Slow & Sunny Day

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Today was a pretty relaxing day! We started off the morning with rice and chicken soup for breakfast and then headed to the conference room for a lesson with Aj. Roshinee. She taught us about the seven assessment tools to use in the community! Off the bat, these tools seemed pretty self explanatory, but after going more in depth I realized how interesting it was! I really enjoy community nursing as it is something we don't talk about often. I find it so interesting to learn about health disparities in certain communities and why these diseases occur. For example, in Thailand, diabetes and hypertension are major diseases. Even though the Thai live such a healthy lifestyle, these conditions are genetic.

Aj Roshinee taught us tools that we can use in the Chiang Rai community. We discussed that community nurses cannot simply barge into the community and demand people altar their unhealthy habits. The nurse has to find the community leader, earn their respect, learn about the community and health disparities, and strategize how to influence the community. This made complete sense to me because nobody likes a stranger telling them how to live their life!

We were all very excited to find the cutest little Thai cafe less than a mile from campus (pictured)! The cafe had tons of plants and a porch to sit on with wood furniture and cushions. It was a great find! After that we ate lunch at the college. We had the rest of the afternoon to pack for Chiang Rai tomorrow, do laundry in the sink, catch up on blogs, and hang out! We all ended up spending some of the time to have meaningful conversations and get to know each other a little better! I really enjoy spontaneous, non-forced, times of fellowship where groups of people can share their testimonies and gain better understanding and appreciation for why people are the way they are.

After another yummy dinner (rice, pork, and veggies), Greg took us to a sports complex. They had running tracks, swimming, soccer, tennis, etc. It was so cool to see Thai people being active and healthy! Greg told us that Thai people are very much into health promotion and maintenance, which I always love to hear!

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