East Timor Medical Elective

I've recently left Australia to do my medical elective at BPC (Bairo Pite Clinic) in Dili, East Timor, hopefully for ~ 3 months providing nothing “bad” happens (health, family or Visa-wise). When I was in final year of Med School, my Psychiatrist recommended that I do something medically-related overseas during my Gap Year for the purposes of maintaining some clinical skills prior to internship, which I thought was a good idea. Africa was too far away and too expensive, and India already had an oversupply of doctors, so I decided on East Timor, which is only ~ 1.5 hrs' flight from Darwin. Unfortunately due to the large expatriate presence (even when the UN have officially left), living expenses, especially accommodation, are insanely expensive relative to local wages (cheapest place I could find was ~$US 450/month), but eventually decided that it'd be worth paying for the experience...

BPC in Dili is one of only 2 medical places in Dili that offers “Free” (no out-of-pocket costs) medical treatment, the other place being Guido Valares National Hospital (previously known as “Dili National Hospital”) which has very long waiting lists. The founder of BPC, Dr. Dan Murphy, is a well-established and revered family physician who's been providing medical care to the local East Timorese people since their struggle for independence in 1999 onwards. Both BPC and GVNH are vastly under-resourced compared to even a typical rural Australian hospital which I'll elaborate on later. Nevertheless, BPC plays a key role as a “supplement” in terms of service provision, and relies on donations and very frugal budgeting. In fact, BPC runs the country's only PCR machine for detecting TB (Tuberculosis)!!! It's also received consistently excellent reviews from previous Australian medical students as an elective placement.

I knew that I'd be very stimulated/overwhelmed by sights, thoughts and observations, and wanted to type it all out each night, but felt too exhausted/lazy to do so after coming home from the clinic each day. I refuse to attend the clinic on the weekends to reduce my risk of burnout. I also don't have regular internet access. It may be the case that I'll type on my laptop when I'm not exhausted, and upload everything once/month at an internet cafe or Hotel Timor...