Jakarta

I just got back from an overseas assignment in Jakarta.

It was a really rushed trip - flew in on Monday evening, the next day was packed with conferences and media launches, and back to Singapore on Tuesday evening.

The assignment was on Paediatric Pallative Care - or caring for a terminally ill child.

I met with many medical professionals on the trip, some of whom are extremely established in their career. Others had incredible experiences providing medical expertise in war-torn countries like Bosnia and Sri Lanka.

But the one person that left the deepest impact on me was a nurse who works in a hospice in Singapore.

She was anxious, yet brimming with excitement at her first overseas trip without her husband and four children.

I talked to her about the work she does at the hospice.

When a person is dying, it's not merely about giving lots of medication to ease the pain, she said.

Rather, it's about providing the dying person with the best quality of life he or she could hope for in their remaining days.

While other practitioners talked about infrastructures and medical training that was required, this nurse told me of:

• a patient whose only request was to have a taste of this traditional malay dish that one could hardly find in Singapore anymore; the nurse went back home, got the recipe from her mother, went out, bought the ingrediants and cooked the dish. The patient took a few spoons of it and thanked her. A few hours later she passed on peacefully.
  
  
• a patient who would die in a few hours, but was longing to see her son who was working overseas; the nurse rushed to set up a video call for them so that she could see and talk to her son for the last time.
  
  
• a patient whose only wish was to be at her daughter's 21st birthday celebration, despite the fact that she barely had a few weeks to live, and that her daughter was now just nine years old. The nurse bought 12 birthday cards, one for each year the daughter had to go before she turned 21. She gave them to the mother and told that to write a letter for the daughter in every card, and the nurse promised to give one card to the daughter every year on her birthday, till she turned 21.

It's people like this nurse who really make me feel in awe at one human's capacity to give to another.

It's not about the advances in technology, nor the complexity of medicine.

But it's about the human touch that a person can bring to another's life.

If all our nurses were like her, I'd say that our health sector is truly world class.

I noticed something at the local hospital.

It was pouring heavily when we were about to leave.

There was a bunch of about 6 or 7 kids at the entrance of the hospital, carrying umbrellas, bare feet, and drenched from head to toe.

They looked about 11 or 12 years old, max.

They were sheltering people from the hospital to their cars, and they held the umbrellas for these people while they themselves got completely soaked in the rain.

All they asked in return was 1,000 Rupiah.

1,000 Rupiah = S$0.14

Makes me feel sad just thinking about it

So even though the trip was short, it was a good experience.

I'm thankful for the people I got to know and for the great company of the host organisation and the other journalist I met.

Here we are! =)

Jogging Seems Easier Now

I've been jogging these past few weeks.

Typically I'd start around 8 or so in the evening, when the weather's nice and cool, jog for about half an hour, then head back to cook a yummy dinner.

I remember how I hated doing my 2.4km runs in Secondary school and JC. It was always THE item in the NAPFA tests that I dreaded the most.

2.4 km = 6 rounds around the track, which never seemed to end.

So much to my surprise, I found out that my current favourite jogging route is just about that same distance!

This pretty cool tool on google helps map out distances - which is particularly useful for joggers.

It can be found at http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/

Such a great motivation to go jogging!

Only thing is, I made a slight detour tonight, which led me past Chomps... ahh the wonderful wafts of oh lua and fried hokkien mee! =)

My first post is about the Night Safari!

I'd been wanting to go to the Night Safari for the longest time and so we finally did!

It wasn't the best weather, bit humid, but it was an awesome night.

We had dinner at the Bongo Burger place, which was pretty reasonable for the food, but drinks cost 4 bucks for a can of soft drinks - a definite no-no for me.

The beef burgers were good, according to Ewan, but I was hungry and needed the carbs so I had the Chicken Sausage Pasta.

Not bad.

Definitely made me plan to cook this soon - quality sausages with tomato-based Fusilli, don't think I can go wrong with that!

One of the highlights of the night was definitely the enclosures with the flying squirrels and the bats.

One GIGANTIC flying squirrel flew so close to my boyfriend's head, my heart almost stopped.

And the bat enclosure - gosh, I know they have these super powered sonars, so I think they come close to us 'cos they know we'd cringe.

Was so much fun to almost faint and then laugh at ourselves.

I also really liked the tram ride.

Passing the Giraffes made me wonder what God was thinking when he made them.

They look so magestic, yet gawky, God must really have a sense of humour!

And I rode a zebra!

One made out of fibre glass that is.

It was so funny, I thought it'd be so cool to ride on it, I didn't notice this little boy running towards it at the same time.

So of course taller me got to it first, much to his dismay, and I didn't see, but Ewan said that he made a bratty face at me.

Hah.

Kids have to learn patience!

We also took photos with a sisterly pair of Boa Constrictors.

We found out that they get fed a rat only once a week - cos they take a few days to digest it.

And for some reason, the snakes felt incredibly clean even though the trainer said they don't get cleaned.

It's always fun to be a tourist in your own country.

Thanks dear for spending such a wonderful evening with me! =)