A Good Day of Worms and Black Eggs!

I finally got a few pictures of the Audience Response System I talked about in the last blog. I think the pictures help explain what it is and how we use this technology in the teaching. You can see the question and then the bar graph of the students' answers instantly on the screen behind Dr. Nilson.

The students gave a couple more presentations today. Here is Ken Saw in one picture and a small group presenting in another.

We used poor Bob Bowling as an example to the class about how to address health and safety issues in villages. Bob is wrapping up the big dormitory construction project on the Kalnin Leadership Center property where we do the teaching. Awhile back we had the students walk around the property and find health and safety issues. As each issue was identified we also had them set up an action plan on how to correct it. They did well with issues they can address themselves like putting fish in empty bodies of water so no mosquitoes will grow. However, they have difficulty forming committees or addressing authorities. Because there are still no handrails on the steep outside steps to the newly constructed dorm, Bob was the perfect scapegoat and example. Here is a dramatic photo of the confrontation of Bob by Dr. Nilson in front of the class! It was all in good fun, of course. Bob made a call to the construction company and the rails should be up by the end of the week. We can only begin to understand what it is like in their country, but obviously they are not encouraged to address authorities with any requests like this.

This week Dr. Jim Buie and his wife Gayle are teaching the Barefoot Dr students. They have both taught Barefoot Drs in the past but not for a couple of years, so all these students are new to them. It has been great to have their experience and encouragement this week. Today we learned about WORMS! They are totally disgusting little parasites that can be a huge problem in the developing world. The Buies made good use of some gummy worm props to illustrate their points. Also quite tasty! Gayle told the students something to the effect of “The worms havealready eaten you, so you might as well eat them now!”

They also brought some useful gifts for the students including good old- fashioned thermometers. The students actually all received digital thermometers last year, but many of the batteries had already died and they have been unable to replace them. Even we could not find batteries for the student’s thermometers in our short search. It was cheaper and a better long-term solution just to get them the low-tech version.

The Buies have also been teaching and having the students practice taking vital signs. Jim has been showing them how to exam a patient and teaching on common diseases. Jim finished up with the abdominal exam on one of the students.

All the talk of worms and abdominal issues made Bjorn and I awfully hungry. So, when we got back to our hotel, we walked down the street and decided we would eat in one of the local dives on the side of the road. To our delight they had a special treat “100 yr old eggs!” Just the look of these black rotten eggs is enough to give you abdominal pain. Of course, we both had to try it (see the pictures below). Nether of us had ever had one before and actually they were not bad . . . . Not good but not bad. To top the experience off, it all took place across the street from the Thai “Office of Disease Prevention and Control.”

It was a good day!