FECHBLOG

As with most things, Mar has been in charge of the blog. But since we live half way across the world now, I figure I should start chiming in from time to time too. I mean, who isn't dying to hear what I have to say?

First off, congratulations to Sarah Eggleston on being the first person to make the big math error when figuring out the time zone difference and calling at 5 a.m. thinking it was "Sunday afternoon." Always great to hear from Sarah.

Anyway, you can tell from Mar's previous posts that we are having a great time so far. The weather is great, and there is a ton to do here. I might even get enough golf in to be able to par a hole sometime in the next three years. We are getting used to the driving and all of the other cultural differences in Japan. Like Marit said, everyone here is very nice. Our landlord has offered us the use of his kayaks if we feel like taking them out for some snorkeling. Actually, he doesn't speak much English, but he pointed at them and smiled, which I guess could have meant that if we touch his kayaks, he'll kill us; but for now we're going to assume that he was telling us we could use them.

Work is going smoothly so far. One baby delivered and I'm sitting around at the hospital right now on call waiting for another mother to deliver so I can go home and get some sleep. The vast majority of people we take care of are young and healthy with a few retirees and DOD school teachers thrown in to keep it interesting. Since the retirees and DOD employees are not active duty military, they are not prevented from coming to Japan if they have significant health problems that require more care than we can provide here (active duty members undergo a process called "overseas screening" that is supposed to, for example, prevent someone who needs to see a cardiologist every month from ending up someplace that doesn't have a cardiologist) - so they tend to be the ones who require the most work. Well, that's not true, the MOST work is spent on perfectly healthy people who have nothing better to do (after all, we are on a 65 mile long island in the middle of the Pacific where most dependents don't work) than to come to the doctor's office every time they get a cut, scrape, sniffle, or sometimes for what seems like sheer boredom.

I'll save some stories about the 24-hour access pager (where anyone can call for medical advice at any time) for another time.

Keep in touch! Let us know if you don't have our Vonage phone number.

Ken

// posted by Mar @ 3:02 AM