Sarikei? Where is that?

Bhai forced me to try this Snap Chat filter

Good day fellow readers! It’s been almost three months since I came to the land of the hornbills.  Sorry for my long hiatus from this page. I was busy settling down in Pineapple Town of Sarawak. After taking a year of involuntary holiday, I finally have reached the light at the end of the tunnel.

The moment when I got the result of my placement, I was thrown into a mix of emotions. I was terrified and excited at the same time. It was my choice to apply here. I have opted for this road less taken, wanting full autonomy of my future destiny; I did not want any surprises from MOH. My mother told me I was crazy and naïve, not knowing what unpleasant experience might lies ahead. Many others also look upon me with sympathetic eyes whenever I answer them I choose to work here. They did not know I wanted to challenge myself, to see whether I will be able to handle what life have to offer me in a foreign land. All in all, I reminded myself, God have His will for me there and He will guide me along the way. Have faith and go.  

We started off our first day as government servants by attending Program Transformasi Minda (Program Transforming Minds) for 5 days and 4 nights at Kolej Sains Kesihatan Bersekutu Sultan Azlan Shah, Ulu Kinta.  A total of 106 new dental officers were appointed during my intake. The purpose of PTM was to introduce new staffs to the principles and work culture of the government sector.  We started every day by singing out national anthem and MOH corporate song (Kami Sedia Membantu). We sat through four full days of lectures on the function of various government agencies and policies. Besides that, we were divided into 7 groups and required to complete two group tasks. The first task was to draw a kampong setting while answering a related question. The second task was to present a sketch based on a given scenario. I enjoyed the group activities as it allowed us to interact with people from other colleges, exchanging stories of their undergraduate life and find those who will be reporting at the same state as you. By the end of the fifth day, we sat for a MCQ test before leaving to our respective place to report for duty.  

 

Registration chaos 

One of the many lectures

Batik-fie

Half-past-six drawing

A scene from my group's sketch

Kumpulan 5

A photo before we separate (Miss this bunch of people)

The place we slept for that 4 nights

That Sunday after PTM, I flew into Kuching and Bong hosted me for that night. It happened that the Kuching Food Fest was on so she and her mom brought me to try the food stalls there. Early next morning I booked a taxi for half a day to JKN to report duty. The taxi driver was a retired policeman and he filled me with stories of his dangerous experience guarding the coast of Sabah from pirate as we made our way to Petra Jaya. A total of 9 new DO were send to Sarawak. Most of us arrived by 7:30 am and we were usher by a sister into the meeting room; all of us anxiously awaiting to be told the place we will call home for the next one year. As I look across the unfamiliar face around the table, I felt a sense of loneliness as I was the only one among my batchmates who got posted here. After what seems like forever, we were greeted by Dr. Shirley Hu, the person in-charge of FYDO placement. We went around the table with a brief self- introduction before she read out our district (called Bahagian in Sarawak) placement. My name was the last off the list and I was praying so hard to get Kuching. However, the Lord’s Will is that I go to a small town called Sarikei. I was actually shocked of my placement. I remembered Bharavi jokingly asked me during PTM “What if you get Sarikei huh?”

Solo travel begins now

Bound for Cat Land

My mind was disoriented and unable to accept this arrangement. I wanted to run away from reality, like how Jonah attempted to escape when God ask him to go to Nineveh. Knowing that I would regret if I did not put up a fight, I tried to ask for a possibility to change to Miri but I was shot down by Dr Shirley “If you are prepared to do voluntary work (do not receive salary), I can let you come to work in Kuching or Miri.” – That was like a slap across my face.

 

Map of Sarikei if you are interested to know

That time reality sank in and I look across to the faces of my new colleague who receive the same fate as I, all wearing that confused dejected faces. The next instant, all 4 of us were relentlessly searching for flight tickets with our phones. My mind was fill with questions of why God want to send me to Sarikei, envying the 5 others who got placement in either Kuching or Miri. Once we were all dismissed, 4 of us who got placement in Sarikei came together to discuss how we would travel to our new work place. Three of us agreed to take the last flight by MasWings that night. On the way, back to Bong’s house, I tried to keep the conversation with the taxi driver going, trying not to think about my utter disappointment in my placement posting, almost at the brink of tears. After booking my flight, I actually planned to skip lunch and sleep off the negative feeling but Bong and her mom encouraged me to have lunch and took me out. I felt much better after food. That evening, Bong brought me to the airport after her work and we had dinner at Secret Recipe. She jokingly told me that this might be the last chance to have proper Western food before flying off to an unknown land with two new friends, Aileen (from Sibu) and Ling (from Kuching). Two of them have the most interesting personality and I thought to myself, maybe it won’t be that lonely in Sarikei after all. Our flight got delayed by an hour and we arrived at Sibu around 11 pm. Ling and I bunked into Aileen’s in law house for the night. It was really awkward to sleep over at a newly made friend in law’s house and more so to share the same queen size bed with her. Truly that was really God’s hands moving in the most secret way.

