I finally had some luck with the State document (passports, visas, and the like) process in NY. My Thai visa actually took only as long as it was supposed to! So, after a couple of days sightseeing in the City, it was off to Bangkok via Paris on April 3rd. After two more sleepless nights on two planes (I wish I could sleep on planes!), arrived Bangkok (BKK for those in the MSF-know) on the afternoon of the 5th.
Monday morning started my briefings in BKK and then a flight in the afternoon to my new home in Petchabun (PCB) Province (about 5 ½ hours drive north of BKK). Our camp and house are actually about 2 hours drive north of the province’s main city (also called Petchabun or Phetchabun). Our living house is in a small village along a highway (call it the New Jersey of Thailand) called Huai Phi and the actual camp (near Huai Nam Khao village) is another 45 minute drive west and north far off the highway, past two Hmong Thai villages and two military checkpoints – nice view though…We tend to differentiate between the ethnic Hmong people who live in Thailand (Hmong Thai), the ones who continue to live in Laos (Hmong Lao) and the refugees in the camp (a little less than 5000 now – down from over 8000 last year) that are from Laos and, at the moment, have no legal standing in Thailand but, for various reasons, do not want to return to Laos (Hmong Refugees). The problem is that part about ‘various reasons’. Some, but not all, of the refugees have legitimate claims to be legally considered ‘refugees’ under International Law and some do not. Go to your local library or on-line and look for info on humanitarian law and the Geneva Conventions if you are interested in knowing more about refugees, universal rights, etc.
Some people have expressed interest in knowing what it is that I do exactly (apparently they can see me pretending to work (just like at home) even from ½-way around the world – amazing!). So, here is a list of my basic duties – I don’t actually do any of these things; I just ‘manage’ them. On the admin-side: manage and control cash flows, budgeting, approve and control expenditures, request bank transfers from BKK, do monthly reporting, payroll for national staff and daily workers, hire/fire as needed, HR paperwork, misc. HR (currently a staff of 5 ex-patriots, 48 nationals, 2 regular daily workers, and a pool of other daily workers we use for garbage collection, distributions, and unloading of deliveries), and keep track of Mint, my assistant/translator/cultural attaché who really does most of this work. On the logistic-side of things: manage movement and maintenance of our 4 vehicles (two ancient Toyota pick-ups, a newer pick-up with a shell and seats for transporting patients, and a lovely mini-van which makes me think, again, that maybe we are in the Jersey of Thailand ‘burbs); manage and maintain the office at the camp and the ex-pat house we live in; purchase, order, receive, and track items for both distributions and running of camp operations and the house; supervise teams working on security (24/7/365 with two watchmen per shift); sanitation (garbage collection, latrine pumping, and vector control – mosquitoes and rats mostly); water supply (8 km of 4” pipe from water source to a set of holding tanks where it is chlorinated, and, finally, to about 22 distributions points throughout the camp); and distribution of food and non-food items to the refugees every week on a 4-week rotating basis (right now we are at about 23,000 and 24,000kg of rice and charcoal, respectively, every other week and, among other things, 4200ltr of cooking oil, 6600kg of dried greenbeans, and 3700 bars of soap monthly). Of course, I don’t actually do any of this myself – I watch other people do it, ask stupid questions of my 3 supervisors (Yona, Krissana, and Paitoon) and assistant (Mint), and sign a bunch of shit that is all written in Thai and could be a translation of the Dead Sea Scrolls on pre-printed receipts for all I know….
I started making notes about my days to facilitate my memory at the end of the month when I have to write summaries about all the things I’ve managed to do or not do. Here is an annotated/abbreviated version to give you an idea of how the first month went (euro dates ‘cause that is how we roll at MSF):
05/04/09 – arrive Bangkok
06/04/09 – orientation with Bangkok staff, fly to PSL (Phitsanluok) in evening and arrive at MSF house around 11pm
07-10/04/09 – hand-off with Dorn (old Log/Admin). Take over on Friday afternoon
11/04/09 – public water at house stops flowing
13/04/09 – holiday but go to camp with Helene (our nurse). Find out about broken?? (water supply) pipe from evening before, and it is fixed by afternoon. Later hear that it was a valve that got turned off – by military or local villagers??? Patient pickup in PCB so Kit (driver) goes leaving no ED (emergency driver). 28 (newer of the trucks) breaks down and Paitoon goes to retrieve him, 28, and patients. 28 makes it back to HP (our village by the highway). 28 needs timing belt.
