Spiritually full, but emotionally drained....

Another amazing day....
We traveled 80 km NW of Phnom Penh to Kampong Chhnang province to visit a small rural hospital there with a need for supplies. We traveled in the Magic Bus, again, which, thanks to Nary and Gabi  is always chock-full of cold water, diet pepsi, and local fruit like little bananas, mangostine, and other weird and wonderful stuff!
We got up early to go to the clinic and pack up all the medical items we could spare, since Gabi tells us they have so little, and re-use the same endotracheal tubes and spinal needles over and over, washing them with dish soap in-between. With the HIV infection rate at a whopping 10%, the mind reels at the implications...

.So each of us brought an assortment of goodies. I took  lots of 6.0 and 6.5 Endotracheal tubes which pleased the local anesthesiologist enormously because the larger "normal" size is way too big for these petite people!. I also took a little portable BP cuff (automatic), and a bunch of LMAs which would be SO helpful there (for you medical types).I demonstrated how to use them on a rusty patient cart (open-air, of course) that had empty beer bottles beneath it. I took a big bag of oxytocin ampules since they do about 150 deliveries a month, with a 10% C-section rate. They told me that the American version of the drug is fantastic because "it works!". They usually get the same drug from China which is ten times more dilute and only works on occasion.

There were hilarious signs on the exterior of the buildings. The first small building had a sign saying (subtitled under the Khmer), "Place to Pay Money".  And to the right of it was a "menu" of the surgical procedures available , with the price clearly listed in Khmer. Nari helped translate for Kevin and Nancy C. - noting that a huge major surgery would be about $50 US dollars. A simple wound closure is a bargain at $1.50!! But pay up front or you won't get anything.

The staff was terrific, and very grateful for our visit and supplies..Overall, although they had little, the whole place was very neat and really quite clean - much better-kept than Kossamet hospital where we're working every day.

En route to the hospital, we stopped for a cart pulled by two white bulls, selling pottery. These people spend about two weeks making their wares to sell, then travel in this cart to Phnom Penh, which takes about fifteen days with two-cow-power!. They stay in the city (and sleep in a little area in the middle of the cart) for as long as it takes to sell everything, then had back home and repeat the process.




  For those of you reading this that are horse people, they have the cows wear these cool little flip-flop things to protect their feet - a neat variant on our E-Z boots for horses !! Hilarious, and even color-coordinated with the same colors on the front, and different ones on the back. The cattle here are respected and loved because the people are utterly dependent on them to pull their carts and plow. If not working, they're turned loose to roam the countryside and drift across the road (there are no fences) - then at night they all just migrate back to their proper homes for dinner. Really cool.





From here we went further into the countryside where we had the privilege of visiting Saran's (sp?)clinic and school for local children. He bought land and built this lovely haven in an attempt to educate the children in French and English as a way of keeping them away from begging or falling into the child prostitution that is so prevalent here. Many of the children are victims of child abuse by family members and others. Horrifying. But their smiles are so gorgeous and hopeful.

This is where I walked around with tears in my eyes at the beauty of the children, and the oasis of safety and learning that this man has created in the midst of such poverty. I'll post pictures and more tomorrow.

So many of these days I go to bed and just cry for a while - not because I'm sad, but because what I see here fills me to the brim with genuine hope for humanity, despite the desperation and poverty.
The inherent innocence, honesty and goodness of these people, children and adults alike, really helps bring  me back into touch with the same qualities in myself. This place and these people have sort of forced us all to peel away those protective layers that build up so easily against the craziness of life back home. It's been therapeutic, inspirational, and transforming..

Just look at those faces!!! :-)