 

MasWing for the first time

Early next morning, we travelled down to Sarikei. The journey took about an hour from Sibu. They first dropped off Ling’s and my luggage at Hotel 808 before going to Klinik Pergigian Sarikei. Since our District Dental Officer was on leave on that day, we were told to straight report duty to our DOIC. After a quick briefing, we were taken downstairs by Sister to complete our medical checkup. We were required to redo our urine test for drug clearance and have a Chest radiograph done. We were given the afternoon off to find a place to rent and settle down.

I solely relied on Aileen’s and Ling’s contact to find a place to rent as Sarikei is a small town, rarely people advertise their properties online. After visiting 10 or more places for the three days, suddenly we came across a minimally furnished double story terraced house which Aileen and I couldn’t resist. After 3 days of staying over at a hotel, I finally found a place to stay for the year.

 

Moving in!

My FYDOship consists of 8 months Primary care in KP Sarikei followed by 4 months Oral Surgery posting in Klinik Pakar Hospital Sarikei. Our DOIC asked us to observe the seniors and the clinic system flow for the first week before taking up cases. Also, it took around two weeks to complete all our paperwork.

 

Never knew the existence of the Blue passport till recently

My unit, nampak kemas oh!

Currently am happy with the exposure I am getting in this place, still trying to gain back the lost confidence. As a new DO, I am still not use to making the decision for patient treatment plan, sometimes running to my seniors for a confirmation. I guess with time I will be more independent.

 

One day, my senior decided to do a candid camera on me. 

Entering a new place without knowing anyone and trying to settle down can be difficult and taxing. I think I can now relate why no one from the west wants to serve here. I can relate what home sick feels like. I can relate what being trap in feels like.  But God have been good to me, surrounding me with helpful and supportive people. I am grateful for the friends and colleague I have met. Sarikei would have been that much gloomier and lonely without them.

 

Celebrating 25th Birthday with the lovely colleagues

You can count on her for the most random questions ever

I trust that every cloud has a silver lining and God will continue to lead the way, you just need to trust and obey. 

Sarikei, why you so hot?!

Projek Anggur

It’s been almost 10 months since I left dental school and am still unemployed! I’m just keeping an optimistic outlook in life, hoping that my name will be in the list for next intake. (Please give me a job KKM.)

In the late of March this year, Nabilah shared with us an idea. Several of my batchmates and I later then met up over coffee to develop that idea and the result from our discussion was a group called Projek Anggur. After waiting and hoping on the government for so long, we thought might as well make ourselves useful to the society.

Trivia: Why call Projek Anggur?

Answer: Because we are a group of penggangur (unemployed) and we love eating raisins.

Our aim for Projek Anggur was actually to spread the awareness of good oral hygiene practices among the underprivileged children in Malaysia. We try to teach them the 4 aspect crucial to good oral hygiene maintenance through interactive activities. So far, we funded ourselves through private donations made by our friends and families. However, as we try to take on new challenges in the future, donation itself won’t be sufficed. (The toothpaste and toothbrushes were so expansive that about 90% of our funds were used to purchase them!) Although there were hiccups along the way, I think we all are slowly maturing. We are still new and eager to learn.

Projek Anggur 1.0

Our very first work was at a school in Selayang called myWelfare. It was a school set up for the Rohingya refugees’ children. We took on the challenge to handle 30 kids ranging as young as 3 years old to 12 years old. We all found it quite difficult to convey our messages because most the kids could not understand Malay or English! It was a real struggle and most of the time, the kids wore blank faces. *sigh*

Nabilah got a helper to translate everything back into their native language.

We prepared 7 interactive stations, among which we aim to expose them to basic dental hygiene tools, the role of the dentist, good dietary food choices, dental radiograph and how to brush it right. Each child was given a ‘dental passport’ whereby they will receive a stamp once they finished the station. Those stamps serve as a positive reinforcement and motivation for the kids.

Station 1: Introduction to mouth mirror & tooth brush

Station 2: Teaching the Fones Technique

Station 3: Caries Excavation 

Station 4: Extraction 

The Most favourite station of ALL!

Station 5: Differentiating Cariogenic and Non-cariogenic Foods

Station 6: Introduction to Dental Radiographs

Stimulating how an intraoral radiograph is done!

