From Thighland to Thailand

Thailand 4.11: Weak too

February 27, 2012-Monday

Happy Birthday Lynelle Win!  What a partier! She had a surprise birthday cake to celebrate.  Too bad she had to work on her birthday but she gets tomorrow off.  Don’t worry Tom; you don’t have to buy her anything for her birthday because she already did.  Bill, Lynelle needs her own bin.

!!!!PUBLIC SERVICE ANOUNCEMENT!!!!

The Akha children need your help!  It has come to the attention of the Medical Team International that the Akha children of the Akha Youth Development Center

(AYDC) are in dire need of transportation.  Currently they have a 50 year-old bus that needs a new transmission and the engine requires that water be added before each use due to an unidentified leak.  The bus is the same one that your beloved medical team was transported in from the airport and I unfortunately received an unwanted total body massage since my blessed assurance was sitting on the transmission shroud during each of the 327 grinding gear shifts and double clutching.

Pastor Jack tells us the story of when he had to bus the Hmong children around and had an old rickety bus that fit more than the recommended number of children in it.  When a police car was nearby he would tell the children to “Pray!” and they would quickly duck their heads out of site of the window so they wouldn’t be seen.

These children need safe, reliable, and cost-effective transportation.  Pastor, Richard, Bill, and Luka have looked into a Toyota Hino truck that can be converted into a “bus” with three rows of benches that can fit about 50 children.  There are 100 children at the Akha Youth Development Center that need to be taken to school.  The truck can also be used to transport produce that the AYDC make for market to raise money for the center.  We would not want our own children to continue to ride in an unsafe vehicle but that is all that they have.  The cost of the truck given discounts by the factory is still $50,000.  Many of us have vehicles costing more just to transport 2 people.  They need to transport 50 at a time.  Please consider contributing to a new school bus.  Their way of transportation is still below our standards by cramming in so many children.  Remember the photos previously posted showing about 25 children getting into the Toyota van.  Pretty funny…until you think about it.  Please send your donations to First Chinese Baptist Church, 6080 N. Angus St., Fresno, CA 93710.  Thank you for your consideration.

Early to bed and early to rise as we got ready for our nearly 12  hour work day.  We came to the Kaliwalittayalai  School which one of our interpreters Blah went to.  It’s a public school and had a nice auditorium where we set up house.  We prepared for the onslaught and fortunately it was just a steady pace throughout the day.  Bill tried to scare us but we are veterans and don’t pay attention to the clock, just our stomachs.  Frankly, it was a little boring (maybe we are too efficient) and we might have to cut the fat.  So that is exactly what I did.  I cut a 3-inch lipoma (fatty tumor) from the side of a patient in our makeshift exam room/operating table behind some chairs just from view of the public.  Here in Thailand they don’t like excess fat either.

The patients kept coming and coming like a Tsunami, wave after wave to the optometry dept.  They managed to see 145 patients by themselves and were running out of lens glass to make certain prescriptions.   Another record.  Dental saw 98 while medicine saw 108 for a grand total of 351 patients seen.  Dental may have had a few more under the radar.  We are just plugging along and we are proud of the team’s dedication to work until 8-9 pm.  Please thank them for their hard work when you have a chance.  We have a lot of support from the hosts as well that keep us hydrated and fed and cool.  Even a young teacher at the school paid a little extra attention to my wife, Lena, letting others know how grateful he was for her, um, assistance.  I think he took a liking to her (Do you blame him?) and two other teachers said that he liked her and he was hanging around just a little too long.  I don’t know if he wanted to give her that ole special Thailand hospitality, but it sounds like she was being hit on.  Maybe I’m just too possessive but “Whatever Happens in Thailand” ain’t gonna happen in the first place!  Lena, you go girl!

Now this is a good point.  See this is a public school and Luka’s brother is a pastor and has a church in the surrounding area that he would eventually develop stronger ties to the community and to the school.  He visited us while we were there and our presence may have helped with the relations with the school.  After we wrapped it up at the school the shopping squad hit the night market once again.  Bigger than Chiang Rai and higher end.  It made the women pretty happy.

Needing some sleep-Mark