It's looking right now like I will be moving soon. We're finding a village up in the mountains that I can use as my outpost for medical work. We'll see what opens up. This is exciting as we've been wanting to spread out more with the work. There's thousands of dirt poor little villages up in the mountains filled with refugees. Many of them have really no way whatsoever to get any kind of medical care.
The next two weeks will be busy ones! It's my goal to be able to read Karen by then, do more language learning, and I'll also possibly be making a trip up to Chiang Mai for medical supplies.
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
Monday, December 28, 2009
Christmas
Merry Christmas, everybody - nice and late!:)
I had a good, if not very Christmasy one. Got up early, made another delectable (not!) rice and curry breakfast. Some of my family left early to take some patients to the hospital in the refugee camp. Took care of a few patients. Did several motorbike trips into Mesolite for bags of rice and baby clothes for people who didn't have any. Went to pick up my sister in Methawa (about 20 minutes away). Did some Christmas shopping at a few little shops and used the excuse of the day to celebrate with ice cream with Em. Went down to the creek to rinse out laundry and while at it sang Christmas carols under the blazing sun (90 degrees indoors!). Came back up only to debate with the guys over the banana cake that'd be gotten up in Chiang Mai for a treat. We must have spent the next 20 minutes discussing how to divide it.:) And so forth, so on... Was a good day! But if or when I get back to the States I will have a Christmas, even if in July!:)
I had a good, if not very Christmasy one. Got up early, made another delectable (not!) rice and curry breakfast. Some of my family left early to take some patients to the hospital in the refugee camp. Took care of a few patients. Did several motorbike trips into Mesolite for bags of rice and baby clothes for people who didn't have any. Went to pick up my sister in Methawa (about 20 minutes away). Did some Christmas shopping at a few little shops and used the excuse of the day to celebrate with ice cream with Em. Went down to the creek to rinse out laundry and while at it sang Christmas carols under the blazing sun (90 degrees indoors!). Came back up only to debate with the guys over the banana cake that'd be gotten up in Chiang Mai for a treat. We must have spent the next 20 minutes discussing how to divide it.:) And so forth, so on... Was a good day! But if or when I get back to the States I will have a Christmas, even if in July!:)
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Patients and Patience...
Here comes my long-delayed blog. I haven't been as good at keeping things updated as I hoped to. Somehow time just seems to slip away and whatever I wanted to say seems kinda outdated by the time I get around to actually writing it down.
Last week we went up to Chiang Mai (about a 7 hour drive or so from our house). We've been having mechanical difficulties with our vehicles which has really been creating some difficulties with the medical work so we had to go up and try to fix things. At the same time they were holding a media seminar up there (something I've always wanted to do) that I was able to attend. I discovered that as much as I like computers and cameras, I don't like staring at them all day.:) It was great training though!
Monday I came down by minibus together with a friend ahead of my family. Then by surprise a couple of the guys came and picked us up on motorbikes in Mae Sariang. Now that's a fun road to ride!:) It's got it all - about 3 hours of good road, bad road, and worse road, together with pincurves and many a hill.:)
So here I am back on the border. I've been keeping busy doing patient care again. Sometimes it's quite slow, but other times you're doing just to find time to brush your teeth in the morning. We've got so many pediatric patients. Just a guess, but I think I could say that probably 80+% of them are either babies or small kids. Yesterday I a took 4-month-old into the hospital that was having pretty severe breathing difficulty. He ended up having bacterial pneumonia. Today we took in 2 more. A one and two year old. One of them was just recovering from measles and really didn't look good. That's the first time I've seen skin "tenting" in real life. She was acting very lethargic and I considered her to be an urgent patient. We have to stick with the patient in the hospital to make sure that the doctor actually carefully evaluates the patient. Often they will just look at one thing and make their diagnoses just because they're so busy, rather than taking all the symptoms into consideration. For example, almost everyone that comes in complaining of stomach pain comes out diagnosed with gastritis. Just as a rather hilarious anecedote, my mom went in because she was having some trouble with her lungs and thought she might have pneumonia and the doctor diagnosed her with having an allergy to the cold. She thought better of informing him that she came from Montana.:) Anyways... On this one the doctor wouldn't believe that the patient was dehydrated or had measle complications. He diagnosed her with having just a common cold. So tomorrow we'll be taking them back to a different hospital.
