out, amy falls off by herself and felicia told her to grab her leg...it was funny at the time. we went out again, played truth or dare and had an equally as weird night. someone kissed a 41 year old, there was more fire, a groomed puppy was found, shots were taken with an extreme lady boy bartender, it was just a lot.
the next day more american breakfast, a thai student got stung by an urchin and then we had a debacle while trying to leave the island on the boat. everyone is on but rachel who is hurt so the guy decides to pick her up and bring her to the boat. a wave crashes into him and he falls...with rachel. she is soaking wet and has a bruised arms bc she fell on rocks. larry forgot to turn in the key so he is running bak to get it, all the while the rip tide is pulling the boat into the rocks and pulling another boat into us. a man is standing between the two boats trying to control them and essentially gets smooshed. the driver of the boat is pissed at us because we are so slow (we know this bc the thai students translated). larry sees the boat pull off and almost dives in the water but we are able to make it back. the wind is crazy at this point and we take off, my stomach has never dropped so fast because the waves were so big. it was great for me but terrible for those that were seasick. anyways we left the island and went straight to the hospital and dropped all the injured people off. i then went to the mall where my friend bought some msg. thats right just plain msg ... i guess to sprinkle on ur food?
there are parts of this story that if i were in ur shoes reading it...i just wouldn't believe but thats why i took loads of pictures and they are coming up next!
Sunday, July 31, 2011
Thursday, July 28, 2011
Vacation within a Vacation
SO! we went to kachanaburi for the night, we left on weds night and got back just now. it was fantastic the hostel we stayed at was above this pond so it was sort of like a huge tree house. needless to say once we arrived we took pics and then we got ready to go out! so this was a touristy town so i found someone from la and we met a lot of people from holland! we got drinks at this bar and the people there were insane. i had the worst pina collada in life and then the friend of the owner day said we would take us around the next day so we said yes. we ended up seeing him 8 other times that night. ok so after we continued to walk to another bar and ended up in the red light district. the girls were in no clothes and were screaming at us to go on, we decided we needed to get our lives together and walk back the other way. we ended up at this tattoo parlor/ club where you could make requests! i watched a girl get tatted, and we danced the night away to the macarena, spice girls, motivation, and other oldies.
we woke up this morning at what seemed like the crack of dawn (7:45) and met day at 8:45. i was in dire need of an american breakfast and when i found it of course she was closed so i settled on orange juice and apples. we were off! we did a hike up to these waterfalls. now if you know me you know i hate dirt so this was a special occasion. i felt like tarzan/wonderwoman climbing up these rocks. this was the first time i had ever been in a waterfall in person and it was simply amazing. the water was so blue, i went down this waterslide (ill post pics of me int he waterfall when i get them from other people) i of course when head first down teh water slide when everyone else was sitting up...it was fantastic. there were also huge fish in the water that bit...i wasn't having it. i let the small ones nibble on my feet tho it felt kind of weird. on a sidenote those few laps i swam made me really miss swimming so i think i might take it up again...it gives me structure in life.
after we hiked for ages (there were 7 waterfalls we made it to 6) we hiked bak down got lunch and took an open baked truck to get to the tiger temple. its literally an open back truck...so unsafe but so fun. we had to wear long pants because it was a temple and it was about 100 degrees...in my black spandex leggings i felt like fainting. anyways we get there and there is 20 minutes left so we sprint and make it to see the GLORIOUS tigeers. they were sooo magestic, cute, and probably drugged. :/ no one got bit i got to pet one and walk one. the 7 month old was as big as me and the two year old was actually so large i could not believe. tomorrow we go to the resort at koh samed, im excited for the beach because felicia told me i needed a tan...
log cabins!
on top of water
i thought this sign was funny
breathtaking...we didnt actually go in this one tho
the huge fishies!
wanna go bak
that one we went in to eeek
yea i though the sign was funny until my roomate opened a bag of chips on the water fall i look up and this wild monkey is three feet from me...felicia scrambles (she takes forever with everything but she was on top of a cliff in three seconds) and the monkey proceeded to battle lucy for her chips...it was wild...day swatted him away...i kno it was a him because...well i dont need to show the pics
big momma tiger
rawr
my fweinds
the 7 month old baby!
notice all the people behind me...there were so many rules because tigers just attack real quick, they also got us cool biocep shirts that said our name!