Station 7: Video Animation on Tooth Brushing

After completing the whole circuit, we gathered them around again and made them watch the Upin and Ipin tooth brushing song. To our surprise, the children were ecstatic with the video that we had to play it several more times. As a result of that, most of them were chanting bulat, bulat, bulat till the time we left the school. We ended our time there by giving out the goodie bags we prepared; containing a toothbrush, toothpaste and a cup. It was regretful that we didn’t manage to do the brushing drills as we ended our activities during their lunch time. Between tooth brushing and food, I guess food wins.

Presents time! 

During the interactive station, I managed to chat with an older boy call Mohammad while waiting for the change in group rotation.

RC: Mana Mohammad tinggal sekarang?

M: Kat rumah di hujung jalan bawah sana. *pointing to a house out the distance.

RC: Sejak bila bermula sekolah sini?

M: Beberapa minggu lalu.

RC: Baru sahaja beberapa minggu lalu? Berapa lama sudah di Malaysia?

M: Hampir setahun

*station bell ring*

It made me wonder how his family is coping now, what have they been doing all these while, what was their life back there in Myanmar. As quoted from Sharmila Sekaran, “The trauma that these children gone through affects them for the rest of their lives. They have gone through the worst of everything. They have been taken out of their comfort zone. What was home is no longer home. They need security. They need certainty. They need familiarity.”

Projek Anggur 2.0

The second project was held at a shelter home call Pusat Pengajian Al-Qalam. It was situated in Puncak Alam. The area actually looked quite deserted that morning we arrived. We had a prebriefing session in a mamak shop nearby before we head over to the site. We were quite determined to improve our programs and flaws from the last session. This was a shelter home for the abused children and we tried to tailor our activities to be sensitive to their needs.  

The challenge this time was to control a group of 70+ children ranging from 5 years old to 15 years old. We divided them into 2 major categories; >12 years old under the teenage group while <12 years old under the kids group. As compare to Projek Anggur 1.0, we added in an ice-breaking session, introducing them to a model dentist and a short story telling about development of tooth decay aided with comic.

Meet & Greet!

Abang Molar Story Telling Time

Teaching the Fones Technique 

After that we broke into the groups as mentioned earlier. The kids group participated in interactive stations similar to 1.0 while the teenage group undergoes a counseling session. To our surprise, the teenagers also wanted to try their hands in the interactive stations.

Station 1: Fones Technique

Station 2: Caries Excavation

Station 3: Extraction

Station 4: Differentiating Cariogenic & Non-cariogenic Foods

Station 5: Introduction to Dental Radiographs

Teenagers learning about the Healthy Plate!

Attentive listeners to Oral Hygiene Maintenance! 

The Completed Dental Passport!

Once both the groups were done, we then do the brushing drills with them. Our volunteer group man power grew smaller compared to the first in terms of ratio of volunteers to kids. It was a little chaotic during the interactive stations with the kids group.

Stay in line or not no present!

Brushing drill in the bathroom

Someone brush too vigorously till his milk tooth fell out!

Despite knowing why these kids where here, I did not master the courage to ask them about their life for fear that I might pricked into the past that hurt them. . For most of them, home is not a place of refuge. Some had obvious physical signs of abused, bruises on their foreheads, burn scars all over the hands. What we don’t see is the emotional scars they hold in their hearts, how it affected their confidence. Though many of them were curious and inquisitive, there were some who were still shy and unsecure about their surroundings. Some cried easily, refusing to communicate, hiding their faces away from you.

One teenager shared with me her ambition was to be a teacher or not, a dentist. I told her to hold on to her dream and work hard for it. She gave me an assuring nod before moving on to the next interactive station.

The kids send us home with a few rounds of their cute tepuk (claps). Though we spend just 3 hours with them, I felt we have connected and truly engaged with this group than the kids in Projek Anggur 1.0.

Overall, Projek Anggur has been truly an invaluable experience for all of us. Out of 10, I would rate our awareness program at 6. There are certainly more places that we can improve but we are quite limited by our funding.  I look forward to that day that we can purchase a good giant model for the brushing drills or maybe invest in a projector for presentations. Personally, I am thankful that Prof Noorliza had exposed us various times during our UG days in organizing community oral health programs which have serve as a useful platform for us to start this small-scale community project. We are in the midst of planning the next project and I hope it will be another successful one.
Stay Tuned!

Team Projek Anggur 1.0

Team Projek Anggur 2.0

Ps: We are really thankful for Klinik Pergigian Prestij Perdana who so kindly lends us their mailing address as well as the tooth forceps. We were also glad to get extra helping hands from friends (Arep, Blade & Pyan) on both these projects.