Syabas!

I went to the place I was instructed to be at my last visit about a month ago. I handed in my sheet of paper* and within 5 minutes, I was given two small plastic tubes - one with a blue plastic stopper-cover, and the other orange (a few were red).

At 9.05am, I lost some precious blood after being poked with a needle at the end of a 4-inch syringe.

That meant I had waited about sixty minutes to have my blood sampled for lipid and cholestrol levels. It definitely wasn't up to my expectation as it took ten times slower than a commercial counterpart**.

However, it's not the wait I'm blogging about but the hardworking staff:

My appointment was scheduled for 8.00am today (07 November 2005) (the clinic opens from 8.00am to 5.00pm). Upon my arrival at 7.55am, I was surprised to see the clinic already open, with people coming in and out. There were easily fifty patients waiting inside for their turn. Mondays are designated for sampling blood and urine.

I was number 19. Assuming the attendant manning the sampling station worked non-stop for eight hours, he would have an equal amount of patience (if not more!) to handled about one hundred and sixty patients. You definitely need patience to meet patients ;)

That works out to meeting one person every three minutes. Imagine having to do this every day, five days a week, fifty-two weeks a year, for God knows how many years. (Of course, the same attendant also "renew" my quarterly dose of medicine, being on duty every Tuesday and Thursday. I'm not sure what his duties are on Fridays.)

For the salary they are getting and the type and amount of work to do, most of us would not even consider to consider (!) it a career option. (It's a shame because we're supposed to serve as Jesus did.)

Syabas!

Despite the unending train of work they have to do, and the myriad of personalities they have to deal with, they continue to served us well, to the best of their ability, with the limited resources they have.

Syabas, indeed!

We sure can (and have to) learn from them so that we can all be better people, better Malaysians. Together, in the words of Michael Jackson's song, let's:

Heal the world
Make it a better place
For you and for me
And the entire human race

Yes, there's always room for improvement. Let it start with us. Let us try (harder!) to make their work more pleasant, if not easier. On your next visit, greet them, chit-chat with them, thank them after they're done with you.

We can make a difference in OUR world (wherever we are, in our family, neighborhood) one person at a time. Let the first person be... Me. You.

*blood test form

**Gribbles - I experienced literally zero waiting time the first few visits before I asked a Christian community-based clinic doctor to refer me to a government clinic for lifelong almost free medicinal supply.