It may be easier to think in terms of brief interludes of wellness
I have a cold again, which is really not so bad in this case, as the fatigue takes the edge off the insomnia of hyperthyroidism.
There's quite a bit of illness making the rounds of the office. A local staff member was complaining of a headache today, so I shared with him some of the Advil I get shipped in from the U.S. and always carry around with me. There's no Advil here -- for reasons I've never been able to fathom, ibuprofen cannot be found east of the Urals; all of Asia insists on using the vastly inferior paracetamol.
Insight comes in the smallest moments here. As I handed him the bottle and watched him struggle futilely to open it, I realized he'd never seen a child-safety cap before. And when I showed him how it worked, I realized he'd never thought about the need for such a thing, or imagined it might exist. There was a look of astonishment and revelation on his face, such as might come with peaceful first contact with extraplanetary visitors, which, I'd like to think, accompanied the thought, "O, what a civilization! And what other benevolent undreamt-of inventions might it harbor?"
How do I know I'm not just projecting unreconstructed post-colonialist fantasies (as I'm wont to do)? Because I've now been here long enough without break to have absorbed some of the Weltanschauung, and had exactly the same thought (and, K tells me, facial expression) upon reading in my guidebook that the Berlin city government blankets the metropolis with free highspeed wireless internet.
But seriously...I'm left yet again to ponder whether the startling life-is-cheapism of Asia (even in nice places like Thailand) is so jarring because we overprotect, or, well, because it should be so jarring.
I remember once at the Chiang Mai zoo, I walked down a hill that was terraced with aquaria. The tanks were all open on top, and there were benches cut into the hillside immediately above them, so you could peer down into the water. It was a warm summer day, and, as I rested on the bench, I was desperately tempted to slip off my sandals and let my feet dangle in the incredibly inviting water just below. But the tanks weren't that big, and it seemed an un-ecominded thing to do, so I decided to walk down to the base of the aquarium and read the signage first, just to make sure this particular tank didn't house a species that was incredibly sensitive and likely to die off from the introduction of a little Thai mud into its habitat.
I was relieved to see that it didn't. Pirranha are fairly robust.
At that particular moment, I remember, I was rather in favor of the nanny state (or at least better signage, or, failing that, tank lids). But I do have to wonder -- am I only the sort of idiot American who would stick her feet in a fishtank because I've been raised to think that if it wasn't ok, there'd have to be a massive amount of stickers and signs warning "MAY CAUSE INJURY OR DEATH"?
There's quite a bit of illness making the rounds of the office. A local staff member was complaining of a headache today, so I shared with him some of the Advil I get shipped in from the U.S. and always carry around with me. There's no Advil here -- for reasons I've never been able to fathom, ibuprofen cannot be found east of the Urals; all of Asia insists on using the vastly inferior paracetamol.
Insight comes in the smallest moments here. As I handed him the bottle and watched him struggle futilely to open it, I realized he'd never seen a child-safety cap before. And when I showed him how it worked, I realized he'd never thought about the need for such a thing, or imagined it might exist. There was a look of astonishment and revelation on his face, such as might come with peaceful first contact with extraplanetary visitors, which, I'd like to think, accompanied the thought, "O, what a civilization! And what other benevolent undreamt-of inventions might it harbor?"
How do I know I'm not just projecting unreconstructed post-colonialist fantasies (as I'm wont to do)? Because I've now been here long enough without break to have absorbed some of the Weltanschauung, and had exactly the same thought (and, K tells me, facial expression) upon reading in my guidebook that the Berlin city government blankets the metropolis with free highspeed wireless internet.
But seriously...I'm left yet again to ponder whether the startling life-is-cheapism of Asia (even in nice places like Thailand) is so jarring because we overprotect, or, well, because it should be so jarring.
I remember once at the Chiang Mai zoo, I walked down a hill that was terraced with aquaria. The tanks were all open on top, and there were benches cut into the hillside immediately above them, so you could peer down into the water. It was a warm summer day, and, as I rested on the bench, I was desperately tempted to slip off my sandals and let my feet dangle in the incredibly inviting water just below. But the tanks weren't that big, and it seemed an un-ecominded thing to do, so I decided to walk down to the base of the aquarium and read the signage first, just to make sure this particular tank didn't house a species that was incredibly sensitive and likely to die off from the introduction of a little Thai mud into its habitat.
I was relieved to see that it didn't. Pirranha are fairly robust.
At that particular moment, I remember, I was rather in favor of the nanny state (or at least better signage, or, failing that, tank lids). But I do have to wonder -- am I only the sort of idiot American who would stick her feet in a fishtank because I've been raised to think that if it wasn't ok, there'd have to be a massive amount of stickers and signs warning "MAY CAUSE INJURY OR DEATH"?
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