im honestly too cool
hey parents..i sang for a band...jusst kidding it was for the pic
i stole this pic form sarah (pictured above) but we were just chillin
we woke up this morning at what seemed like the crack of dawn (7:45) and met day at 8:45. i was in dire need of an american breakfast and when i found it of course she was closed so i settled on orange juice and apples. we were off! we did a hike up to these waterfalls. now if you know me you know i hate dirt so this was a special occasion. i felt like tarzan/wonderwoman climbing up these rocks. this was the first time i had ever been in a waterfall in person and it was simply amazing. the water was so blue, i went down this waterslide (ill post pics of me int he waterfall when i get them from other people) i of course when head first down teh water slide when everyone else was sitting up...it was fantastic. there were also huge fish in the water that bit...i wasn't having it. i let the small ones nibble on my feet tho it felt kind of weird. on a sidenote those few laps i swam made me really miss swimming so i think i might take it up again...it gives me structure in life.
after we hiked for ages (there were 7 waterfalls we made it to 6) we hiked bak down got lunch and took an open baked truck to get to the tiger temple. its literally an open back truck...so unsafe but so fun. we had to wear long pants because it was a temple and it was about 100 degrees...in my black spandex leggings i felt like fainting. anyways we get there and there is 20 minutes left so we sprint and make it to see the GLORIOUS tigeers. they were sooo magestic, cute, and probably drugged. :/ no one got bit i got to pet one and walk one. the 7 month old was as big as me and the two year old was actually so large i could not believe. tomorrow we go to the resort at koh samed, im excited for the beach because felicia told me i needed a tan...
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
kachanaburi/koh samed
im going to a place with water falls and tiger temples and then an island for the weekend so i will post pics and write about it latata, did the presentation we werent enthused about the topic tho so it was blahz
muah
muah
Monday, July 25, 2011
they use sugar in soda instead of high fructose corn syrup!
so i had been wondering why the soda tastes a lil different..and that's why
i'm trying to work on my presentation about natural disasters and the occurrence of ptsd. all i can think is that it happens, it is unfortunate, it needs to be treated. i'm looking at new orleans and japan even though there isn't much on japan yet except they are using telecommunication bc it was a radiation disaster and no one wants to go over there. I think we are going to focus on EMDR, eye movement desensitization and processing. essentially the psychologists wave their hands in fron of the patient for 30 minutes (many get strained arms and shoulders) and it somehow helps the patient to distance themselves from the event. there is 8 steps, but I don't know if I am buying it. I am always looking how to connect this to a medical ethics issue or a bioethical issue. i guess because not everyone can get antidepressants (anxiety and depression comes along with ptsd) it would benefit rescue workers to find a cheaper and equally effective way to treat the populus. and also with ssri's essentially these block seratonin reuptake into the presynaptic cell meaning there is more in the cleft and more to bind to the post synaptic cell. this in turn helps the "happy feeling" stay longer. also with the stress that comes with ptsd, cortisol levels break down the immune system, enlarge the stomach and damage memory. so i guess I can say that giving out drugs will ynilly isn't fair because not everyone can afford and plus a lot of people say doctors over medicate because its the easier thing to do. i don't really know however im sort of stuck, hopefully my partner will have ideas for tomorrow.
today we had class on monkey. i was confused to how it related to the medical ethics topic but it was a nice refresher in biology. we then went to the public health office and brainstormed how to help thailand with some issues. there was a sign for us and someone brought us coffee fruit and coffee cake, they are so nice! afterwards we went on a tour of a foundation in the slums. some kid in our program wanted a tour of the slums but we go this instead because a. it was just completely unsafe and b. how rude is it to walk around and take pictures of people's living spaces however poor they are. He really didn't get it and it was kind of offensive that he thought it would be ok to do such a thing. I politely told him and we went to the foundation. it was an amazing place, a kindergarden, grade school, orphanage, and hospice all in one place. the slums were absolutely no joke. like there was nothing that these families had. so many people in so little housing. but the foundation gave food and education and care and it was beautiful.
i found some dumplings today that were great but i was still hungry and my friends found PIZZA. i haven't had american food in so long. i hate pizza but i ate 3 garlic rolls and two slices. its not that im sick of thai food its just in america we don't eat american food every day so its weird waking up and eating pad thai for breakfast u kno?
welp thats all for now my eyes are bloodshot because i haven't taken my contacts out
peace police
sweet hat i was forced to buy lol, notice small right eye bc im squinting to keep the contact in much love!
