When I sit down to write a blog entry, I usually sit and ponder which story or incident I should provide commentary on. However, today, I have a story. It's so peculiar and random, I hope I can put it to words somewhat coherently.
So it was just another usual Monday morning at the office. Since I now have internet at home, I don't feel so inclined to glue myself to the computer at the office. Despite my best efforts, I still ended up online all morning because let's face it, there really isn't anything for me to do there.
I had this great plan for the afternoon to go to one of the medical centers and talk with the head nurse about HIV/AIDS. I really want to get involved with the PHA group (People Having AIDS) in my community. Peace Corps even provided this nifty little interview in Thai and English. Last time I went to the medical center the nurse was on vacation and I ended up on this ridiculous bike ride around the outskirts of my village with another nurse where I ended up visiting a rice mill. Random, indeed, yet informative.
So today, I'm all set to talk with the nurse about HIV/AIDS. Deep down, I knew something else would come up. I arrive at the medical center and immediately they ask if I want to go visit a house in my village. I say sure, why not right? So the same lady who took me on the bike ride takes me down this random road and there are 2 official vans from the hospital. She tells me to follow them, she's not going with. So of course I blindly chase these 2 medical vans through my village. As I was speeding after them I actually said out loud to myself "what am I doing???"
We finally stop and all these doctors and nurses pile out. They all give me thumbs up for being such a speedy bike rider. They must not have noticed me dripping in sweat and panting. What's funny is that none of these people thought it was odd that some foreigner followed and joined them on her bike. We go to this house and talk with this old lady for awhile. I soon realize they are doing house call. This one man spoke a little English and explained that there is a dangerous mentally unstable man living there. Fabulous. So we trek behind this house, through mud, bushes, and trees to this shack with no walls, just a roof. There is a nearly naked man sitting there literally chained to a pole. Apparently he's crazy and dangerous so they chained him out there. About 7 of us stood there and stared at him. Aside from the massive chains around his ankles, he looked normal. They asked if he showers and eats okay. He said yes. As this was happening, it was one of those surreal moments where I couldn't quite grasp that this is what I was actually doing with my Monday afternoon. I was literally standing in a wooded area staring at a naked crazy man chained to a pole. Then we left. We all said goodbye and the doctors piled back into the van and they drove off. I stood there for a moment to just let it all sink in.
I went back to the medical center and acted as though that was a perfectly normal field trip. It turned into a lovely afternoon actually. I sat and chatted with the nurse about lots of things. She's a really funny lady and seems excited to work with me. She made a few calls so apparently I'm taking a tour of the hospital in the main town tomorrow and if I'm lucky meeting with the organizer of the HIV/AIDS group. We'll see if that actually happens. Hopefully I will finally get some more information on this. I just took a minor detour today... so weird.
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