I want you all to know how sincerely grateful I am to have simply survived the ride back from Mae Sai. There’s a lot to be said about Thai drivers, and God knows I need to keep my mouth shut on that one.
Today we went to the Northern Most city in Thailand , Mae Sai. It’s on the border of Burma . In fact, the last of my pictures attached have pictures of us at the Border. The river you see is the boundary between Thailand and Burma .
On the way up our driver kept beeping his little horn incessantly and unnecessarily. I finally piped up and asked Bro. Anond why he honked his horn so much. Bro. Anond said it was because we were passing the Spirit Houses, and since he was Buddhist he needed to have permission granted from the Spirits to continue on his journey. Interesting.
It was a little over four hours to Mae Sai, and four hours on roads in Thailand is nothing to be compared to the States. The roads are everything but straight and smooth.
We arrived in Mae Sai and the people there were waiting. Five churches total had come for medical care, many of them had crossed the border from Burma , and many of them have suffered loss and injury from the earthquake that occurred in March.
We set up in a church building, and when I say “in” and “building” I mean a tile floor with an awning over it. It was hot, to say the least. You can see pictures of our “medicine table” and another table set up for the people to try on various pairs of glasses to see if it helps them at all. The two bags you see, one with orange pills and one with white pills, are multi-vitamins and Tylenol. Almost every person gets a small bag of these, and yes, that is their yearly supply. We hand out more when it is due, i.e. if there is a patient with an electrolyte imbalance, the elderly, small children, etc.
Our “clinic” set up was as follows: Janice and I next to each other with a small table in-between for some of our supplies, our patients in front of us, and Bro. Anond in the middle to translate. That precious man is so patient with us and the people. He truly is a blessing beyond measure. Between the two of us, Janice and I saw around 75 patient’s.
The people we saw today were very, very sick. We treated everything from “stomach hurt” to high blood pressure and infection. The biggest medical concern I saw with this group of patient’s was blood pressure. I had taken a blood pressure on a man with a result of 232/122 while Janice was treating a man who was a close competitor in that field as well. The man Janice was treating had already had a stroke and didn’t even know it. It’s amazing to see things so advanced and untreated over here, while we’re all about prevention and early diagnosis in the States. Welcome to Thailand . I want you to notice a man in the pictures in a blue shirt with the back/neck brace. He’s the pastor of one of the church’s in Burma . He was preaching when the earthquake occurred. 22 of his church members were killed instantly and the ceiling and walls fell on him and his wife. His wife has a broken collar bone, which Janice diagnosed today. No telling what she will have to go through, if anything, to get it repaired. You can look at many of these sweet faces and see a lot of hurt.
Things were running smoothly on my end until I hit a little snag. Diagnosing a woman with hemorrhoids through broken English, hand gestures and translation from Bro. Anond was no small feat, let me tell you. 25 minutes later I found myself venturing out onto the streets of Mae Sai with Bro. Lee looking for none other than……. Hemorrhoid cream! We had sent a young man out to get some. I had written it down, Bro. Anond had translated, and the young man came back with everything you wouldn’t want to put there. MERCY! So, Bro. Lee requested I go with him to get something. To say that was an adventure would be an understatement. The streets of Mae Sai are extremely crowded, dirty, filled with women with small children on their backs begging, stray dogs, and more beggars. Bro. Lee and I ventured in and out of places, fruitless in our search for hemorrhoid cream. Heaven, help. We finally ended up in a pharmacy. No one spoke English and all the packages were written in Thai or Lahu. I rummaged through various boxes, and of course the only words in English were the chemical names. I finally found something with a very small description and chemical names that sounded like they would do the trick. We purchased it and went on our way. During our stroll through town, Bro. Lee said to me “Isn’t it amazing where the Lord sends you?” I was thinking that same thing. I told him that if it were this much trouble for a nurse or doctor to get hemorrhoid cream in the States the patient simply wouldn’t have gotten any. Bro. Lee replied “yes, but we’re doing the Lord’s work.” He is right in that. Bro. Lee has one rule, and one rule only: Do God’s work God’s way. Makes sense to me.
We continued treating patient’s until there were no more. It was a hot, sticky and tiring day. Once again, the people there were grateful beyond measure. I can’t even begin to tell you. I never knew handing out a Tylenol and Imodium would warrant a hug from someone. The people here are precious. Kind and gentle. Something I noticed about them was their patience. They waited for us to get there then helped us unload everything. They sat back quietly while we got everything set up and while Bro. Lee had a business meeting with the pastor’s. They never grumbled, sighed, asked when we would begin, made faces or acted impatient. That would NEVER happen in the States. We’re so spoiled and on such a time crunch.
On our way back we stopped at the “white temple”. You can see pictures I included. The white temple is, of course, a Buddhist temple. It’s incredible to see the work that went into that. I couldn’t help but think of the sweet people I saw yesterday at Bethany who worshipped whole-heartedly in a bamboo hut. Yes, these children of God are much deserving of their mansion in Heaven. What a day that will be…
Thank you all for listening to my ramblings. It’s allowed me a way to “journal” and also let everyone know how things are going.
The transition from the States to here has been incredibly smooth for me, by the grace of God. I really love it here.
Mom- tell dad to stop worrying.
Dad- tell mom to stop worrying.
Karen- this face still has make-up on it. Be impressed.
Michael- since you like rice, try this new dish: Put peanut butter on top of your rice and top it off with honey. And then let me know how that goes…
Terry- your encouragement means the world to me. Thanks for everything.
Jacob- I know you’re eating this up. I enjoy hearing your responses.
I love you all.
-Rachel.
PS- I tried to include some random street view pictures of Mai Sai. I tried to take some shots of the "pretty" architecture.
To see pictures, click here.
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