Tuesday night we went back to the daily market, mostly for the delicious waffles. A new volunteer moved into the house with us this week, so we showed him around too.
Wednesday was another early day for a hypertension clinic. We split up into the usual groups: check-in/vitals, glucose testing, and hematocrit/wound healing. There were storms in the morning so we were a little slower than usual. After lunch we went to three different villages to do home visits for newborns and their mothers. It was very eye-opening to see the conditions that different patients live in. The first woman lived in a nice home with her extended family and had concerns about breastfeeding. The second lived in a smaller home with more exposure to the outdoors, as chickens and cats seemed to run through their living room area. Our last stop involved wading through big mud puddles to get to the home, and we only saw one bedroom full of clothing and a bed. The women all seemed to be very grateful that we were able to be there and the babies were adorable, as expected!
Nicky invited us to Muay Thai (Thai boxing) Wednesday night, so we of course jumped at the opportunity along with most of the other volunteers. We were very shocked when we first walked in and saw boys who didn't look any older than 8 punching and kicking each other with adults yelling and gambling on them. Our moods lifted after the first two matches, as the boxers looked a little older. Nicky told us a little about the sport and we learned that the opponents are more respectful to each other than they may seem at first. The goal is to gain points, not to knock out the other person. Once we became more accustomed to what we were looking at, the night became much more enjoyable. Cyle and Garrett even got to go into the ring to present two of the boxers with flower necklaces for good luck before their match.
Yesterday was another half day for us, and we got to visit the community hospital! It is a smaller hospital that is used as a step up from the clinic we had been in but not quite as equipped as the city hospital. we stayed in the ER for a couple of hours and saw three patients: a man with leukemia who was receiving erythropoietin injections, a young guy with a migraine and a man who had been injured working in the fields. His case was the longest, as we undressed the wound and saw that most of the tissue had been removed. He had waited too long to go to the hospital, and the wound had become badly infected. After cleaning it, the nurses told us to cut out certain sections (which we presumed to be areas with gangrene). Even though he was obviously in a ton of pain, the man was very appreciative and never complained. After he was ready to go, we went back to the clinic for a short ceremony where the director spoke with us and gave us each a certificate. It was so nice to know that the clinic staff enjoyed having us and even welcomed us to come back in the future!
After a delicious lunch at our favorite fried rice place, we stopped at the local school to pick up other volunteers and got to sing a phonics song with the kids! The rest of our day was spent packing before going out to dinner (well two dinners-the chicken rice place right in front of our house and a new place recommended by Nicky with fresh tilapia) and the local bar to say goodbye to everyone. It was a great time, but it still hasn't sunk in that we won't be going back to see them again. Tuktuks came to pick us up (since we brought all of our belongings to the bar with us) and took us to the bus station for our overnight bus to Bangkok. It was a surprisingly comfortable ride, and we made it to the city and found the cooking school we had made reservations at!
Chef Non took us through a local market and explained how to choose the ingredients that we wanted. He then spent about three hours helping us to make five Thai dishes: tom yum soup, Pad Thai, chicken salad, green curry and mango sticky rice. We left with very full bellies and a cookbook that we are looking forward to using at home!
We are now sitting in the airport waiting for our quick flight to our next stop: Patong Beach in Phuket!
No comments:
Post a Comment