14/04/09 – 28 is fixed. Hang out with Paitoon, Yona, and Yawahdee (one of the local staff). Inet stops working. Water flows for a little while but quits again.
15/04/09 – Still no Inet or water. At least we have reserve water tanks.
16/04/09 – water problem at camp has been on-going with < 1hr water/day. Leak being really fixed today. Military has locked both gates and is making everyone go through main gate – had meeting with a Army Captain, but he will only talk to his boss the Colonel later in the week. Garbage truck broken – timing belt?
17/04/09 – working on water problem and Inet problem at house. Military agreed to open gate for food dist(ribution). Water returns to house!
18/04/09 – 28 has broken alternator, getting fixed today. Internet fixed finally!
19/04/09 – quiet almost all day, Internet not working again
20/04/09 – finally did garbage (collection). Water and Internet not working at house.
21/04/09 – meeting with log staff at 8:30am. Rented car for day because had trips to SKT (Sukothai) and PCB. All else quiet. Internet working but water not working at house.
22/04/09 – shopping trip w/ Krissana. Going to bank. Water and Inet at house fixed. Long discussion re: future of camp. Tentative agreement to make decision on 23/04/09 in evening after discussions with w/ Thai Colonel on 23rd. Big to-do at the camp as the military (allegedly) tried to arrest someone in the camp during counting (regular census by the military of the camp population). Everyone scared to come out of main gate.
23/04/09 – no volunteers willing to come out main gate to help with unloading of charcoal. Met w/ Col. in morning with my boss; he refused to open Log(our) gate to allow volunteers to help. My boss gave them until noon to open the gate or we would wrap up operations immediately. (No response from military that day, but we are still not fixed for a closing date – rm 7/5/09)
30/04/09. Another big (expat) meeting tonite for sure. 15 daily workers for ½ day of work to unload charcoal.
24/04/09 – Gate open and busy in OPD once gate opened at 10:30 for distribution.
26/04/09 – four refugees jumped the fence and threatened to kill selves in OPD. (Staff) Decided not to go (to camp) because it would encourage them and we should be doing less not more. Olivier and Felix (our doctor and admin bosses from BKK) arrive for a couple of days of meetings.
27/04/09 – Garbage truck brakes broken – fixing today; will do garbage tomorrow. No decision on what to do about ‘protesters’ in OPD. Protesters can stay – Alex (our ‘head’ doctor) got them to agree not to hurt themselves, to eat, and get under the roof. Water and Inet fixed at house – must be capital staff is good luck.
28/04/09 – Garbage today, big delivery (so) hire 30 workers for ½ day to unload since camp volunteers refuse to come. No patients showed for transfer to PCB this morning…
29/04/09 – No patients showed because the med team decided to cancel all non-emergency hospital runs – thanks for the info!! Internet still broken – changed out filters, phone cord and seems to be ok. Water stopped at nite again. Inventory of downstairs except Cholera stuff. Medical computer died – spent most of day off and on trying to recover data. Finally succeeded with borrowed Japanese Windows 2000 CD, translation from Yumiko (our regular doc), and a ‘borrowed’ CD key from the Internet! Big excitement at camp as unannounced visitors with military showed up with armed escort – no one knows who they were (they looked Thai). (Never did find out who they were – rm 7/5/09)
30/04/09 – Delivery and food distribution. Army Colonel has notified us that we can no longer use refugees as daily workers for garbage collection either.
01/05 – Angela (our illustrious leader at the camp) meeting in PCB needs driver – paid double-time for holiday
02/05 – patient that transferred from KK (Khao Kao – closest hospital) to PCB unknowingly is in coma and family requests return to camp for death. We send car to PCB to pickup with medic. 1½X pay for weekend work
03/05 – all is quiet at camp. Return from Sukhotai to find no water – but I’net is still working!!
04/05 – all pretty quiet at camp. Request for coffin – will get in Lomsak tomorrow.
05/05 – finishing inventories at the house.
