The Public Good

It's obviously counter-intuitive to say so, but the ICU at Meleka Hospital feels like a fairly cheerful place to be - or at least it did this afternoon when Noi and I visited Mak again. I suppose the fact that she was looking even better than yesterday helped in my very subjective sense of atmosphere, but the colourfulness of the surroundings (not at all the usual sterile, clinical white we associate with such places) and the relaxed yet clearly caring nurses (in healthy numbers, at least one to each patient, I'm pleased to say) helped generate what seemed to me a very positive feeling of the goodness of just being alive.
 
The hospital itself is more than a bit shabby, and would hugely benefit from a coat of paint and general clean-up, but, like its ICU unit, it generally feels like a comfortable place to be. Must say, I'm puzzled as to why it's thought that there aren't enough funds to make the place look reasonably spruce. It can't be that expensive, given the cheap foreign labour available here, and you'd think that the money that went into caring for basic infrastructure would actually generate economic benefits in a general sense. I've never bought into the argument that somehow the public good is beyond a nation's pockets - and especially in a country like this where it isn't as if healthcare is freely available.