hiatus in darwin

hello.... this is I from a lil internet cafe in Darwin...This has been exactly a week since I landed in Darwin on a special UN flight...I remember the surreal afternoon when the UN ambulance zipped through the pockmarked roads of Dili, with its siren wailing as it rocketed through the streets. I was clutching my stomach as every lurch caused a sharp pain to shoot up my gut... and then after an interminable 20minutes I finally got up to the plane which had its seats taken out so that I could lie down the whole way..

picture of me in the plane thanks to Armando who was with me until the plane took off.

They wouldn't let him come cos he's not UN personnel. He had to take the first commercial flight out the next morning to come to Darwin. Anyways, I had been experiencing severe stomach pains for a few days in Dili (on top of a lot of coughing) and finally consulted a second doctor from the Australian embassy last Tuesday about my condition. He thought that i had a case of appendicitis and quickly requested that I get medical help in Darwin. The UN doctors weren't sure but to err on the side of caution, they authorised the flight and i landed in the Royal Darwin Hospital's emergency room last Tuesday night at 8pm. I waited there - yes just like any other walk-in patient at the emergency room - and waited till almost 11pm before a doctor finally saw me. Then at midnight, a surgeon from the private hospital came and concluded that I don't have acute appendicitis but would need ultrasound and x-rays to find out what was wrong with me. That short visit by the surgeon - by the way - cost me AUS250!
So yeah, the next day I went for 2 ultrasounds and a chest x-ray. They saw nothing wrong with my insides and concluded that i have a condition called "mesenteric adenitis" defined as : "Inflammation of lymph glands located in the mesentery. It causes a clinical picture at times that is difficult to differentiate from acute appendicitis." An international SOS doctor told me that before the days of the ultrasound, many people who had M.A. would often go under the knife as doctors thought they had acute appendicitis. It was only when they were cut up that the doctors saw healthy appendices but swollen lymph glands in the mesentery. But since they were opened up already, doctors usually just removed the appendix anyways. So there... now i don't feel so bad for giving everyone a scare cos all the clinical symptoms were there ---- my stomach so sore when the doctors touched it and whenever i coughed, it was like a knife stabbing me ceaselessly. OUCH!
O i forgot to mention that when i was transferred to the Darwin Private Hospital, i stayed at the Jabiru maternity ward! haha it was rather ironic as there were times i did feel so much pain i thought i was in labour. And that very pretty room cost me AUS640 a night! Ouch! even more pain when i think about the bills i will receive soon.

And apparently a lot of UN staff have previously gone off without paying their hospital bills, thus the hospital's protocol is to charge you first BEFORE treating you. SO i had a AUS3500 bill to my credit card for an appendix surgery that i never received and 2 nights of very costly hospital stay. Eventually they will credit the money back....... eventually....
Anyways, not satisfied that it was just the M.A. causing me hell, the doctor ordered a battery of blood tests on me (PLUS a very horrible tube stuck up my nose to take out samples to test for viruses) to determine if i had any other deadly tropical diseases. So i had vials of blood sucked out of me... in fact, the first day they tried extracting blood from my veins but i was so weak that the vein only DRIPPED blood and the orderly had to wait a long while before she got what she wanted.
Because the tests would take a week to process, the doctor told me to stay at the hospital for observation and that's what i have been doing. I have been staying at a room at the ground floor of the Darwin Private Hospital, being real bored and wishing i could return to Dili soon.

Oh I must say I got to enjoy the perk of a shrunken high tech world as a result - I got this cute bear and a yummy fruit basket from sis - all the way from Washington D.C.

Oh well, tomorrow's D_DAY to hear the news from the doc. I hope that all's fine. Now i just have to worry about the mountain of bills waiting for me back home in Singapore. ARRGHHH.... it is too expensive to fall ill! STAY HEALTHY! i give thanks to God for all the times i have been healthy. It really does take a bout of serious illness for one to appreciate the blessings.
Oh, just because i was so bored, i decided to tabulate the number of people involved in my one 'acute appendicitis' case:
Doctors - 2 UN, 1 aussie, 1 emergency, 1 surgeon, 1 tropical disease specialist = 6
Nurses/ assistants - 2 UN, numerous aussie = 10
Bosses - 2 UNICEF bosses
Administrative - at least 3 UN, 1 SIF = 4
worried parents - 2
Worried partner - 1
Worried friends who knew about my illness - at least 6
Who else?
I'll add on when i can recall.
AS for the $$$$, sigh... i'm not even wanting to think about it. All I hope for now is that the medical insurers that SIF have put me on are generous enough to cover as much as possible. So my fingers and toes are crossed.
Ok, will update with pictures when I return to Dili which i hope will be SOON!

thirst to learn

can you imagine telling a cleaner at Parkway Parade or Scotts that one day he/she might become the principal secretary of a multinational company? Most people, especially the cleaner, will scoff at your suggestion and ask you to 'get real'! but guess what, today at lunch i heard an inspiring story of a girl who went from a cleaner in the UN medical clinic six years ago, to serving the UNICEF chief as principal secretary now.