i'm trying to work on my presentation about natural disasters and the occurrence of ptsd. all i can think is that it happens, it is unfortunate, it needs to be treated. i'm looking at new orleans and japan even though there isn't much on japan yet except they are using telecommunication bc it was a radiation disaster and no one wants to go over there. I think we are going to focus on EMDR, eye movement desensitization and processing. essentially the psychologists wave their hands in fron of the patient for 30 minutes (many get strained arms and shoulders) and it somehow helps the patient to distance themselves from the event. there is 8 steps, but I don't know if I am buying it. I am always looking how to connect this to a medical ethics issue or a bioethical issue. i guess because not everyone can get antidepressants (anxiety and depression comes along with ptsd) it would benefit rescue workers to find a cheaper and equally effective way to treat the populus. and also with ssri's essentially these block seratonin reuptake into the presynaptic cell meaning there is more in the cleft and more to bind to the post synaptic cell. this in turn helps the "happy feeling" stay longer. also with the stress that comes with ptsd, cortisol levels break down the immune system, enlarge the stomach and damage memory. so i guess I can say that giving out drugs will ynilly isn't fair because not everyone can afford and plus a lot of people say doctors over medicate because its the easier thing to do. i don't really know however im sort of stuck, hopefully my partner will have ideas for tomorrow.
today we had class on monkey. i was confused to how it related to the medical ethics topic but it was a nice refresher in biology. we then went to the public health office and brainstormed how to help thailand with some issues. there was a sign for us and someone brought us coffee fruit and coffee cake, they are so nice! afterwards we went on a tour of a foundation in the slums. some kid in our program wanted a tour of the slums but we go this instead because a. it was just completely unsafe and b. how rude is it to walk around and take pictures of people's living spaces however poor they are. He really didn't get it and it was kind of offensive that he thought it would be ok to do such a thing. I politely told him and we went to the foundation. it was an amazing place, a kindergarden, grade school, orphanage, and hospice all in one place. the slums were absolutely no joke. like there was nothing that these families had. so many people in so little housing. but the foundation gave food and education and care and it was beautiful.
i found some dumplings today that were great but i was still hungry and my friends found PIZZA. i haven't had american food in so long. i hate pizza but i ate 3 garlic rolls and two slices. its not that im sick of thai food its just in america we don't eat american food every day so its weird waking up and eating pad thai for breakfast u kno?
welp thats all for now my eyes are bloodshot because i haven't taken my contacts out
peace police
Sunday, July 24, 2011
pics
Recap
Hello All, I hope you are enjoying the new layout of the blog, I got bored yesterday because all I did was lay around. Anyhoo shouting Claudel out, hes an avid reader of the blogeroooo.
If you like basketball you have to watch this>>> http://rivals.yahoo.com/highschool/blog/prep_rally/post/Meet-the-amateur-Shaq-prep-hoops-8217-best-du?urn=highschool-wp3891
So anyways back to Thailand. The past two days have been eventful to say the least. After a rainy saturday we decided to go out. Our dean of students, this old balding guy who seems very strict told Larry who is a music minor to go to this bar. Apparently it was authentic and only northern Thai people go and they had great music, he told us somethign happened at 12 that we shouldn't miss. We just expected you know a Thai music fest, we definitely got sent to a Thai drag bar by our dear of students. Though everything was in Thai, they had a comedy part first and we def knew we were getting made fun of. We were the only non Thai people, and we didn't have any Thai people with us. Some guys asked if we knew any Thai and started dying when we said no, they moved us tot he front, during the show people laugh and stared, and they called us furongs (westerners who come for the sex industry). It was actually hysterical though, I took a million pictures bc the gay dancers had about 15 costume changes by the time we left. People would get up and start dancing during the performances and it was just really fun, we couldn't believe thats where he sent us.
Today we went to a place called JJs market. Its the biggest open aired market maybe in the world but definitely in Thailand. I love to shop but I definitely was overwhelmed. The amount of trinkets, clothes, food, spices, animals, and jewelry they had their was amazing and beautiful. I probably spent too much money but it was all so pretty! We were there all morning and I just took a three hour nap!
Ok for the overview, Thailand can be summarized by five things. as in if you go for 5 blocks without seeing one, you are probably not in thailand anymore.
1. Buddhist Temples
2. Blown up pictures of the King and Queen
3. 7-11
4. Stray Dogs
5. open markets
There are no sidewalks, no safety regulations ( no seatbelts, no age limits on being on a motorcycle, no lane change regulations). There are just a lot of people all really very happy and nice. I have seen so many people with so little, but they truly are happy to just interact and own their little rice stand or milk tea stand. They truly love talking to you even if they are shy about their english skills. When we didn't understand the taxi driver and he finally realized what we were saying, he taught us the phrase in Thai.
