The Small Things

It's amazing how the smallest things can make such a big difference. For example, in my life, not living out of a suitcase and finding the grocery store were huge accomplishments. For another fellow, it's moving from temporary housing to slightly-less-temporary housing. For another, it's making friends by singing karaoke of Celine Dion.

Anyway, here's a brief "day-in-the-life" post - not too interesting but several people have asked ;)

So traffic in Bangkok, as I've mentioned, is not great. (And, I've heard that it's going to get worse - right now is students' break and they start back up next week. I can hardly wait.) Luckily, getting to Nonthaburi is a reverse commute out of Bangkok. Once we get on the expressway, the traffic is mild and it can take less than 15 minutes to get to work. The tricky part is getting out of Bangkok. The shuttle, an embassy vehicle provided to CDC for TDYer's (oh another acronym), picks up the temporary CDC staff at their hotel. For the first week, it picked up me and two IEDA people from Centre Point, picked up some local staff from a central location, and headed off on the expressway. We were at work in 20 minutes. But, it becomes slightly more complicated when other TDYer's come and stay at other hotels. Anyhow, the shuttle picks up at the Caltex (a central gas station right near the BTS Skytrain and the expressway) any time between 7:35 and 8:15 (it was VERY late one day). Now that I have an apartment, I walk or take a bike to the BTS and take it to Caltex and hop on the shuttle. Commute time: Between 1/2 hour and 1-1/2 hours.

Usually I am the first one from my group to arrive at work. "My group" is the behavioral section of the Division of HIV/AIDS Prevention (DHAP). It is separate from the Global AIDS Program (GAP), mainly because of funding (a wonderful remnant of W's PEPFAR policy). So, I get to my office around 8am, open the curtains so I can watch the rain clouds coming, and turn my computer on. Thus far, work has not been entirely exciting. The first two weeks I spent reading about the projects going on (and writing down what all the acronyms stood for). Luckily, I also spent the first two weeks getting to know the rest of the team.

The team consists of Frits (my mentor), P'Aoy (the second in command), Took, and Oy. There are also several other people who work at the clinic (more on that later). P'Aoy is extremely nice, looks after me, makes sure I have weekend plans, helped me find housing, and is just motherly and guiding. Her office is right next to mine. Took, the only other male on the team besides Frits, is fun-loving and, I think, the fashionable one of the office. He is also very patient in answering my many questions, helping me order lunch (making sure it's "for a child," aka not spicy), and teaching me Thai words. Oy, the qualitative specialist of the group, is the traveler of the group, and she has already told me she'll help negotiate good prices for me when I travel and give me good recommendations. She's also extremely welcoming and makes sure I am up-to-date on conversations held mainly in Thai. They are a great group of people to work with and I look forward to learning a lot from them.

So then I leave work around 4:30pm - and hope it hasn't rained recently or is a Friday, because then traffic will be worse. Usually I get back any time between 5:30 and 6:30. I have to make dinner plans before I get home or else I tend to crash on my couch. Food is pretty easy to come by, so even if I am too lazy to go someplace, there are several places around the corner from my apartment that have food. By 10pm I'm ready for bed.

That's my typical day.

Next post, the work I'm doing.