pus-filled week

From the very commencement the student should set out to witness the progress and effects of sickness and ought to persevere in the daily observation of disease during the whole period of his studies.  - Robert James Graves 

Current location: Doctor's Quarters, RIPAS Hospital
Total distance traveled: 8,923km


I didn't know who Robert James was, and certainly didn't know he was the Mr Graves (the surgeon) who had lent his name to the eponymous Grave's disease. What I did learn is that, in paediatrics, it is almost impossible to just observe disease. At a certain point, you have to share it. 

Catching a bug was almost a rite of passage given the feely-cuddly nature of the specialty, and the fact that kids leave traces of themselves and their germs everywhere. Try as we might, the lack of soap and hand towels in my department pretty much makes handwashing an exercise in futility, even in the infectious diseases ward. Oh the horror!

Aside from the lack of ID control, the rest of the paediatrics rotation has also been an interesting one. Being the only one doing it in my particular clinical school in term pretty much gives me full reign of 3 wards. The interns have been especially helpful in figuring out the system here in Brunei. Expectations are a great deal higher here, given that most local students are creme de la creme of the local school system, and the gentle "Western" putdown isn't generally what's used in response to a perception of ignorance or lack of initiative. Beware the over-eager but underprepared (cue my entrance here).

After hours in Brunei is a challenge for me. The food has fallen short of my expectations in terms of accessibility. I have neglected to arrange for a IDP, which doesn't help in a place with little footpath coverage but dominated by 4x4s with drivers barely visible over their dashboards. The only other UQ student here, a 3rd year Miri resident, has offered lifts to shops and so on. But, thinking the exercise would be good to offset any dietary sins (and perhaps wishfully hoping that I'd start a revolution here), I had decided to rely exclusively on my legs, public buses and water transportation. The biggest risk with walking is that I'm constantly in danger of spraining my scalenes and SCM from all the head turning I do looking out for traffic coming behind me. Buses are a flat $1 each trip regardless of distance, which, in a place with zero income taxes, is a pretty good deal. I plan to give the water taxis a go this weekend.

Most of the time, despite the significantly lower CoL here, I feel as though I'm getting milked for cash. My impression overall is that, as a Bruneian, if you can live with some of the compromises to your personal liberty (which should be pretty obvious, but I'd struggle to say they are non-negotiable sacrifices), you will have a pretty decent living.  There's very little in terms of commercial competition, a very stable government, and judging from the display of cars and homes in the area, a fair amount of wealth in the community. 

Most of the younger set - meaning my generation - are uniformally well-educated and career-driven. Many have live-in domestiques. Most parents I've seen in clinics or the wards are in their early 20s to mid 30s. There is the occasional G7P7 40-something looking lady with the premie, but I can still count them with one hand after my 2nd week here. Twins such a common phenomenon here, and anecdotally it seems to be a maternal-line trend. Kids are all quite pleasant and well-behaved in a clinical setting, which would probably be a huge culture shock for me when I get back. I live in fear of ineffectual parenting...