These are the phrases I kno
Sa-wat-dee kraup (male speaker)
Sa-wat-dee Kah (female speaker)
(you add ka and kraup at the end to make it polite,t hey say it at the end of everything).
Kop Khun Ka- Thank you
mai pet- no spice!
aaaaaand thats about it
My mother has emailed me that she is growing increasingly concerned over my crazy wallposts and would like to hear more about class. So here it is. The best classes that I have been too are about the human trafficking that I told you, Buddhism, which I will explain, and a disaster relief workshop with Thai med students at the the biggest hospital in Bangkok.
Due to the way their schooling system works, there were 5th year medical students that were the same age as me so it was interesting. Anyways on Sunday 26, December 2004, Thailand had its worst natural disaster: a tsunami. They were in no way prepared for this because no one expected it. It was a 9.0 earthquake that caused it. Here are the facts...
So we had a workshop of how to assess the situation, triage the victims (tell which one you should treat and in what order), and how to transport them to the hospital. It is a growing field in Thailand whereas it is very developed in the United States. In the US there is a very strict way on doing things but in Thailand regulations are still being made. The workshop was difficult because of the language barrier but so fruitful because there was a beauty in trying to asses a disaster with the chaos of not understanding each other.
Onto Buddhism. There will be no way that I do it any justice in this post but here it is. The statistics say anywhere from 92-98 percent of all Thailand is Buddhist, therefore it governs the way the people act. It is based on the idea that you want to essentially not be tied down by earthly possessions and that includes your body. Monks meditate on the 32 parts of the body, essentially while breaking them down to objects in order to free themselves of it (bile, hair, skin, etc). They believe in a kammic system, or karma, which means that people are reborn and every action has a karmic reaction, so things that happen in this lifetime could very well have been because you are serving out karma for a previous life. It is so important to remember that in order to reach nirvanna you have to in a sence become enlightened by arresting the karmic cycle and freeing yourself from your body. As you may notice this has severe bioethical implications because sometimes when people are sick or dying, people tend to say or they are living out karma and give out hope. With modern medicine it is hard for a doctor to take that, she/he wants to operate but you want to respect the wishes and autonomy of a person. Also Thai people really believe in spirit mediums and other traditional forms of medicine which sometimes interfere with western practices. How do you treat a person? You have to take into consideration that no matter what you tell them, they will probably still take their own medicine so you have to figure how it will interfere with what you prescribe and you have to be culturally sensitive enough to maybe incorporate the two. A doctor who practices here but was trained in the US told a story of a man who was badly burned. The doctors treated him and dressed his wounds and his wife you always come in and tamper with his arm. The doctors got frustrated but they couldn't deny her visitation. Anyways one day she spit some "holy" grass on his arm because a monk chewed it and they believed that it was best for his arm. Of course the doctors are upset because his arm will pronably become infected, but she was going to do it again so they dressed his wounds and put a plastic sheet over it so she could put the holy grass on it again.
Sorry for the long post! I'll post about our project on ptsd after natural disasters later and will put up pics of the drag show very soon!
love y'alls,
erin
If you like basketball you have to watch this>>> http://rivals.yahoo.com/highschool/blog/prep_rally/post/Meet-the-amateur-Shaq-prep-hoops-8217-best-du?urn=highschool-wp3891
So anyways back to Thailand. The past two days have been eventful to say the least. After a rainy saturday we decided to go out. Our dean of students, this old balding guy who seems very strict told Larry who is a music minor to go to this bar. Apparently it was authentic and only northern Thai people go and they had great music, he told us somethign happened at 12 that we shouldn't miss. We just expected you know a Thai music fest, we definitely got sent to a Thai drag bar by our dear of students. Though everything was in Thai, they had a comedy part first and we def knew we were getting made fun of. We were the only non Thai people, and we didn't have any Thai people with us. Some guys asked if we knew any Thai and started dying when we said no, they moved us tot he front, during the show people laugh and stared, and they called us furongs (westerners who come for the sex industry). It was actually hysterical though, I took a million pictures bc the gay dancers had about 15 costume changes by the time we left. People would get up and start dancing during the performances and it was just really fun, we couldn't believe thats where he sent us.
Today we went to a place called JJs market. Its the biggest open aired market maybe in the world but definitely in Thailand. I love to shop but I definitely was overwhelmed. The amount of trinkets, clothes, food, spices, animals, and jewelry they had their was amazing and beautiful. I probably spent too much money but it was all so pretty! We were there all morning and I just took a three hour nap!
