When Matt asked me if I was interested in doing occupational and environmental medicine for a month in Brunei, my first thought was “Where’s Brunei?” I had heard of the Sultan of Brunei and imagined it was located in the Middle East. Not true, it turns out. Brunei Darussalam (the official name) is located in Southeast Asia on the north side of the island of Borneo. Borneo was famous for its headhunters—I’m assured that practice has ended. Here’s a link to their tourism website—very detailed:
So, today (2/26/10)—after a fair amount of preparation—I’m on a flight from Seattle to Tokyo, then to Singapore for a night and finally Brunei on March 1. Darren, my sweetie, took me to the airport this morning in the Seattle rain (Thanks Darren☺). Ahh, two and half days of nothing but writing, watching movies, eating snacks and napping. I’m making the most of 25 hours in flight.
Brunei is a progressive, developed country with a national healthcare system—which includes an occupational and environmental medicine division. The coutry’s population is about 400,000 and the clinics where I’ll be working serve the country’s entire working population. Brunei’s Ministry of Health has a detailed website about its clinical and public health services:
http://www.moh.gov.bn/medhealthservices/environmentservices.htm
Dr. Balalla has graciously created a clinical/educational schedule for me based on my goals and objectives for the rotation. Looks like I’ll have plenty to do. When I get to Brunei I’ll be staying at the SEAMEO VOTECH International House. Another link:
http://www.voctech.org.bn/vih/vih.htm
That’s it for now. The next entry will be sure to have some photos!
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