Farewell

I'm flying off tomorrow (from T3 woohoo!) and will be arriving in Melbourne on Saturday insyaAllah. Much has happened since I've been back. I've had a glimpse of the psychiatric system here, even had a good chat with the registrar and sat in a counselling session with a social worker that really impressed me. I have to give a thumbs up to the staff at CGH - despite all the rumours that go around, I think they have quite an efficient and more importantly a working system.

I've also got to say the pscyhiatric ward at CGH surpasses the wards I have seen in the public hospitals of Melbourne. My trip this time not only took me to the stroke ward where interestingly enough I saw quite a few mat saleh doctors (I wonder what attracted them to work here), the Sleep Disorder Clinic where I met my sister's neurologist and myself, to the respiratory physician at CGH (I had to restrain my mak and sister from following me into the room - konon excited doktor melayu lelaki keke).

It was an eye-opening experience following my sister through the process of her health care here and it gave me much insight into how the medical system works here. One word - efficient. So efficient that there's no time for how are yous, thank yous and goodbyes. But the quality of public health care impressed me.

I've also managed to put Faheem to sleep - when I return this August insyaAllah, he will be able to walk I hope and my niece will have almost gone through a year of school. I can't wait to hear her stories. I've caught up with friends who I dearly miss all year. Thank you for meeting up with me especially when things became uncertain and I kept on changing my plans. You girls rock ok, you know who you are. You have also shown kindness to my sister when others could not. May Allah s.w.t. bless you always.

I have eaten too much food, more than I thought I would. The only thing is that I wished I could have seen a bit more of my twin who has managed to coop himself in the dungeons of NTU and oh well, he will resurface again once his thesis is over I hope.

Though my stay was short, I think I have managed to accomplish some of the things I had set out to do. Mostly it had to do with family issues but also I think I managed to get through to my sister, which is great :).

Finally before I start my year of madness - even though we have no more exams, this is the year where we kiss ass and get references from consultants so we can get a good internship spot (personally I just can't do it), I just wanted to say no matter what happens in the future, I hope we stay in touch ok (Facebook, email, SMS) and let's not lose each other as we grow up.

Said the counsellor, "Yang penting, niat di hati mesti baik. Apa yang di luar itu tak sepenting apa di dalam hati."

An interesting thing my sister updated me about that has been making me think a lot. This is going to be quite random but it's actually about teenage pregnancies. Last year the number of teenage pregnancies for orang Melayu is 400, while for Chinese was 150 and Indians were less (and I apologise if my figures are not accurate). I am not sure if the figure is reflective of differences of beliefs regarding abortion amongst different races or a reflection that the institution of marriage and family is slowly breaking down, however these figures are very worrying. Unfortunately I am not able to quote you the exact article my sister read this story but the government found that many of these teenagers had poor parenting. It was so worrying that the government has started a new program that is targeted for children as young as 5 years old to learn Islam in English. The classes focusses on moral issues etc etc. I'm thinking these classes are suppose to replace bad parenting? I have googled this but could not find much. Anyway my point being is - this issue really worried me lah until I just have to blog about it. Just something to think about I guess.