Ok for the overview, Thailand can be summarized by five things. as in if you go for 5 blocks without seeing one, you are probably not in thailand anymore.
1. Buddhist Temples
2. Blown up pictures of the King and Queen
3. 7-11
4. Stray Dogs
5. open markets
There are no sidewalks, no safety regulations ( no seatbelts, no age limits on being on a motorcycle, no lane change regulations). There are just a lot of people all really very happy and nice. I have seen so many people with so little, but they truly are happy to just interact and own their little rice stand or milk tea stand. They truly love talking to you even if they are shy about their english skills. When we didn't understand the taxi driver and he finally realized what we were saying, he taught us the phrase in Thai.
These are the phrases I kno
Sa-wat-dee kraup (male speaker)
Sa-wat-dee Kah (female speaker)
(you add ka and kraup at the end to make it polite,t hey say it at the end of everything).
Kop Khun Ka- Thank you
mai pet- no spice!
aaaaaand thats about it
My mother has emailed me that she is growing increasingly concerned over my crazy wallposts and would like to hear more about class. So here it is. The best classes that I have been too are about the human trafficking that I told you, Buddhism, which I will explain, and a disaster relief workshop with Thai med students at the the biggest hospital in Bangkok.
Due to the way their schooling system works, there were 5th year medical students that were the same age as me so it was interesting. Anyways on Sunday 26, December 2004, Thailand had its worst natural disaster: a tsunami. They were in no way prepared for this because no one expected it. It was a 9.0 earthquake that caused it. Here are the facts...
| No. people killed | 5,395 |
| No. people missing | 2,817 1,972 Thai, 2,248 foreign nationals : 37 countries |
| Bodies still unidentified | 1,650 |
| No. of affected people | 58,550 |
| Children orphaned (loss of one or both parents) | 1,480 |
| Lost livelihoods in fisheries | 30,000 |
| Fishing boats destroyed or damaged | 7,500 |
| Lost livelihoods in tourism | 120,000+ |
| Houses destroyed or badly damaged | 4,806 |
| Estimated value of damages (not. inc. housing) | 353.4 million USD |
So we had a workshop of how to assess the situation, triage the victims (tell which one you should treat and in what order), and how to transport them to the hospital. It is a growing field in Thailand whereas it is very developed in the United States. In the US there is a very strict way on doing things but in Thailand regulations are still being made. The workshop was difficult because of the language barrier but so fruitful because there was a beauty in trying to asses a disaster with the chaos of not understanding each other.
Onto Buddhism. There will be no way that I do it any justice in this post but here it is. The statistics say anywhere from 92-98 percent of all Thailand is Buddhist, therefore it governs the way the people act. It is based on the idea that you want to essentially not be tied down by earthly possessions and that includes your body. Monks meditate on the 32 parts of the body, essentially while breaking them down to objects in order to free themselves of it (bile, hair, skin, etc). They believe in a kammic system, or karma, which means that people are reborn and every action has a karmic reaction, so things that happen in this lifetime could very well have been because you are serving out karma for a previous life. It is so important to remember that in order to reach nirvanna you have to in a sence become enlightened by arresting the karmic cycle and freeing yourself from your body. As you may notice this has severe bioethical implications because sometimes when people are sick or dying, people tend to say or they are living out karma and give out hope. With modern medicine it is hard for a doctor to take that, she/he wants to operate but you want to respect the wishes and autonomy of a person. Also Thai people really believe in spirit mediums and other traditional forms of medicine which sometimes interfere with western practices. How do you treat a person? You have to take into consideration that no matter what you tell them, they will probably still take their own medicine so you have to figure how it will interfere with what you prescribe and you have to be culturally sensitive enough to maybe incorporate the two. A doctor who practices here but was trained in the US told a story of a man who was badly burned. The doctors treated him and dressed his wounds and his wife you always come in and tamper with his arm. The doctors got frustrated but they couldn't deny her visitation. Anyways one day she spit some "holy" grass on his arm because a monk chewed it and they believed that it was best for his arm. Of course the doctors are upset because his arm will pronably become infected, but she was going to do it again so they dressed his wounds and put a plastic sheet over it so she could put the holy grass on it again.
Sorry for the long post! I'll post about our project on ptsd after natural disasters later and will put up pics of the drag show very soon!
love y'alls,
erin
Saturday, July 23, 2011
pictures since my camera has decided to work!
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)