06/05 – had meetings w/ Paitoon,Yona,Krissana about continuing issues with staff. They will now have meetings with their staff. Paitoon is working on a schedule for maintenance of vehicles and will now be responsible for reporting this to me. Maybe we will go to the water source this afternoon as there is not much to be done at the camp. I will type up a memo of understanding to have all the log staff sign during their meetings with their managers. Water source nice spot – 25 minutes easy 4-wheel drive road then 25 minutes hiking through the woods.
07/05 – Gilles (the big MSF queso for all of Thailand) meeting with M of FA (Minister of Foreign Affairs) today – hopefully we will have a set date after this. It is 9:30am, and I am out of things to do…good thing I brought a book with me! (and I wrote this scintillating blog post!! – rm 7/5/09)
Alas, this life of leisure is not meant to last (as you’ve noticed if you actually took the time to read my ‘diary’). Like my last posting (I see a trend developing here), I will soon be out of a job as MSF has decided to close this project earlier than planned. We are still waiting on a final date but are pretty sure we will finish operations here within the month – the timing mostly depends on if, who, and how soon someone else will take over the operations listed above and the medical operations which all my activities support (they had been averaging about 150 consultations/day and 10-15 births/month prior to some issues with gate closures in April) with daily transfers to the 3 hospitals in the area for serious problems. We had been joking in Columbia before I left about how this project would probably close early too, and I would become like the Grim Reaper of MSF Projects – if you see me show up to your project, you can be confident that you will be going home soon (or to start looking for another job if you are national staff)! Now I’m starting to think that my compatriots in Columbia knew something I didn’t! Anyway, good or bad, I am in SE Asia now and will take 5 or 6 weeks to look around after the project is finished before being broke (again) and heading back to the land of rich white people surrounded by majestic mountains to couch surf (again), look for a job (again), and enjoy another Colorado summer – see you there!
Here are some pics from the camp and around at: http://www.kodakgallery.com/ShareLanding.action?c=56h73xft.2o9rbr0p&x=0&y=-1mz3nz&localeid=en_US
Coming attractions: next time don’t miss my first vacationing in Thailand (why wait ‘till you are out of a job?) – the ancient city of Sukothai! Until then ‘sa-wat-dee krap’ – or goodbye (or hello)! Sukothai pics at: http://www.kodakgallery.com/ShareLanding.action?c=56h73xft.3m1d02yp&x=0&y=ihv31k&localeid=en_US
Sorry there are not more pics but a) I don’t take many and b) our Inet connection is not that stunning so getting even a couple dozen pics up takes like an hour – and we all know how patient I am when it comes to technology…
More time to kill while waiting for my handlers to review above so….
Additional private log entry (just for my blog readers – don’t thank me yet!):
09/05 – Rode one of our POS bikes (sized for a short Thai woman) to a nearby waterfall last weekend. As in the US, it looked a lot shorter on the map….(between my poor physical state and the ‘bike’ it was a long day). But that is not why I mention it: just as I arrived it started thundering and raining so all the day-trippers from nearby Petchabun town started packing up and leaving. After about 15 minutes it was only me and a couple of park workers (male) picking up garbage and corralling innertubes before heading back to the parking lot themselves. It was at this point they said hi and complimented me on my hairy chest (they themselves, like many Asians, had no body hair, that I could see, whatsoever). I thought they were just interested because we were different. It was at this point they asked me if I would like to ‘fuck’ (and I’m pretty sure they had an accurate translation worked out)! They are not shy, and I cannot tell you how relieved I am that gay men find me attractive the world over…I knew I should have been gay!
12/05 - Last night, after reaching no conclusion with the rest of the team on a specific closing date – again, I had some weird dreams, conincidence? The main one I remember is fighting a wildfire amidst a bunch of geothermal features while running away from really angry elephants who were trying to trample me, Catherine MacLane, and Darby – maybe I am emotionally scarred from the waterfall incident…
PPS: As I waited (still) for this post to be ‘cleared’ by my illustrious leader, a week has gone by and I have just been adding to it. As of yesterday (15/5/09) we still have no finish date and now it looks like we will be here for at least a few more weeks waiting for another agency to take-over.
Good nite and good luck,
rick
