Cyle's Birthday

We made it through the night without any more spider sightings! Our train ride back to Surin was early on Sunday morning, so we were back in time for lunch. Cyle went to get his birthday massage, which was half off, and we decided to be productive and go to the laundromat. (By laundromat, we mean eight washers that are randomly placed on the sidewalk.)

(Here's the spider from the last post...nobody wanted to get close enough to use their hand for a size comparison.)

For dinner, we met up with the new child care volunteers and met the one new medical volunteer who is with us this week. Cyle was surprised when a cake was brought out to him for dessert. Garrett and Nicky had gone to a famous bakery in Surin, and after eating we realized why it was so famous. The rest of the night consisted of playing cards before bed, as this is turning into a nightly ritual.

Yesterday the clinic was pretty slow, and we did most of the work on ourselves. Garrett needed his foot cleaned and re-bandaged, Kelsey was beginning to have a sore throat so we diagnosed her with a common cold/allergies, and we think Patrick has traveler's diarrhea from something he ate on his weekend trip. We are all being even more careful to wash our hands now because he seems very sick. Before the day was over we did see a few more patients for wound care and diagnosis. 

After clinic, our leader Wi joined us all at the exercise park, and a few of us rented bikes for 20 baht for an hour! We got our workouts done just in time before a pretty strong downpour started, then met Wi again at a nearby restaurant for dinner. We had been to this restaurant before, but it was much better this time with Wi's help ordering our food and with the owner there to cook. After another satisfying meal, we returned to the house to play cards with two of the new child care volunteers.

Today has been another relatively slow day in the clinic, but we have seen some interesting cases. There were a couple of mystery bug bites/cases of edema, an eye condition that we had never heard of, an ear problem, an allergy to a popular Thai fruit, and a woman who had her staples from a C-section removed. We also finally took the time to explore the temple across the street, and Wi explained some small Buddhist symbols to us!

Khao Yai

Immediately after getting off the train and back into the warm air, a Thai woman asked us which hotel we were going to and instructed us to wait. We really had no idea what was going on, but after a few minutes a pickup truck arrived for us and drove us to the Green Leaf. We had expectations of a cheap hotel, but it is more of a cottage rental with pretty gardens and a restaurant (which has the option to substitute tofu for most menu items, to Colleen's pleasant surprise).

We had a couple hours to spare before the beginning of our first tour, so we went to a coffee shop down the street for energy and wifi. We then hopped back into the bed of the pickup truck with a French family to start the tour.

The first place we went was a natural spring, so we spent some time swimming in the cool and very clear water with other tourists and some locals. 

After air drying the best we could in another truck ride, we stopped at what looked like a large temple. We walked around a corner and there was a cave entrance that we were instructed to go into. Apparently the monks frequently medidate in the darkness and quiet of this cave, alongside tarantulas, bats, centipedes and other creepy crawlies. Our tour guide found a tarantula right away for us to look at before it scurried back into its hole. He then picked up some type of arachnoid that is commonly described by its looks as a "scorpion spider." We didn't realize how interactive this tour was until he put the creature on Cyle's neck and let it crawl around on his face and head. After more of us got a chance to hold it, we ventured on to see all of the bats sleeping on the ceilings and flying around each other. Our guide then found a blueish, massive centipede which he put on Colleen's arm to explore. We kept walking through for a while and saw different Buddha's and places for the monks to meditate before leaving.

The next stop was what our guide referred to as the real bat cave. We couldn't go in, because apparently there used to be a problem with visitors stealing the bat poop and selling it or making explosives from it. So we watched at the bottom of the mountain as the sun was going down to see about two million bats leave their cave in search of food. While they began to fly out, we also got to eat some more Thai fruit: mangosteen and rambutan. Our guide then handed us weird pea pod-looking things and told us to put them under our tongues. Everyone yelped when we discovered that they explode like pop rocks when they get wet. (Except Kelsey, who tried to be sneaky and waited until everyone else tried them first.)

Our last stop before going back for the night was at the spring again to see a huge millipede. We got to hold it and let it crawl around on us. They are really strong!

The next morning, we drove into the actual grounds of Khao Yai National Park. A few minutes into the drive, the truck stopped and our tour guide hurried us off to let us look for the gibbons swinging on branches in the distance. He also picked up a scorpion from somewhere near the road and placed it on some of us. After a few minutes of this, we drove a little farther to another spot where gibbons and macaques were swinging and eating in plain view. 

We then went for a three hour hike through the jungle. Although we didn't come across any elephants, tigers or monkeys, we did see some pretty trees and streams, as well as get some exercise in. By the time we made it to lunch, we were exhausted. We went for one last photo opp to a waterfall before the long drive back.

