Thai'ing Up the Week

Hi everyone! Maleeha and Kayla here, we’ve officially finished our first week in Thailand! This morning we had our fourth Thai language lesson and as we spend more time learning the language we’re slowly starting to get the hang of how to communicate at markets and restaurants. We haven’t learned how to read the thai alphabet, so we’re working on the sounds of the words. We’ve been working on fruits, foods, drinks and different flavors. Being able to pronounce the words helps the marketplace vendors understand what we’re asking. We only have one lesson left and we’re excited to converse with more people as the month goes on.

After lunch we took vans to the northern part of Chiang Mai to visit the Sanpatong Hospital. Earlier in the week, Dr. Nisit introduced the Thailand healthcare system to us. He told us how the system is divided among regions, districts, and villages. Today we got to see one of the twenty-five district hospitals in Chiang Mai, the Sanpatong Hospital. We had a presentation briefing us about the size of the hospital and the services they provide. This hospital is responsible for roughly 75,000 people in the district, but 132 beds, 1 surgeon, and around 10 physicians stretches their resources. The tuberculosis (TB) clinic is a huge focus given that a large portion of the community is affected by TB but are not getting treatment. The doctors have done many studies over the years on the rates of TB, as well as HIV. We were given the opportunity to tour the hospital and observe how different it is from the U.S. hospitals. 

For dinner we went to the go-to place for Kao Soy, Kao Soy Nimman. This is a classic northern Thai noodle dish, made with egg noodles and a coconut curry soup base. We each chose how many proteins to add to our soup, options include squid, shrimp, sausage, vegetables, chicken or pork. While it was a little spicier than most of us are used to, all the bowls of soup were empty and tummies were full. Dr. M ordered spring rolls and chicken satay for the table, and many of us had our second round of color changing Butterfly Pea water. 

Up next is the Lanna Culture Museum and Muay Thai boxing! Sunday we have our first Thai massages and the walking street. The first week went by really quick! We have so much more to do in the next three weeks but we’re excited to be here and explore! 

Until next time!

Maleeha and Kayla