Last week we went up to Chiang Mai (about a 7 hour drive or so from our house). We've been having mechanical difficulties with our vehicles which has really been creating some difficulties with the medical work so we had to go up and try to fix things. At the same time they were holding a media seminar up there (something I've always wanted to do) that I was able to attend. I discovered that as much as I like computers and cameras, I don't like staring at them all day.:) It was great training though!
Monday I came down by minibus together with a friend ahead of my family. Then by surprise a couple of the guys came and picked us up on motorbikes in Mae Sariang. Now that's a fun road to ride!:) It's got it all - about 3 hours of good road, bad road, and worse road, together with pincurves and many a hill.:)
So here I am back on the border. I've been keeping busy doing patient care again. Sometimes it's quite slow, but other times you're doing just to find time to brush your teeth in the morning. We've got so many pediatric patients. Just a guess, but I think I could say that probably 80+% of them are either babies or small kids. Yesterday I a took 4-month-old into the hospital that was having pretty severe breathing difficulty. He ended up having bacterial pneumonia. Today we took in 2 more. A one and two year old. One of them was just recovering from measles and really didn't look good. That's the first time I've seen skin "tenting" in real life. She was acting very lethargic and I considered her to be an urgent patient. We have to stick with the patient in the hospital to make sure that the doctor actually carefully evaluates the patient. Often they will just look at one thing and make their diagnoses just because they're so busy, rather than taking all the symptoms into consideration. For example, almost everyone that comes in complaining of stomach pain comes out diagnosed with gastritis. Just as a rather hilarious anecedote, my mom went in because she was having some trouble with her lungs and thought she might have pneumonia and the doctor diagnosed her with having an allergy to the cold. She thought better of informing him that she came from Montana.:) Anyways... On this one the doctor wouldn't believe that the patient was dehydrated or had measle complications. He diagnosed her with having just a common cold. So tomorrow we'll be taking them back to a different hospital.
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
Pics
Josiah and one of little boys, Poketaw, thrilled after receiveing some warm clothes!
Josiah again with one of the older students, Gechawmai.
Some patients on the front porch.
Please forgive the descriptiveness of these pictures. I don't mean to be overly graphic, but this is what it's like here.
This is the little boy (we thought he was a girl) on the far right in the above picture. He's 5 and has had this infection for 5 months. You can't even begin to imagine the pain...
....
I ran out of time to finish this, so to be continued....
"This morning dawned cloudy in the borderlands between Thailand and Burma, but as the sun breaks through, the beauty is breathtaking; high, rugged mountains; thick green jungle; rich fertile valleys surrounding freeflowing rivers. The beauty is so exhilarating it nearly makes us forget why we are here. It seems almost impossible to believe that this apparent paradise is a place more like hell for hundreds of thousands of people around us. The conflict of emotions caused by the contrast between the beauty of the land and the enormity of the tragedy of the oppressed and displaced people nearby is made even more acute by another bittersweet contrast - the brutality of the regime which inflicts immeasurable suffering on countless suffering victims: dignity in deprivation; generosity in destitution and a love that transforms brutality into miracles of grace." (Taken from the book "A Land Without Evil")
I was thinking that I'm not sure everyone that reads my blog has a very good picture of where we really are and what we're doing. In the past I felt like I couldn't speak very freely due to safety issues, but, at this point, it isn't really a problem with where I'm staying right now. So I thought I'd give a little better explanation of where we are and the situation over here for those who are interested.
We're living in Thailand at the moment, right near the Burma (Myanmar) border. This map shows Karen State (inside of Burma - the white part) which is what we border.
.jpg)
At this time, we're mainly serving the Karen people, mainly the IDP (Internally Displaced Persons) here along the border on the Thai side.