After satisfying our stomachs with another delicious dinner (Kelsey and Colleen actually had two dinners) and using the wifi at a nearby cafe, we decided to head back to play cards and call it a night. When Fiona walked into the girls' room, she realized they had a visitor. She screamed and pointed at the intruder tarantula on the wall. Even though we have been holding various creatures a lot lately, we didn't feel safe grabbing it, so we called one of the staff workers in to help us. He laughed and said that these spiders aren't even dangerous and that it wasn't that big. Regardless, we were all happy to see our friend let back into the wild. We then decided to play cards and drink some beer in order to help us sleep in our possibly spider-infested rooms.

Babies!

Yesterday was probably our favorite day in the clinic yet. Since it was their last day, the UCONN girls went to the local hospital to shadow and see another angle of Thai health care. We got to stay in the clinic and do well child checks! We split up into groups to do the initial check-in, help with the dentist, prepare vaccines and do wound care. Helping the dentist consisted of counting the kids' teeth and counting how many were rotten (usually about half), then rubbing some fluoride on them. The kids were very well-behaved and playful, minus a handful who were afraid of us scary white people. Just before lunch, a woman came in with a knife cut that needed stitches. The nurse walked Fiona through it and let her do her first sutures while we all cheered her on!

Lunch was our favorite fried rice again, and then we went back to the house with the afternoon off. We bummed around for a while napping and reading, and the guys went to the Internet cafe while the girls went for a quick run. We all went with the UCONN girls to dinner at a little place right next to our house that we refer to as "chicken rice" because of its main dish. The cook's daughter is the waitress and some of the girls had gotten to know her because she studied enligh classes for a while in the US. She knew it was their last day in Surin, so she gave us a huge plate of Pad Thai to share and tons of fruits for dessert. Every time we thought we were done eating, she would bring out more! We stayed up for a while after playing cards and packing because we are now en route to Khao Yai national park! We must be getting used to the heat here because the A/C on the train feels like the arctic tundra, and we are layering as much clothing as possible for the next three hours. 

Back to Work

Watching the World Cup final was a blast! We went to another little bar that our group leaders knew of. There were a lot of us there even though the game didn't start until 2 am. After it was over, Kelsey and Colleen made the smart decision of going to bed, but the guys decided to stay up and talk until 9 am. Unsurprisingly, we were all pretty tired the next day, so we decided to take a rest day and nap/read/play cards.

We had the day off on Monday, so we took advantage of our time to go to the exercise park and do another exhausting workout. Monday was the New Zealand girls' birthday, so we all went out to dinner and had cake while playing cards to celebrate. 

(Elouise and Jola from New Zealand)

Yesterday was our first day back in the clinic. All of the girls went to a daycare nearby to screen for Hand, Foot and Mouth Disease because they had a child who was diagnosed recently. We had a lot of fun playing with the kids for a bit afterward. Then we came back and did the usual until lunch: diagnosis and wound care. Lunch was our favorite fried rice place, so we were pretty excited about that!

Since the clinic was slow and we had quite a few people working, they decided to have us garden in the afternoon. This was another exhausting workout, and after digging up many weeds, digging trenches, and planting lemongrass and silk, we were covered in sweat and dirt. But the garden definitely looked a lot better than when we started!

Last night we visited two new places that we didn't know about previously: the office (with wifi and a phone for local calls) and the laundromat. The girls went to the office and were able to change our flight from Bangkok to Phuket so that we have an extra day at the beach, and the guys went to do some laundry. We then went to a dinner place that had a swimming pool with a few other volunteers and had another workout playing games in the pool. Our meal here was somewhat new; still noodles, but a different kind! Unfortunately, our night ended with Garrett slicing his foot open on a jet in the pool so we had to do some after-hours work to give him wound care.

Today we had an earlier clinic for hypertension screening. Garrett was our first patient for wound care, so his foot is all clean and wrapped up! We did general screenings with height/weight/BP/pulse/waist circumference, glucose testing and hematocrit testing. There were many people who came in with visible complications, yet they all smiled at us and were very appreciative. It is so good to know that the people are grateful to have us here.

Things slowed down for us in the afternoon (after another delicious fried rice lunch), so we entertained ourselves by testing each other's hematocrit and learning how to suture on chicken legs. This was slightly more difficult than learning at home with the language barrier, but we think we figured it out.

Nicky took us to the train station after a short laundry and dinner break (Pad Thai!) to buy tickets to go to the National Park this weekend. He dropped us off at another market, where we walked around ogling all of the odd food and items to buy. We indulged in some delicious waffles which were roughly 33 cents, some bubble tea, chicken and other bits and pieces.

(a massive container of crickets, presumably to be fried as a snack)

More clinic and ELEPHANTS!!!

