A few more of us have gotten a little sick either during or since our arrival. We're all jet-lagged to the max, and a bunch of us had to return to work today. I, for one, was certainly functioning on 'auto-pilot' - but everything went smoothly, and it seemed absolutely luxurious compared to Kossamak Hospital. But I admit I missed staring down at my toes in flip-flops during surgery!
I know we're all delighted to be back to our families and American friends - -
Back to beautiful clean hospitals, efficient labs, well-stocked blood banks, proper toilets, safe drinking water and bountiful operating room supplies! ( I am a bit less excited about being back to HIPAA regulations, JCAH rules, Pixus machines, insurance companies, billing codes, malpractice attorneys, 'time-outs', APPLE-PIE mnemonics, and locked anesthesia carts).
No more need for DEET in the Operating Room! - But also no more lovely smiling Cambodian faces, blessedly beautiful children, or grateful patients pressing their palms in front of their hearts, saying "Aw Kun" (thank you) over and over to our team members.
No more balmy breezes, "Dr. Seuss fruit", Khmer-special $6.00/hour massages, and FOR SURE no motorcycles laden with bananas, multiple rice bags, or live chickens and ducks!!! (yuk..)
Beautiful Cambodia, poor Cambodia. I believe we all left a little piece of our hearts there. And I, for one, hope to return again someday while I still have the energy and health to help.
Here's the team at baggage claim back at DIA in Denver, bleary-eyed and dazed. But we wanted to say a final thank you to Cambodia and the CMMC/Jeremiah's Hope Clinic and staff for all their incredible efforts and help. We love you, and miss you already!
For anyone interested (primarily team-members, family, and Cambodian friends, I assume), I'm going to spend the next few days editing and organizing my photos and mini-videos into an online folio that you can access. I need a little more time to let my brain recover and adjust to the ten time zones we crossed in the past couple of days!
I'll divide the folio into albums so you can skip over the more graphic O.R./pathology shots if you're squeamish, and just look at certain subjects, e.g. the "Fabulous Restroom Facilities" sub-album -- LOL :-).
My technical adviser here (aka husband Brian) tells me I can set it up so that you can download any of the photos you like to your own computers - so no need for a flash-drive or disc for my stuff. I'll post the direct link here on the blog, which should make it pretty easy for everyone.
I'll also post a couple of make-up blogs for Angkor-Wat, the Floating Village, and Dr. Saran's village. They were sort of complicated to engineer all the way from Phnom Penh - but too amazing to leave out!
-Thanks for following along!
xoxoxo
Alida
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