Kawthoolei (Karen State), which literally means a 'land without blemish', has long been a land with mines and a killing field. The Karen people living in Burma have been forced to flee a military dictatorship. And, not only that, but the Burmese Army is set on exterminating the Karen (and all other ethnic minorities) as a people group. War and killing have been a regular part of their lives for the past 60 years, but they haven't given up. This is the longest lasting civil war in history. The KNU (Karen National Union) fights mainly only in self-defense. They don't want to fight, but this is what they are forced to do to protect their homes and families.
Karen State is a beautiful place where I have lived and worked before. They'd had the threat of attack for a while in the area I was in, but just recently (after I left - in June) the Burmese finally did attack, conquered the KNU and took over the area. We had to evacuate the Karen school that was over there (approximately over a hundred kids) and move them across the border into Thailand.
In the KNU's own words, they desire Kawthoolei to be a Karen State with the right to self-determination. They want all the people to be given democratic rights, politically, economically, socially and culturally. They want to have freedom and quality of all religions. Burma is, at this point, one of the least developed countries in the world. Incidentally, about 40% of the Karen are christians, while the remaining number are either Buddhist or Animist.
My family's living in a house right along the border (about 500 yds) right now. They're specifically doing medical work with the villagers nearby and also supporting and directing the school that was evacuated from Burma and is now located right next door.
To be continued...
"...To loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free... To deal they bread to the hungry, and to bring the poor that are cast out to thy house? When thou seest the naked that thou cover him..." Isaiah 58:7,8
"This morning dawned cloudy in the borderlands between Thailand and Burma, but as the sun breaks through, the beauty is breathtaking; high, rugged mountains; thick green jungle; rich fertile valleys surrounding freeflowing rivers. The beauty is so exhilarating it nearly makes us forget why we are here. It seems almost impossible to believe that this apparent paradise is a place more like hell for hundreds of thousands of people around us. The conflict of emotions caused by the contrast between the beauty of the land and the enormity of the tragedy of the oppressed and displaced people nearby is made even more acute by another bittersweet contrast - the brutality of the regime which inflicts immeasurable suffering on countless suffering victims: dignity in deprivation; generosity in destitution and a love that transforms brutality into miracles of grace." (Taken from the book "A Land Without Evil")
I was thinking that I'm not sure everyone that reads my blog has a very good picture of where we really are and what we're doing. In the past I felt like I couldn't speak very freely due to safety issues, but, at this point, it isn't really a problem with where I'm staying right now. So I thought I'd give a little better explanation of where we are and the situation over here for those who are interested.
We're living in Thailand at the moment, right near the Burma (Myanmar) border. This map shows Karen State (inside of Burma - the white part) which is what we border.
.jpg)
At this time, we're mainly serving the Karen people, mainly the IDP (Internally Displaced Persons) here along the border on the Thai side.
Kawthoolei (Karen State), which literally means a 'land without blemish', has long been a land with mines and a killing field. The Karen people living in Burma have been forced to flee a military dictatorship. And, not only that, but the Burmese Army is set on exterminating the Karen (and all other ethnic minorities) as a people group. War and killing have been a regular part of their lives for the past 60 years, but they haven't given up. This is the longest lasting civil war in history. The KNU (Karen National Union) fights mainly only in self-defense. They don't want to fight, but this is what they are forced to do to protect their homes and families.
Karen State is a beautiful place where I have lived and worked before. They'd had the threat of attack for a while in the area I was in, but just recently (after I left - in June) the Burmese finally did attack, conquered the KNU and took over the area. We had to evacuate the Karen school that was over there (approximately over a hundred kids) and move them across the border into Thailand.
In the KNU's own words, they desire Kawthoolei to be a Karen State with the right to self-determination. They want all the people to be given democratic rights, politically, economically, socially and culturally. They want to have freedom and quality of all religions. Burma is, at this point, one of the least developed countries in the world. Incidentally, about 40% of the Karen are christians, while the remaining number are either Buddhist or Animist.
My family's living in a house right along the border (about 500 yds) right now. They're specifically doing medical work with the villagers nearby and also supporting and directing the school that was evacuated from Burma and is now located right next door.
To be continued...
"...To loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free... To deal they bread to the hungry, and to bring the poor that are cast out to thy house? When thou seest the naked that thou cover him..." Isaiah 58:7,8
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
