arteo went to tongod.......

Pockets of areas in Sabah still have a problem with Malaria, and in fact, the picture of Malaria in Malaysia reflects closely to the picture of situation in Sabah. Colleagues in Peninsular will not as much bat an eyelid when they hear about Dengue, but with Malaria, everybody will jump halfway up their seats and be really excited about it. Here in Sabah it is almost a different story. Malaria?... Yea, we've got some at our backyard...

One of these pockets is the area around Tongod, Penangah and Entilibon of Kinabatangan District, and since they are situated neighbouring to Telupid (an area under Beluran district), transportation wise it is still more convenient to come to Telupid for check ups and everything else, so we have been directed to take over supervision of malaria control for these 3 areas.

Since it seems that this was a directive from Dato' Dr Hassan, our Director of Disease Control in Ministry, a fellow Sabahan who takes personal interest of things happening in Sabah, I had to make it a high priority to go around and see these areas we've just been assigned to. And the camera comes along too...

The weather hasn't been kind to the roads, going in to Tongod area is almost like going through Camel Trophy challenge (well, almost - if all your life you've only known challenges as sharp bumps on tarred roads)

Constructions on the roads with mud holes here and there made the journey 3-4 times longer than what it would normally have taken.

The Entilibon Vector Control Sub-Sector Office. We've come to announce a decree that their area has been taken by us. Resistance is futile... haha. Just a quick forum with the staffs there to ask on their needs and requirement to help increase productivity during this period of outbreak.

The village in Entilibon. We were back on the road heading for Tongod, the sky's looking gloom and we don't want to get trapped in the interior in the bad weather - it was a Friday afternoon, and the thought of being stuck here for the weekend was rather unbearable.

We've seen some odd and weird machinery used for transport and construction, never seen before in town - this one reminds me of a catfish, the cabin sits 4 - in a row! Weird, kan?

I've not seen Tongod Health Clinic but I've worked in Tungku Health Clinic for more than 2 years, so it's seen one seen all - there are 5 of these clinics built from a common blueprint in Sabah. Looking at the Clinic from the roadside brings back a surreal feeling of familiarity of being in Tungku once again.

This is very surreal... it's like I lived here before!
The staff quarters.

The waiting lounge for out-patient clinic, exactly the same.

The Accident and Emergency room, also used as Procedure room.

Even the mess they do on the procedure trolley is irritatingly the same. I used to throw a tantrum when I see this kind of mess left after a procedure... Let's not look at the sharps bin, I might start rounding up and scolding staffs that are not even under my care.

Used mosquito nets. Waste not, want not.

We went for a ride around Tongod town and it took us only about a minute and half to finish the tour. So we decided to go in deeper.

The old clinic, built during colonial time. Old timers would probably recall Australian Caucasian doctor manning the facility.

This is the headwaters of Kinabatangan River or Ulu Sungai Kinabatangan, the longest river in Sabah at 560km, the second in Malaysia after Rajang River in Sarawak.

Some macro shots for the fans of my macrophotography.