Community Medicine and Public Health Posting

That was the posting that was just over for me, and other 21 group members. This is the longest posting in Year 4, and it's my first as well of Year 4. When this posting ended, it was also the last of my trips to the town of Sibu. I am never going back there again. And this fact actually made me feel some "heaviness" in my heart. You know, you've been here for the past 2 years 2 months plus, and now you're gonna leave it. For good.

I actually loathed this town, in case you didn't know that. "Loath" is something like "dislike", if it is not as bad as "hate". Actually, I don't know if loath is the synonym of dislike or hate, or neither. I loath the road conditions. The land in Sibu is forever sinking. Thus, road conditions are really bad. Lumps and bumps on the road lol. Even patching of pot holes were distorting the road surface. Roads would go up and down. There would be major upgradings of roads, to increase its height, only to sink back to its original state in just less than a year! How fast was that?? Such poor bumpy roads would hurt most cars, so owning a 4WD here would be good. Sometimes it does gets stressful to drive in Sibu...

Food's good and cheap at some places. Though, after eating for more than 2 years, I started to feel "bored" with the food. Luckily I'm already leaving the place. And example of food I like there is the kampua noodle at Gold Hock, just behind the Shell station near the hospital. As you can see from the photo, this is actually my own custom ordered kampua. There will not be any vegetable in a kampua noodle dish, and it is usually served without the black sauce (white).

Not far off from Sibu, along the Sibu-Bintulu road, is the Jade Dragon Temple. I've forgotten the Chinese name, but I guess you could see it from this photo.

It's said to be the largest temple complex in South East Asia... well, I don't know about that, but it's definitely a huge place. And it's beautiful too.

For the previous 2 years, I came to Sibu as Year 3 students are attached to the Sibu General Hospital here. Many universities seem to be fighting to get a hold of this hospital. While in Year 4, we had to conduct a research for this posting, as well as being attached to the Klinik Kesihatan (government clinics). For our research, our study area was Sekuau, an Iban village (majority, as there are other races, including Chinese!)

These links are to the photo albums in regards to our research, which is in my facebook account.

http://www.facebook.com/?ref=home#!/album.php?aid=176547&id=682678665

http://www.facebook.com/?ref=home#!/album.php?aid=177463&id=682678665

Many things happened during the posting. Many problems. Problems with ethics, problems among students. Some just wanna have fun, enjoy, not interested in helping other students (who are their own colleagues) and just want to pass the exam. They just don't care much about the research. Take for example this guy. He is fluent in the Iban language, unlike the majority of us. Still, during our survey, he would not even bother to help the others to communicate with the Ibans. After he has done his part, he would go sit with his 2 sidekicks and chat away to wherever. There are many more bad apples in the basket, but let's not talk too much about it. All in all, we pulled through this posting, and ended with a good ending, so to speak.

Visiting these longhouses, has exposed me to alcoholic drinks, namely tuak and whisky. Almost everytimei visit a longhouse, a shot of tuak would be right in front of me. As a sign of hospitality and not wanting to disappoint them, I had to officially take alcoholic drinks. Yup, you don't believe it? Before this, the most I had was shandy. I skipped beer, and went up to whisky level. Whisky was a Chivas Regal, 14 years old, 43% alcoholic content. Burned not just my throat and stomach, but wasabi effect up to my nose as well. Took me by surprise, but had to finish it. Honestly, my ego led me to drink the whisky. I initially declined at first, but when some of them got flushing all over their body and felt dizzy, I kinda wanna show them that I can drink it without going down like them...

Also, for the first time, I ate cucumber plant... yes, not the cucumber, but the plant! @_@ well, I didn't know at first, so I took heaps of it, thinking it was something like spinach. But then, it was hairy (imagine giant spider legs in your mouth), and difficult to chew. And bitter. Other than that, I had the chance to try some Iban cooking. It was OK. I'm neutral about it. Oh, and the dancing part. Learn to do poco-poco, the Iban's dance style.

I stayed overnight at the longhouse for a night. Then early morning, woke up to catch the sunrise at the valley. But I was kinda late for it, though not that late. Still managed to snap some shots =) you'll find them in my fb photo album. Not that easy to take those shots, as there're plenty of dogs around... Perhap attracted to my bread which I took to eat while watching the sunrise. How did I avoid the dogs? I ate in my car =)

During our stay in Sibu, we also went to a ceramic factory, the water board, food premises, and the sanitary landfill.

Photos from ceramic factory: http://www.facebook.com/?ref=home#!/album.php?aid=176727&id=682678665

Sanitary Landfill: http://www.facebook.com/?ref=home#!/album.php?aid=177467&id=682678665

王力宏- 落葉歸根