A
Return back Home
U
Sanda picked us up at the airport and we enjoyed a brief respite at his place.
The temperature outside is a sweltering 38 degrees celsius. Dr Daw Mya Thein
soon arrived together with her daughter Thuzar and we devised our reconnaissance
programme and objectives. We would visit the Medicins Sans Frontieres (MSF) Head
of Mission in Myanmar and the University of Yangon Institute of Medicine
tomorrow before departing for Bilin the next day. We would spend one night at
Bilin and another at Hpa-an in Kayin State where we can visit U Sanda’s
traditional medicine hospital, the model which is used to construct the Bilin
medical center. Our return flight to Singapore is scheduled to be at 8 p.m. next
Monday. Things are finally taking shape and I can finally heave a sense of
relief!
It
only seems like yesterday we were at the Mahasantisukha, little else had changed
– the surroundings, the rooms and the familiar faces who are so eager and
delighted to meet us again as if we are long-lost relatives. The Burmese are a
warm and genial people, their hospitality goes beyond simple greetings and
external gestures, their genuine warmth and sincerity extends deep down into
your heart which make you feel part of them and home is never quite far away. In
a materialistic society like Singapore where human relationships are always
fraught with mutual distrust, suspicion, and hidden motives, such frankness and
openness have returned a long-lost innocence back to my conscience again. That
is why I love Myanmar and its people. It is a refuge for a part of me which
never dares to expose itself in the place where I live. I will return to Myanmar
again and again and I promise myself to do whatever I can within my limits to
help the people here.
Thuzar once worked
with the United Nations Development Program in the town of Monyway in central
Myanmar. She recounted to us her experience of working with the local community
to provide proper sanitation and sewerage systems to the outlying villages,
teaching health education to the villagers and providing basic medical care to
the mothers and children. She worked there for 8 months before returning home
because of an irresolvable stomach flu. She said she enjoyed her stint with the
UNDP though there were some conflicts between the foreign aid workers and the
locals from time to time. Talking about conflicts, I guess they are inevitable
when you have to work with different people and organizations because each has
their own agenda and seldom do they give way to one another in order to achieve
their objectives. I know exactly and clearly my motivations for doing this
project – first to help the people of Bilin who are deprived of essential
medical care and services as much as I could, second, to learn more about
primary healthcare and health sector development and lastly, to use it as a
platform to form a humanitarian organization in the future which is dedicated
solely to serving the healthcare needs of people who are left out of the
healthcare system because of poverty, inaccessibility or deprivation regardless
of nationality, race or religion. It is not an ego-trip, a venture to make a
name for myself or do I hope to gain anything from it. This is precisely why I
study medicine for, first, to serve humanity, second, to serve my patients. It
is my life, my ideals, my work and everything, the only pursuit I felt worth
living and dying for. Unfortunately, there will always be people around who have
less than pure motives for wanting to work with us. There are some who talked a
lot but do nothing while others are here to pay lip service to their duties in
the hope of adding a bonus to their testimonials. I insisted on working only
with friends who share the same ideals and purpose as me and no matter how
difficult it may be or what others may say, I am determined to continue the work
done thusfar on my own till I reached the end of the road. My deeds speak for
themselves. There is nothing more I need to say or explain.
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