Still alive

Still alive

Sorry I’m so far behind! The last week of classes was really busy, with only mostly only Gary and I there for the EMS side. But moving to HOPE worked out very well, all of the Police students were very happy not to be at the academy. At the academy they were required to be at dress ready at 0700 for the singing of the national anthem, in uniform, with hair cut to the proper length. Let’s just say they were very happy to be out of that environment. The first Monday even our interpreter showed up at HOPE and did everything he could not to go back to the academy. We were able to use some of the tope returning students to teach some of the classes. Not personally being able to speak Khmer, I’m not totally sure were they were saying but watching body language and the reaction of the other students it sure seemed they were doing a good job. We ended the EMS classes with 44 EMT students many of which were first timers. We have made some good contacts for next year and will have new students from the trauma hospitals ambulance service that are currently untrained. This will be another big step. I’m not sure if the Police EMS system will ever get going or not, there are some big obstacles to get through first but we’ll keep training and not give up on that dream. We also took three more AEDs that we were able to give to HOPE hospital; they are already on the ambulances and in the ER. The fire classes went well as they could, we were constantly confronted with equipment that was breaking down, such at engines that could not draft from a water supply, and also the Ladder truck didn’t get running again until the last day of classes so the aerial training that Bruce had planned on never did come to be a reality. None the less we did manage to fill the days with good instruction by adapting and overcoming. Rebecca arrived Thursday night and was able to attend the final official ceremonies, complete with news coverage from four TV stations. I also was able to get Rebecca a full tour of HOPE Hospital the first morning she arrived complete with watching the 250 showing up for the morning lottery, hoping to be one of the lucky 5-10 new patients to be seen that day. We both had tears in out eyes after the first two picks, seeing the pure joy and excitement of the patient’s picked knowing they would finely receive some medical care. The tears we had also reflected us knowing that around 250 other people wound not see medical care that day. Friday night we had our annual party for the students. This year the Australian’s organized it so of course it was a big BBQ at the local Aussi bar. The student’s really had a blow out time even though half had to leave the party (beer in hand) in the fire truck (that was at the bar also) to go to a fire. (Yes there still are areas we haven’t approached yet)

Most of our group flew out Saturday morning. I was able to send most of my stuff back with them, including my laptop computer. (Partly explaining how I got so far behind on the blog) A few of us that were still there trekked back out to the villages taking more bread and saw the wells that we paid to have put in the first week we were there. It war so cool to see how excited they were over their new wells. Rebecca had extra room coming over so she brought a duffel bag off children’s clothing and some national flags of Belfair (large blue tarps to cover leaky roofs) we were able to give them to people that really needed them. The cloths were such a big hit. We had handed out a bunch at one village and were getting ready to leave when someone pointed out one little boy with no pants (this isn’t real uncommon the children commonly don’t were pants until they are potty trained. But this little boy was a little older and only had a single old shirt to claim as his own. We reached in the bag found a pair of pants to fit him, put them on him and he and his mother were so happy. I can’t express the look of proud ness he had over is new pants. (More tears) One of the last villages we visited we had spent a while at and were getting ready to leave when one of our members noticed a little girl with something on here arm and asked me about it. At first I thought she had paint or something on it, but as I watched her I noticed she was trying to hide it. We had been playing with her and the other children for sometime prior and not noticed anything wrong. As I looked closer I could see something indeed was wrong (note FYI, I have tears now as I’m writing this) As it turned out she had dunked her arm into boiling water the day before up to the elbow, causing deep seconded degree burns over most all of her hand and lower arm. They had tried to treat the injuries by covering them with tooth paste. I can’t tell you how my heart sank knowing or not knowing what the outcome would be. This is a child if we were at home I would have immediately called for a helicopter and sent her to the burn unit at Harborview Hospital without thinking twice. But there is no helicopter; there is no burn unit, only us. Art (a paramedic from Belleview) and I went to work breaking out our “crew first aid kit” (only to be used for us tram members) (that plan went right out the door), stetting up an IV for irrigation, digging out bandages and antibiotic ointment. The mother drug the very frightened girl over to us, as the entire village gathered (very closely) around. Soon as we started putting saline on the injuries she calmed right down, standing on her own holding her arm out not even flinching. I irrigated and scrubbed her entire arm and hand getting the tooth paste off and cleaning the burns. As I did this she didn’t even twitch or squirm, it had to be so painful, any of us would have needed enough morphine to kill a horse to be able to withstand what I did to her and she had no pain meds at all. It was absolutely all I could do not to just fully break out in full blown tears myself while I was treating her. After cleaning the burns we dressed them in sterile bandages, gave here mother $40 to take her to see the local doctor in the nearest town and overly impressed how important it was they follow through with getting care for her including antibiotics and fresh dressings. We have our doubts If they would seek medical intervention $40 would buy a lot of food for a really hungry family, we can only hope. The girl looked to be about 5 or 6 we were told she was really 9 years old. Augh! I needed a breath after that one. Rebecca and I paid for several more wells to be put in. (thanks for the contributions to make that possible)

Sunday Rebecca and I headed north to do some touring and see other parts of Cambodia including the temples of Anchor Wat, one of the wonders of the world, the floating village, we attend a wedding, were invited to spend a evening in a village (and did) and so much more. It was so nice to share some of my Cambodia experiences with her. We are now home again, my sleep patterns are all screwed up, and the good news with that is the blog is updated.

We hope to go back next year and do it again, I still believe it’s a very worth while mission and we are making a difference. The night before we left there was a fire that burned 55 families out of the homes (I of course had to go and “evaluate the firefighting efforts”) they employed skills we taught them this year to stop the fire before it got any worse, but there still is a lot of work to do.

Thanks for your support on this journey.

Andy