the word intern should be replaced with "gap filler"

This is a realization I come to and embrace with open arms. My conception of intern, previously, had been filled with assumptions that I would be merely a support worker...filing away reports, proofreading, and perhaps even the odd chance to follow around the big boss and make notes. All of this would be done without complaint as the guarantee for salaried employment, the result of a job well done, would arrive at the end of one's tenure.

My experience as Migration Health Associate at the IOM has been so much more than the word "intern." I might as well be called an employee with benefits.

The lengths to which the IOM Cambodia mission engaged in health promotion activities to ensure that the risks associated with migration were minimized as much as possible was limited to mental health. They had a very successful 12 year run with this mental health program, which was a priority in 1992. The years prior to 1999 were marked with civil conflict amongst a society already quite burdened with the recent genocide. We now sit in the stormy waters of the Asian HIV/AIDS epidemic, in the environment of a proactive government whose Ministry of Health is unfortunately muddled in corruption. The threat of avian flu making a big jump between humans is also on the line. Cambodia is being threatenned internally and externally by microbes of a few micrometers in length. The Ministries of the Interior and Foreign Affairs are of course involved. Migration health is therefore back in the spotlight.

I'm now in charge with building up IOM Cambodia's Migration Health Department. That means tackling the issues of HIV/AIDS, reproductive health, mental health and avian flu in a country that has not yet even experienced a decade of stability. I'm fresh out of college, my leadership activities are fairly hefty, but limited to an array of "student leadership activities." The kind that admissions officers look kindly upon.

And so, engaging in meetings with the Ministry of Health Secretary of State, the Joint UN Team on AIDS*, and the head of the National AIDS Authority, elicit feelings I liken to staring down the barrel of a very well polished sawed-off-shotgun.

Until drinks with an slightly older well-established friend this weekend, I never exactly realized the full scope of what I was doing here. For someone my age, you actually don't get this much responsibility - developing research plans of rapid baseline assessments to identify gaps in reproductive health care services available to Vietnamese migrants, representing an international organization in large national organization. It is the experience of a lifetime.

Simultaneously, I almost liken this to medical tourism. I don't mean the type in which people, from Western countries, go to places such as India for medical procedures, in order to bypass long wait lines or heft medical costs. What I mean is taking advantage of locations, in the world, which have sparse medical personnel, and being able to do procedures that one would require years of experience back home. In my case, I am doing the work that requires a person with at least a master's degree, from an institution with some pedigree, in something like public health, health promotion with at least a couple of years of professional work in the field. The letters W, T and F are very commonly used in my head when I think about the work I have been placed in charge of.

Today is Friday and I had my third and final lengthy meeting of the week. The Chief of my operations here even introduced me as the "expert" in Migration Health. I finally feel comfortable enought to provide my opinions when asked. While the term "expert" and my business card which says "Migration Health Associate" perplexed me, I still went on to offer my two cents on how the Ministry of Labour and Vocational Training could best tackle the issue of labour mobility and HIV/AIDS. Afterwards, the Secretary of State and head of the National AIDS Authority patted me on my shoulder and said that he enjoyed my recommendations and criticisms.

This would never have happened in Canada and I am still in sheer disbelief with the responsibility I have been given here. While the term 'medical tourism' still lurks behind me, I do recognize the drive and the reasons that brought me here; that I'm not merely using this experience to rev up a CV in the hopes of admissions to a medical school, or Harvard Public Health.

*the Joint UN Team on AIDS is referred to as JUTH, however, i like to refer to it as JUNTA, because its funnier that way