G had just graduated from high school with minimal English when the post-referendum conflict broke out. She saw that the UN was hiring cleaners and promptly applied. At that time she was earning only 500,000 rupiahs or 50USD, which during that time was a substantial sum. She said that everyday while mopping the floors, she would observe the doctors and learn a few English words a day from them. Then, there was only one nurse and very soon, G was asked to help out in simple duties like dressing wounds and taking blood pressure levels. She said, "You know, i would come to work early to clean up the place and then sit at the desk to help out." Many people thought that she was a real nurse. When an Arabic doctor came, he saw the potential in her and asked her to help out with administration. The rest is history. G was our programme assistant for 3 years before being transferred to the Front Office as principal secretary.

It's people like G who gives much hope to Timor-Leste. Her thirst to learn is unquenchable and I have seen her bounce back from past mistakes very fast. She's always eager to know new things and accept corrections. Perhaps this was what our parents' generation was like - they felt a real urgency for change. How about us and our children? Are we getting too comfortable for our own good?

spacing out

This is the balcony view from the Carmelo retreat house, where i've just been for a residential training. The house sits on a hillslope, surrounded by the prettiest flowers and plants amongst which birds tweet sweetly all the time. There's a panoramic view of the ocean in front of us and a gentle sea breeze lifts the perspiration off us. In the still of the night, the sounds of crashing waves is carried uphill by the wind that has gotten stronger..If only I can sleep outdoors it would be most ideal -- cos indoors, the wind is unable to slip in and we sweat in our slumber. Apart from the heat, this is my dream house...where there's space to grow tomatoes, chillis, bananas, papayas,etc... a space to soak in the morning sunshine as the wind caresses your cheeks...a little refuge from the noise of the city an hour away...We Singaporeans - city rats - have never been privileged with space... Dare I dream of owning such a place? Well, one thing i have been reminded from the training is to DARE TO DREAM!

And here's a Custard Apple or Ai ata for you!

bakso kompletu

this is it -- so far the best Bakso you can find in Dili --- or at least the best to my taste - as well as for those i have recommended it to. Diana was the first to bring me there and i have been a fan since - bringing colleagues there and they - their families. Why is this bakso so special? Because for USD1.25, you get 2 wantons, 4 beefballs,and super yummy broth which must have been cooked from duck meat or something for hours...it's miles ahead compared to other bakso places which serve thin soup and uncooked noodles for USD1. This bakso malang place is located next to Plan International & behind Sao Paulo college for those interested. It also has strong ice teh manis & jus apucat (avocado!). and wait, the best thing about this place, it closes at ten pm!

all natural

See the hand in the picture? It belongs to a special person I am seeing right now. Yeah, now you know why I have been absent from my blog for so long... But no, seriously, i have been all over the place -- from a short unplanned trip to Singapore, to visits to the field, to a recent bout of cold, and of course, lots of cooking in the kitchen with this crazy cook.

The mush you see is humus painstakingly made from unprocessed chickpeas.We spent an afternoon soaking, boiling and shelling chickpeas, crushing them with pestle & mortar, before adding in crushed garlic, and then finally grinding the mix into a paste with my cup-juicer.
Cost --
Chick peas : USD0.95
Garlic : USD0.45
Water : Free
Effort : Priceless

It tasted super yummy with spaghetti and with cream cheese on toasted bread. But i think we added a tad too much garlic. The funniest thing was that after proudly completing the paste, we are asked by friends,"You mean, you didn't use processed chickpeas in a can?" So what takes others 15minutes to make, took us close to 4 hours. Haha. Oh well, time on a Sunday well spent.

The next trip to the supermarket, i went in search for the processed chickpeas.
Chickpeas in a can : USD1.25 ONLY!!! But hey, at least ours was all natural - without the sodium whatchamacallit, and colour retention chemicals.

TRY this only when you have time to kill.