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Published: January 27th 2011
We arrived in Bangkok finally after 34 hours of travelling. Stayed at the 13 Coins hotel. I'm sure it was great in its' day. Now is pretty run down, but full of character. I understand there is a Moi Tae boxing school there as well. Up early the next day to catch the flight to Chang Rai on Thai Air - Big difference - very quiet flight, no little kids. Driver met us at airport and took us to "Big C" everything store. We bought bedding and personal supplies, then on to Thoed Thai near the border with Burma. We were quite the site riding in the back (yes the bed) of a pick up truck to the border. Then onto the back of motorcycles down jungle trails to Lo Kai Wan. There Dr Myron and I taught Jr. medics basic Anatomy and Physiology, Medical History Taking and basic treatment of common ailments for the area. (Hypertension, Gastric ulcer, skin infections and wound care.
I was very impressed with all the medics, they are trying so hard to learn English and basic medical care for their people. It was very difficult at times, as we went through 3 different interpreters over
Thoed Thai
Good clean food and fried rice for breakfast!the 10 days. We taught from 0900 to 1200, 1300 to 1700, then had an hour of quizzes from 1900 - 2030. Just the medics who were nursing mothers did not come back for the evening class. We had 14 medics to teach, all with different skill levels.
We slept in a brick building with a fibreglass roof. All our meals and meetings happened outdoors in our gazebo, unless the sun was shining, then we moved our table into the sun. Fuel wood is scarce so we did not want to burn any for heat. We had electricity from 1800 to 2200 only. The hospital has solar electricity during the day, but not if it is cloudy! The first 4 or 5 days were very cold which made cold showers very shocking! However our students were very clean and had clean hair every day, so I could not, not shower and set a bad example!
We paid for 3 hot meals a day and they were pretty good. Rice with every meal, deep fried eggs most mornings and heavenly freshly roasted nuts on occasion. Linda and Bonnie got the outdoor oven going and made buns and cookies for the medics
The Team
Kim, Elaine, Dr Myron, Chester, Bonnie, Linday and neighbours which were a welcome addition to our diet!
The village is growing slowly at the moment, but everyone is so poor. Their homes are thatched and the walls are made of woven bamboo and look pretty large from the outside. But inside they are dark and smokey with one large platform for sleeping and dirt floors. There are no cupboards. What you see is what they have and it is not much!
Our first interpreter was a teacher from the school. He arrived in creased dress pants and a nice sweater. He later took us to his house and it looked just as poor as everyone else'. It was one of those moments.....
I will add some pics, then I must get notes ready for the next camp where we will be teaching again. I hope I have given you a little bit of an idea of what it is like over here.
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Joanne
non-member comment
Wonderful News
Wonderful to hear you finally made it there safe and sound. Great pictures and update to give us a sense of life there. Hi to all from Joanne.