Played on 6 February, 2011

As recorded by our reporter, Manon-Thérèse Renard.

Research, reporting and reaching out

Saturday 25 November 2378

I'd convinced the captain to give me half an hour to investigate Lai Zun. It cost me 30 GC but I hoped it would be worth it. Jasmin and "Lars" decided to join me, but then Jasmin disappointed me sorely when she decided to stay on the boat after all. To be sure, I wasn't convinced this was a good idea myself, but sometimes we have trudge on and try to help those less fortunate.
The guy on the quai was a bit simple so I pushed onwards and let him bring us to the "leader" of the village. He told me that of the 500 people under his care, about half were sick. They had no doctor or nurse present: people tried to take care of each other. The leader guesstimated that about 10% of the patients died as a result of la maladie. He also said that maybe la maladie was caused by the arrival of some foreign, unknown merchants in the village, two or three months ago. He didn't have anything to back up this claim so I almost instantly dismissed it.

The leader had no real idea about the number of people in the village, the amount of patients, the course of the illness, etc. I urged him to get some sort o f census going, hoping that this would indeed help. He'd send me the information as he gathered it.
ext came the tricky part. Having no real scientific or medical education, I was to take some water samples and blood samples from patients. Lars tried to help me and gave some assistance, but mostly it was down to my improvisational skills backed up with some acting. Lars' suggestion to gather some blood from a runny nose didn't really helped. I carried on with the facade but that sample would be worthless and I knew it.
Lars also talked to some babbling patient, who was talking about shadows and other hallucinations. All in all, I was very glad when we could leave Lai Zun and get back onto the boat.

Monday 27 November 2378

Two days later we arrived in Macao. We reported to Foe. Unfortunately, Foe didn't have anything to add to our findings. He was glad that we installed the filter, but he didn't know anything about the missing supplies or the missing transports. He sent us to some goverment building. Before we left, we got another mission: we had to investigate the fact that several farms and homesteads in the Nanning region were found to be empty. We also got some sort of car to help us with transportation. The boys went to check out the car, Jasmin and I walked to doctor Ango to report our medical findings.

I have to admit, we were needlessly rude and pushy towards his assistent but my patience with any bureaucracy had already run out at Foe's. My apologies, Ms. Assistent! She was actually rather helpful.
Doctor Ango was also very pleasant to work with. He had some contact with the "nurse" in Xiao Cheng, the one where Jasmin and I had spent the night. He already had done some research on the illness and told us that it wasn't transmissable through air. (I gave a small, relieved sigh at that.) He was very happy to receive our water & blood samples and assured us he'd begin his test as soon as possible.

Outside we met up with the boys who had learned to control our new car. It was a bit beaten up, but I was glad we didn't depend on public transportation anymore. At the local goverment building Foe had us sent to we met with one Mr. Dong, head Logistics. He told us that "everything he sent out arrived," but he meant of course that it arrived in the regional warehouses. What happened afterwards was out of his jurisdiction, and out of his scope of interest. "Lars" and Knut performed some calls to verify this, but the results didn't really help.

We decided to depart for Nanning tomorrow. Lars, Knut, Gert and Jasmin were going to one of the bars in Macao. However, I decided that I had had enough for that day and started to walk towards our appartment. My plans were interrupted, however, by a call from doctor Ango!
I arrived at his office and was immediately admitted by his assistent. We had a good talk. He told me he was on friendly terms with Synotec but that made him a bit suspect in the eyes of the local populace. He'd heard that I was a reporter and even found out a bit of my achievements before I left Earth. He was pleased with what he'd learned and wanted to "hire" me to do some reports on the circumstances of the Gnapho II populace. Of course, I already was doing so but I had no way of distributing my reports yet. He told me that "he and his circle" had ways of doing this. At first I was a bit hesitant, mostly because, well... in my profession it pays to be careful and untrusting. However, the doctor seemed entirely honest and upstanding so I agreed to a partnership.
That evening I finished editing my first two documtaires. The first a piece on the culture clash I had experienced so far, an outsider looking in. The second one focused on the illness in Xiao Cheng and Lai Zun. It included the heart-wrenching shot I made in Xiao Cheng: "I was very ill, but had no choice. I had to work, otherwise I made no money and my family would starve!." Melodramatic, but effective.

Random thought: Just packed some cigarettes for the trip to Nanning. My stock is noticeably diminishing. Worried.

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