The politics of shoes

This is just a funny thing that I've noticed. Southeast Asia footware etiquette is a bit strange to westerners, but it makes sense. Outside is dirty, and the shoes you wear there are dirty. When you come in, you take them off. If you want, you can have inside shoes that theoretically are clean, because they are just worn on clean surfaces. The same is true in the patient care areas of MTC. However, the floors are often not so clean as one would hope, so you definitely want your inside shoes.

I have a pair I bring around with me. If I'm in a department for a week, I leave them there. Sandals though are a somewhat communal commodity, and often mine (size 10.5) are often taken. No problem -- I just put on a pair of the ubiquitous pink crocs, except that these are typically size 4-5. It's kind of fun to tiptoe around in a shoe that doesn't extend past my mid-foot.

I wonder though why my sandals are often preferentially taken. I started to notice that there are some larger staff-issue crocs, and that these typically end up on the feet of the department and shift leaders. These are typically women who might measure to 4'10". The appearance is a bit comical, but I think those are spoken for and unofficially reserved. By bringing in a new pair of larger sandals, I'm giving someone the opportunity to upgrade into unspoken-for big shoes. So, the daily routine is either find the 80 pound medic flopping around in my sandals, or just wear the tiny ones until someone notices and then finds the petite healthcare provider who then bashfully kicks them off, laughing a bit, trades shoes with me then runs away.

Maybe they associate the larger shoes with the "prestige" of being a big westerner and, for better or worse, aspire to that. They definitely do look up to westerners here, and, interestingly, someone pointed out that aide efforts typically depend on how a culture views the first-world helpers. Here they (again, for good or ill) see us as superior in some ways and take the help. They are more likely to overlook the problems we bring with us. Other places (Iran, for instance) have the view that if they had been the lucky ones to have the right resources and technology at the right time, the tables would be turned. The only difference between us and them is that we were in a position to take advantage of the industrial revolution and they weren't. Needless to say, one lends itself to easy development work, the other towards antagonism and difficulty.

Or maybe I'm reading way too much into this. Either way, it makes for some funny exchanges (can't really call them conversations) at work.

In other news, I'm in the new apartment. So far so good. It's quite here and I think I'll get more work done. It's still a small town and I can find company with a quick phone call, so I don't think it will be lonely. The building is mostly Thai people, which is a bit odd for me, but will likely be a good thing. It's strange to have spent 4 months total in Thailand and feel uncomfortable around Thai people, but my work-world is strictly Burmese and my social life/living arrangements to this point have been Western/English speaking.

Photos of the apartment are up for anyone curious. It's small enough that without a wide-angle lens, it's hard to get a representative photo.

A friend and I are going to one of the refugee camps tomorrow to teach a health lesson. Not so much first aid as just general health and things they deal with a lot -- Malaria, gastritis, dysentery, parasites, skin infections. Should be fun but a lot of travel. And it's in the mountains so likely cool, which will be nice.