Day 10 Reflections and Final Post

The mission trip is over and we have arrived in Siem Reap to start our tour of Angkor Wat and Northern Vietnam.

After spending 9 days in rural Cambodia  arriving in Siem Reap is something of a culture shock!  Except for the Chiropractor, his wife, Gloria and a mirror, we have seen only a handful of non-Asians.  Here there are tourists! 

And, although the town is a bit dusty, the shops, restaurants and massage parlors are all geared to tourists.  The streets are relative empty of cars and motorcycles; there are hawkers begging you to come in for a massage or have a ride in the tuk-tuk.  Really quite distracting after the warmth and friendliness in the rural Khmer.

So, what is the real Cambodia?  I guess it is like our country.  If you get off the interstate highways, you will discover the real America.  Siem Reap is really an anomaly.  It is Cambodia’s only tourist destination so they are going to try to squeeze every Dollar/Euro/Pound out of the visitors.  Can’t really blame them.  If you flew directly here with only a plane change in Phnom Penh you would indeed think that this is Cambodia.  It is not.

After starting our trip at the Killing Fields, then working with the common Khmer, now looking into the ancient history at Ankgor Wat, Cambodia is a microcosm of what we human’s lot has been: subsist, survive, grow, thrive, conquer, war, recover or disappear.  Then it starts all over again. This has been going on for 1000’s of years.

So, did our week of medical/dental care make a difference?  We hope so.  These communities are very poor.  After the typhoon three weeks ago, there were still many houses with water in them.  I do not know how these people live like that.  Since our care was based in either a church or an orphanage supported by New Life Church, the villagers know where help can be had.  This approach to life is quite different then it is in the Buddhist world.  This, indeed, is appealing to all.  They do want to learn more about Christianity. 

We did clear many infections and the Khmer are better off for that, but more impactful I feel is the exposure these people have had to a different way of looking at life.  Not haunted by ancestors and evil spirits, but comforted by a peace that comes with a Savior.

Day 10 The Mechanics of Blogging

Several people in the past have asked about the mechanics of blogging, so I will take a minute to explain what we do.  If this is no interest to you, move on to my final post!

Anyone can open a blog at www.blogspot.com as well as several other sites.  This one is run by Google and it is free.  You name your blog and away you go.

  There are two ways to post.  You can post directly on your blog but that requires a live connection and you would do this if you have no laptop and depend on internet cafes for your blogging.  More convenient is to carry a laptop; write you blog when convenient then upload with a WiFi connection when available.  This works well for me in that I download my pictures from our camera every night to the laptop, then insert them into the blog as I write it.  The software I use is by Microsoft, it is Windows Live Writer.  Also free.

It is easy to use and when you do have a wireless, or wired connection, you can easily upload the blogs you have written.  You will have noticed that I did not/could not upload daily, since several of the hotels we stayed at did not have internet access. 

Finally, I carry a netbook, not a laptop. It is smaller (10 inch screen), has no DVD drive, is only the size of a large book, weighs a couple of pounds AND has 9 hour battery life.  Great for working on the plane or keeping in your backpack.

Gloria has always done a written journal, my journal is basically the blog.  Two different perspectives, and for the few that like to follow what we are doing, a bit entertaining as well.

Day 9 At Sihanoukville Beach

A four hour bus ride to the ocean this morning.

Today was the first time in a week that we saw a Westerner that wasn’t part of our group. He asked me what organization we were with.  I had to respond that we weren’t part of any organization, just a group of around 50 people from Indonesia, Australia, China, Brunei, Singapore, the US, and Cambodia getting together to provide medical care for the orphans and poor people of Cambodia.  He didn’t understand how we could do this, he doesn’t know Dr. Victor Koh!

Because of persecution by the communists in China and the Muslims in Brunei, it is best to not be real specific as to our activities today.  Mainly, 57 people from the community, including 5 of our dental students chose to “get wet”.

 

Afterwards, was, you guessed it, another feast.  And what else but a seafood feast!

These were the biggest prawns I have seen in my life.  Plus the crab; there was good eating for all.

A picture of four of the five students who “got wet” today.

We also learned today that in the wake of the typhoon three weeks ago, people in the Kampong Thom Province were starving because of lack of food.  We “passed the hat around” and raised $1200.  Enough for 48 50 pound sacks of rice to be purchased and delivered to these people.

Day 8 Clinic at Kampong Chhnang

Today we worked in a church, not an orphanage.  The pharmacy, medical, chiropractic and dental were all in the church building; a bit noisy.  Where yesterday there were a lot of fillings requested, today, these people wanted extractions.  (This type of work is still unpredictable).  The dental students were in top form today.  Seating and diagnosing patients and sometimes finishing them before I could check on their decision or performance. 

However, along with the gained clinical ability comes a bit of overconfidence as well.  I stayed busy getting full anesthesia where they failed, finishing extractions they couldn’t, retrieving roots they broke and following up on crowns they snapped off. Did I say I stayed busy?

This is our dental team!  Dr. Fanny is in the pink, the eight dental students are in front of us, the guy next to me is a Cambodian interpreter, he just wanted to be in the picture!

We only worked in the morning, so it was non-stop till 1PM.  Since we don’t like to return to the States with too much baggage, we gave all of the left-over disposables, anesthetic and supplies to the students.  Christmas for them.  We even left our $5 thrift store suitcase to one of the students.  She told us she was going to give it to someone who needed a suitcase!

Final count was 3 full day clinics, and 2 half day clinics, we saw about 270 patients.

