DAY 7 – 15 JUNE 2010

Meenakshi Alagappa

After a long exhausting day yesterday, the three of us (Hema, Sanggeetha & me) passed out by 11 pm on our comfy bed. While most of us had a peaceful sleep, a few actually did social service by feeding the poor mosquitoes. We actually set an alarm at 7 am which wasn’t necessary as we had natural alarm clocks. At 6am sharp, the roosters woke us up announcing the dawn and just wouldn’t shut up. The cats too did a splendid job of waking us up. That was when I actually realised I was at the kampong. As expected, we were all reluctant to do the opening ceremony of the washroom, but Hema was prepared for the worst. She just warned us not to look into the water tub before bathing.

Then, as we were all ready by 7.30 am, the smell of nasi lemak was enough to send our olfactory nerves to high heaven. Our beloved mak cik woke up easily in the morning to prepare our breakfast. The yummylicious breakfast made my day as the saying goes ‘all happiness depends upon a leisurely breakfast’. After many servings, we gathered at the hall at 8:15 am and continued our survey to the next 10 houses. The villagers were very welcoming which surprised me as I expected to be chased out of the door. They were extremely patient although we annoyed them with questionnaires and examinations. Not only that, they actually served us with drinks and chips. What an irony! This just shows that even though their lives may not be as lavishly led as that in urban areas but the people there are generous!

Then our group led by Ker Wooi headed off to the long houses. Here, I would like to note one particular house where the occupants were afraid to let us all in as the flooring wasn’t stable. I can imagine how worried they would have been seeing the whole gang.

At 12pm, we returned back to the hall where Dr. Kay paid us a visit. A few issues were discussed and settled before we returned home for lunch. And now, this is my favourite part. Just as we were leaving our bags in the room, there was a knock on the door saying, ‘lunch is ready’. We were served like queens with crabs and pineapple curry, ayam masak merah, 3 types of fried fish, kangkung belacan and icy cold orange juice. How could I wish for more.

We had a good chat with our family and continued our survey to a few more houses. There were these two little cute kids, Hariz and Farah who actually used Kogil’s stethoscope to listen to the cat’s heartbeat.

We were done by evening and went to our respective houses again. After dinner, we gathered at 8 pm at the hall to plan our farewell activities. We were shocked when a group of pak cik in sarongs approached us but they were no other than our very own Mr Poobalan, Mr. Kishean, Mr. Jack, Mr. Nelson.:) To get the ball rolling, our event manager, Hemalatha Jotey organised the human bombing. She was totally embarrassed by the loss of her group in the first round itself. Sorry, Hema. After the brainstorm session about the farewell, a few of us went out for supper at Tg Dawai and returned home by 11 pm..That’s the end of Day 2 at Kampung Nelayan.

Day 6 – 14 June 2010

by Lee Shu Chaw

It's Monday! Everyone had been so excited (though you might not agree but I have to write it so here!) since we're going to start our Community Medicine posting at Kampung Nelayan after a week preparing and planning with great efforts.

We gathered at the cafeteria at 6.50am sharp as requested strictly (wondering.. :S) and departed to our destination at 7.10am. Everyone's car looked packed with luggage, especially Vatsela's car: the entire boot was packed with her soft toys, pillows, comforter, water tanks, snacks, cosmetics, extra and extra clothes, and maybe a big mirror. Ha ha …

A 20 minutes journey brought us to the so-called beautiful and amicable fishermen village. We were welcomed by the Penghulu at the village hall, just opposite to the fishermen port. A welcoming ceremony was inaugurated at 8am by the VIPs consisting of local leaders and faculty: Prof. K A Narayan, Dato' Dr. Hasnah, and Dr. Kay Khine Nyo.

Then the students were allocated to their foster parents in the ceremony. We would have 4 nights of home-stay at the seaside resort albeit kampung-style chalets and villas.

After lunch at our foster-homes, we had to start our work of surveying the villagers … house by house, under the scorching sun until 5pm! I could really feel the ghastliness of the green-house effect! Girls, remember to apply your sunblock tomorrow! Harikrishnan should be given an “Enthusiastic Student Award” since he had gotten a fever but was so resolute in finishing the survey with his best performance and friendly smile.

A word of advice my dears: please drink plenty of water and take a good care in these summery days!

The wayward sky had started pouring rain in the evening just after our survey. Listened to the rhythm of the falling rain, telling me what a joy it was while having a cup of hot coffee.

Day 5 – 11 June 2010

by Ang Vyping

I gotta feeling that tonight's gonna be a good night,
That tonight's gonna be a good night,
That tonight's gonna be a good, good night~~

Finally, we have completed our general and specific surveys by today. Yoohoo! And now, I am in my lovely hometown, sitting on my little chair and facing my laptop to write this journal.


First of all, I would like to comment about what we had done in this last whole week. In the past few days, our life was like:

Hey, slow it down whataya want from me
Whataya want from meYeah I'm afraid whataya want from me
Whataya want from me

From general till specific surveys, we were craving for the topics and eligible questions.

Just don't give up I'm working it out
Please don't give in, I won’t let you down
It messed me up, need a second to breathe
Just keep coming around

We worked from 8am to 5pm everyday in order to finish our questionnaires. We never gave up!!!

As today was the due date for us to pass up our questionnaires, we gotta fight, fight, fight, fight, fight! Today early morning, I had Koay Teow Soup as my breakfast before I entered the seminar room. I strongly believed that the koay teow and the two fishballs gave me a lot of ATP during my “fighting”.