Yesterday was our last day of work for the week. We broke up into the normal stations in the clinic. Colleen and Cyle were on diagnosis for awhile and saw a patient with uncontrolled diabetes and another with constipation. These were pretty simple diagnoses but they did get to use some skills we learned in school to palpate the man's stomach. Garrett got to diagnose a monk and got to feel around his eye. That doesn't sound like a big deal but apparently monks can only be touched by another male for medical purposes.  We then sorted out pills and filled prescriptions for a long time. While sorting pills we started to hear this really loud music. We walked outside and the temple across the pond was having a small parade for the newly initiated monks. They rode elephants that were all painted up and traveled throughout the village. We then left for lunch.  We becoming slightly more and more adventurous with our food choices and have even indulged in some of the spicy sauces. We returned back to our guesthouse and napped for a bit. 

We decided to do a workout since they were starting to feel a little restless. Just down the road is what they call an exercise park. There is a running/biking path around the lake and all these body weight exercise machines in the grass. The machines are used as toys by kids but can be used as weight lifting contraptions for adults as well. It's actually really cool and innovative.  Due to the heat and humidity though we were unable to do much. As we were dying of heat and sweating buckets, the Thai people were casually working out in long pants or long sleeved shirts. Cyle's extremely unproven theory is that the Thai people's bodies have adapted to the extreme heat and humidity. In the clinic it has been observed that most Thai people very watery stomachs, which makes us believe they retain their water more than we do as Americans. Again, we really have no scientific evidence that this is true though. Anyways, after our suicide attempt of a workout we showered up and got ready for dinner and shopping. As it was officially the weekend we went back to the Jahbar for another departure celebration for the Scottish girls in our group. The band they had there this night sang American songs with a more reggae or jazzy feel. The idea of it is interesting; for some songs it worked and for others it definitely did not. At one point Cyle was handed the microphone and serenaded the crowd with a not-so-tantalizing version of "She Will be Loved" by Maroon 5. Miraculously, he was not booed off the stage. It was another fun night but we kept it pretty calm since we had to wake up and ride elephants!

 

Today was the day we had all been waiting for since our arrival in Thailand; the elephant riding day! We woke up at 8 am and traveled by pickup truck for a little over an hour to the elephant sanctuary, which we ended up just driving through. There was elephants all around including a 3 month old. Pictures were difficult to capture due to the fact that we were moving. We then stopped for a bit near a jungle area to wait for our elephants to arrive. There was a slight miscommunication so we ended up driving around until we met up with 3 of the elephants walking towards the pickup spot. They asked if anybody wanted to ride the elephants to the pickup spot so Colleen and Cyle jumped at the chance. 

It is pretty difficult getting on an elephant as one can imagine but with a little help we were able to hoist ourselves onto the massive animal. Riding on the elephant with no saddle or seat is actually quite the glute workout. You constantly feel like you are going to fall forward but somehow manage to stay on. You can't really grip the elephant with your legs like you would a horse so most of us held onto a rope around the elephants' neck or pushed against their head for balance. 

After the first initial ride Colleen and Cyle met up with the other volunteers struggling to get on their respective elephants. Cyle had to make an elephant change for some unknown reason which required him climbing onto about a 10 foot bar and transferring to a new elephant. This elephant's name was Numchu.  Colleen rode an elephant named Pajumpon. The elephants took us on a narrow path that winded through the forest. It was amazing how they could follow the path with little guidance. They also were able to traverse through ravines created by rainwater on their own with out letting us fall off. Multiple times it felt like you could fall off but it's probably harder than expected. At the turn around spot the trainers lead the elephants to the river while we were still on them. The elephants swam around and dove into the water fully submerging themselves. The people on top stay mostly out of the water except for Cyle whose elephant decided that rolling while underwater would be a good idea. Somehow we all managed not to fall off or submerge our heads underwater. We were determined not to since we had just witnessed Cyle's elephant pooping in the water. We definitely don't need to contract E. Coli, cholera or any other waterborne disease we learned about this last year while on this trip. We then turned around and headed back to the starting point. 

Upon arriving back to the starting point we had the even more difficult task of getting off the elephant. It required us to hop onto the top of the truck and subsequently climb down shortly afterwards. We didn't realize elephant riding required so much climbing. The elephant riding was quite the experience one that we all hope to do again in the future.

After that we ate lunch and traveled to a silk village. Silk clothing is handmade in Thailand and this small town had many shops that sold various silk items. It was fun bargaining with the merchants even though we are not the best at it. We then traveled home and took a much needed nap. We didn't wake up until way late and found ourselves starving. We walked to a really cool outdoor restaurant that had delicious food (for non-vegetarians...Colleen's dinner ended up being mostly oysters that she shouldn't stomach) and good music. All of the bars are closed this weekend due to the Buddhist holiday so we ended up just playing cards at our house before heading to bed. Overall, it was a day that we will not soon forget!