This is Keng Wong from Singapore, the coordinator for the trip and Ligar Murni, from Indonesia, (she is the Singapore Airlines flight attendant I mentioned earlier) she screened all of the dental patients.

This evening was our celebration dinner here at the hotel.  They had a nice private room for us, then they started to bring in the food.  Keng, our coordinator wanted to keep it in the budget, so she was “conservative” in her choices.  Hmm. Plate after plate came in of all sort of exotic foods.  A first for us was shark fin soup. Nice flavor, not sure where the shark fin entered into the picture.  Another variation was tofu mixed with shrimp and octopus. All very tasty.  When in Rome…..

This photo is of Victor Koh, (Singapore/US) our leader, and Vek Huong Taing, the local pastor.  He wrote a book about his escape and survival from the Khmer Rouge.  The book is out of print, but he did give us a signed copy!

Day 7 Orphanage at Battambang

Another early start.  Unfortunately, we do have a bug going through our group.  Some people are way down, others a little. Gloria and I stay with the Cipro and aren’t real adventurous with our food selections.  For us, so far, so good.

Another very nice orphanage, but the kids had worse teeth.  We are starting to sense, the closer we get to Phnom Penh, (civilization) the worse the teeth. I am sure it is a diet thing. 

The picture of the little girl below has quite a story behind it.  When we arrived, she latched on to one of the team members and wouldn’t let go of his hand.  She is only three, but dressed in a very cute dress, with “pearls” on, and bracelets.  A real looker.  But, when it was her turn for the dental exam, we discovered that all her upper front teeth were decayed to the gum line and they were infected; so they had to come out. 

She has been our only patient we didn’t treat in a chair. We got a table in the pharmacy, numbed her up, held her down, shut the door and pulled out her infected teeth.  A bit noisy, but she did fine.  I think the pharmacy team members were more traumatized then she was. 

Note:  we did see her romping around in the afternoon, like nothing had happened!

The dental students really kicked it in to high gear today.  At any one time we were treating 6 or 7 patients.  I did more supervising and less treating for the first time. 

We did learn today why many people only want fillings and not extractions.  Apparently there is a legend that many believe that states if you have a tooth removed, you will go blind!  That explains why when I ask the dental student to tell the patient they need a tooth extracted, it would take them a long, long time to discuss it with the patient.  The primary religion is Hindu, but most people believe in evil spirits more than anything.

Six of the students working away!

Got a feeling what a hurricane (typhoon, down here) feels like today.  A rain squall came  through in the morning that was not only so noisy hitting the metal roof, but frightening in its intensity.  It sounded like hail, but it was just large raindrops.  Wind wasn’t bad, but we were told that this part of Central Asia is still drying out from the two typhoons that went through about a month ago.

The students horsing around while I am trying to get some work done.

Day 6 Orphanage in Banteay Meanchey

Couldn’t resist showing you this.  Do you know what it is?  We didn’t, had to ask around until we found out that they are frogs-on-a-stick!  Not sure if they are stuffed with veggies or not!

This New Life orphanage is very nice with about 35 children.  Indeed, most had pretty good teeth; needed to pull less then a dozen, usually only one tooth on any child.

This is the church for the orphanage, we worked in the building next door.

After we checked all the kids we then got busy on the villagers.  They needed the work!  The dental students worked all day with Gloria and me seeing our own patients and supervising/consulting and baling them out of tight spots.  After we closed up almost two hours later then expected, we found out that our medical/dental team had seen about 300 and they turned away 500 more!

We worked from 7AM to 5PM with a short break for lunch.  A very, very long day; sore back.  As I write this, we are in the hotel and I am waiting for my one-hour massage, ($5)!

Here is Dr. Fanny from Indonesia joining us for lunch

Day 5 Getting to Know Everybody

Being on the road for 8 hours did allow us to get to know each other!  Each of our team got to share who they were, what they did both here and in real life; a few details about family, and we always ended with if they were single or not and what their favorite food was?!

Quite a diverse. eclectic group.  Six countries are represented and indeed everyone has a story.  Some were raised Christians, others left the faith of their family to become Christians.  One girl talked about being raised a Taoist in Malaysia.  In fact her father was the local medium for the city.  She was fearful to tell her father of her conversion, but after some time she did and surprised in that he wasn’t outraged.  She actually attributes it to the fact that she is a female and not the first-born.  The only thing he insisted on was that she not be baptized!  Well……she ended up waiting for 5 years till her baptism; her father continues to accept her.

Another member of our team talked about her physician husband’s murder by a patient  ten years ago, and her journey of reconciliation and forgiveness of the murderer.  A very powerful story.

Others include a flight attendant for Singapore Air who greased the wheels for all the extra baggage brought from Singapore.  Another team member writes music reviews for a jazz magazine, interviewing all the current and former jazz greats.  At the conclusion of his interviews he always gives the performer  a book on Christianity and indeed follows up!

Finally, one of our interpreters, now a Christian used to be a Cambodian gangster.  Been shot several times, had some real stories to tell.  Now, finally has peace.

Victor Koh, our leader gave us a history of what Cambodia has been through the last 35 years and his involvement in Campus Crusade for Christ leadership during that time. The local pastor who welcomed us at the airport is also travelling with us and he will be talking about his, his wife and their newborn child’s four year survival from the Khmer Rouge in the jungles of Cambodia.

Finally, we were told that many Asians love Karaoke.  I believe it.  While on our 8 hour ride, they passed the microphone around and sang songs off of 3 different worship song sheets, in at least 3 different languages!  Great to hear some classic and new Christian praise songs in Chinese and Indonesian.