In the afternoon, there were group presentations for the specific survey. After that, the technique of entering data for Epi Info was taught by Mr Choo. Eventually, our “fighting” finished at about 5.30pm.


Now, I think most of the guys are very excited and cheerful as 2010 FIFA World Cup is on. Yippee! By the way, do not forget about our next Monday’s activity!

Day 4 – 10 June 2010

by Mohanajothi Samasuvam

Day 4 started as usual with only one third of the class present around 8.15am. This brings Prof KAN to remind the students regarding discipline and punctuality. It is an important point to be noted and taken into consideration by all of us.Like what a famous psychologist said “mental attitude is more important than mental capacity.” Later in the morning, chairman addresses the floor regarding the agenda of the day and seeks cooperation from all of the members. The day continued by presentation of questionnaires by 3 groups. The condition gets heated u p with lots of debate going on between the lecturers and students. In simple terms, a “mini parliament” took place in SR2 during presentations.

At the end of the day both parties came to a conclusion which is regarded best for the study overall. All 6 groups continued preparing questionnaires for their specific research. After a hot discussion and completing the questionnaire for general survey, the condition was cooled down by Miss Hemalatha Jotey. It is all about show time! Lots of exciting presentations and games are being planned for the farewell party at Kampung Nelayan which many eagerly waited for.

Finally the Epi Info Team is formed by 2 representatives from each group and led by Choo Kher Wooi. At the end of the day, all groups handed over their general questionnaire in Epi Info for compilation work to be done.

Good work done people! Keep the spirit up and hope all of us work together as a batch in making this posting a big success!

Day 3 – 9 June 2010

by Wong Pei Min

Our class started at 8am this morning. The committee members headed to Kampung Nelayan (Tanjung Dawai) to have a meeting with the community leaders to discuss and find out more information about the population of Kampung Nelayan. Meanwhile the rest of us were in the seminar room, preparing the questionnaire for general survey under the guidance of Prof Narayan.After we enjoyed our lunch, all of us gathered in seminar room again as we needed to finalize our general survey questionnaire. We discussed about the topics: social status, economic status, chronic diseases and maternal healthcare system with the presence of lecturers. They also provided useful and valuable knowledge and advices during our presentations.

The committee members did a brief presentation of Kampung Nelayan and showed us some pictures which they took in the morning. 90% of the population of Kampung Nelayan is Malay, while the remaining 10% are Chinese. The majority of the villagers are fishermen. We were impressed by the maternal and child health care system in Kampung Nelayan as there is low birth defects and the follow-up of the pregnant woman is done regularly. But we have also received some complaints from the leaders that their sanitary system is poor.

There was an incident that happened to one of our classmates while heading to Klinik Kesihatan Merbok to collect data. Unfortunately, his car window was broken at the parking lot due to unknown causes. Eventually, he had to pay RM50 to repair it.

Day 2 – 8 June 2010

by Gomaladevi Rajaram

On day two, from 8 am until 10am two classes were conducted. First class was conducted by, Dato Dr. Hasnah on “Vaccine Preventable Diseases (Immunization) and MCH”. The second class was conducted by Dr. Lely on “Family Planning”. Both the lectures were very informative and interesting. After the class, the next agenda was forming groups of six with ten members each. Then we moved on to form the committee.

The committee:

Chairman -Ng Chong Sian
Deputy -Leong Chi Mun
Secretary -Ravivarma Rao
Liaison -Kishean
Photographer -Kenny Lim
Security -Navinder Singh
Treasurers -Tan Chai Yih , Poobalan
Inventory -Joe Lau, Manjit Singh
Entertainment -Hemalatha Jotey
IT( Epi Info Programmer) - Choo Kher Wooi

Once done with forming the committee, our chairman and secretary discussed about the general survey. They gave some ideas and asked us to come out with six components of the general survey. We successfully formed the six topics.

The topics are:

1. Maternal and Child Health (MCH)
2. Social status
3. Economic status
4. Chronic diseases
5. Acute diseases
6. Health services

Then the group discussions started. These group discussions were continuing until 12pm with the guidance of all community medicine lectures. After lunch, at 1pm we continued our group discussion. At 2pm Dr. Sawri Rajan gave a lecture on Water supply, Environmental Sanitation & Nutrition. Around 3pm, we continued with the group discussion. By 5pm all the groups had come out with the questionnaires with the help of the internet and textbooks. At the same time, we sent a draft of the questionnaire to Dr. Kay to be reviewed.

After all the discussions, our chairman requested us to summit the questionnaires tomorrow by 2pm. He also briefed us on tomorrow’s agenda. Finally, our treasurer explained about the funds that need to be collected and with that, the discussion came to end around 5.30pm.

Day 1 - 7 June 2010

by Ong Han Yi

From its very inception on 7 June 2010, Batch 13 has begun the journey on community medicine, which demands medical knowledge, acumen, leadership, professional ethics, and cooperation from each of the members. Well, it also marks the beginning of delightful outing in Kampung Nelayan which requires the holiday mood to appreciate the beauty of the fisherman village.

We have started the morning with self-introduction and batch mates’ description on their strength, weakness, and hobbies. This helped us to know each other better and to realize that communication is important in building up a good relationship. No more ‘known-strangers’ in our class!

After briefing on community diagnosis and methods of survey, we were requested to develop questionnaires for general and specific surveys as the basis for case presentation and the health promotion campaign. It seems to be difficult in the beginning as the saying goes “success in the eyes of the world will not come overnight”.

However, “When there is a dream, reality cannot be far away”, let us show commitment and enthusiasm to work on our dream and to make it one of the most memorable and enjoyable experience in our lives.

May our dream come true! Yeah!