Third Day of Medical Mission

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Today we drove about an hour out of Siem Reap, past level golden fields, palm trees and many canals, to another small village. It was the coolest and easiest of the work days. Also, by now, we all knew each other, and we'd become efficient in our teamwork. This time we were set up at the family home of one of the translators. What was immediately different was the set up- the tables, chairs and decorations reminded me of one of the celebrations we were often driving past in town and in villages. Looking past the houses were the fields- and we were told not to venture from the road. It was not cleared of land mines. Sure enough, the neighbor was missing a leg from gathering her husband from that field- he's blind. Jacob realized they had no private toilet on their property so he paid for supplies and assisted with building walls around the outdoor toilet while the rest of us saw our patients. The day went by mostly smoothly. By now my translator had picked up what I said for each type of med and she could anticipate what words I was going to say ahead of time. We ended up staying in touch after this trip as well. At one point, one kid got halfway through the pediatrics area before our crew realized he was covered in chicken pox. So work had to halt in that area for an hour while everything was disinfected.

That evening we all ate dinner together near the Night Market again. Chris and I spent a couple hours finally wandering the Market. We just didn't have energy previous nights, and I think Chris was tired that night as well, but he stuck it out for me. We had so much fun wandering stall to stall haggling for souvenirs, drinking Cambodian beer and finally getting a group foot massage! My favorite part was legit haggling for a pair of wooden elephants, not getting the price we wanted, pretending to walk away and then getting a great deal. They're so beautiful! Most of the time we didn't haggle very much, though. Everything was very affordable, and they need to make a living, too. Also exciting, peeing in a public Cambodia floor toilet with broken pipes nearby- there was literally a river of water flowing around my legs but when you gotta go, you gotta go.

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