Thailand: reality of paradise

Monday August 25th

The last two days have been great. Yesterday was another day of surgery and first day of post op's. I got to be more involved and put eye drops in and bandage, I really liked the hands on part. The Thai nurses I was working along side with couldn't say my name right.. along with every other Thai person I have met. So my official name in Thailand is Kawer, yup K-aw-er. Them teased me when I attempted a few phrases in Thai, so I told them.. "when you can say my name right, I'll say your words correct". So the result of that was a nickname.. cow. haha. I liked it. It made me think of a camper at good ol SHC that had this amazing cow shirt I loved. After the post op's were done, there wasn't much for the 12-21 crew and the mom's to do. Dr. Sam Su Ran made a recommendation to visit a local artist, some of the hospital staff took us that afternoon.
The artist owned a small shop on the main road of Satun, the shop was very open and had a lot of political and reggae shirts on the wall for sell. We met the artist and he showed us some of his work of botique. botique is done by taking a small tool and putting melted wax in it and drawing of cotton. after it cools you use water and dye to color the drawing and the wax acts as a border and rejects the dye. The artist asked us what we wanted and we all got one for free. Afterwards we got to paint it ourselves, it was a ton of fun.
After we were done we headed to the hospital for the closing ceremony and dinner. The food was less then satisfying, the only thing I ate was fruit and rice. Everything else was either to spicy or just plain gross. Gross being fried chicken joints, blood eggs and fish still was in a fish form.. head and all. No thanks. After dinner we took pictures and were presented with gifts. The guys were given some type of traditional dress shirts and the girls were given scraffs, as in head dresses. A large amount of the Thai people are muslim, and I knew that this was something they could give that was honoring and among their culture. But let me step back for a moment..

I wouldnt call myself a feminist, but I am big in womens rights and humanitarian causes. I am also a participant in coexist and accepting of other beliefs, race, culture and relgion, but their are a few things in this world that I still have a hard time accepting. Many cultures betray women as less then men and in no way is that something that I can accept. These women obviously find pride in their religion and in their practice of the head dress. But with a thank you hand shake I wish I could quietly transfer knowlegde and a sense of independence to these women. I have studied all religion, not the the depth I would like, but I do know that the head dress is strictly for the purpose of showing your dedication to your husband. Quite a demeaning symbol I say, another issue i could rant about, but I'll move on.

I realize now that its not a lie that Asian people love karaoke. We finished off the night with a good hour of karaoke. yuck. By this time I was exhausted and didn't want to sing at all. I fell asleep outside on some chairs, I think I'm still hurting from the lack of sleep from camp.

Tuesday August 26th

Another morning of post op's all going pretty well. I got to help with the eye drops and bandages again. I loved being there when the patients got their bandages off and got to see for the first time in a long time. One lady keep looking at me and smileing and after i put her eye drops in and bandage her eye, she tapped the thai nurse who I was working with, and said something to her. The nurse told me that she said I was beautiful and happy to see beautiful things again. Wow. Out of all the times I have heard that (not to be full of myself or anything) but that definitely meant the most. I noticed that most people were wearing pink and asked someone, apparently pink it the color that keeps the king healthly. They wear it every Tuesday.. so Thailand has a pink Tuesday just like SHC! Yay camp.
After post op's we headed to the island of Lipe off the southern coast of Thailand. It tooks us an hour and a half to get their on a rinky dink boat. The rough of the ocean gave a us beating and Kate got really sea sick and spent a good amount of the ride at the back of the boat being sick. We finally got to the island around 2pm, it was absolutely gorgeous, complete with white sand and truqiuose water. Apparently its "low season" at the island, so it looks a little run down and the signs of pizza and pasta were just lies :(. We spent the rest of the day laying on the beach and swimming in the water which was probably about 85 degrees. Kam Ron and I decided to swim out to the farthest boat which I'm glad I did in the end, but I definitely had a small heart attack once we got to were I couldn't see anymore. Being in the tropics makes me think sharks are a possibility, even though they probably aren't. Dinner was same as always, rice, spicy food and chicken everything. Where we ate was quite sceneic, being outside and right on the water, the sunset was the most amazing sunset I have ever seen in my life. I felt like you could swim to the sun. Beautiful

Wednesday August 27th

I woke up around 7am to the rain, which I loved. I just lied there in bed taking in that wonderful sound. I fell back asleep for a few hours and then went in search of coffee. All the girls ended up ventureing with me and we found a small place in town that even had french fries! Breakfast was nice, good talks about high school and what not. After breakfast we walked to other side of the island. This place is beautiful, but trash and famish animals take away some of its beauty. At breakfast, a kitten the size of my hand, had sores and was coverd in fleas. It lied on the ground meowing in its last couple days of life. If someone just came here and nutured all the dogs and cats, life would be much better for them.
After we explored a bit we headed back to the resort and met our guide and his boat. The first place his took us was a very small island that was covered in these amazing stones. The ones that a dark, smooth and round. Our guide told us of a curse that is on the stones and if anyone takes a stone from the island they will be cursed. I was bummed.. I wanted a rock. Not like I believe in superstition but its not like I was gonna take a stone right in front of him. After we walked around for a bit, he took us to the other side of the island to go snorkeling. I had been snorkeling in Hawaii and didn't think it would compare, but it definitely was right up there with Hawaii. The fish were all colors of the rainbow and the coral was quite elaborate as well.
Later that night we went to the only bar that was open that was called Pooh's bar complete with pooh bear all over the bar. We later figure out why it was called Pooh's bar when we met pooh! He had just opened the bar a few years ago and still was getting it going. It had a really cool lay out, with a full bar and menu on the wall in neon backlight. It was open to outside with sand pathways to the small restrurant, pool table and band step up. He said he had internet around the corner if we wanted to use it. During dinner I went to check it out and it was literally a computer under a palm tree. No joke! The food was same ol same ol thai food.. blah! But my dinner was a large amount of cocktails which I thought was a nice substitute. After dinner John played the guitar and Katie played the piano a bit, before two Germans got up there and rocked it. Daniel and Nadine a young couple from southern Germany were extremely musically talented and very interesting people. It was fun to talk to to them and they spoke english very well. After our musical shin dig, Pooh told us to sit down because he had a special show for us. It was poi, which is native fire dancing. It was rad, they were really good.

After a good few hours of drinking, watching poi and listening to music arielle and I herded our drunk parents and the rest back to the resort. When we got back they broke out a bottle of vodka. I was exhausted, but I hope I act that young when I'm in my 40's.

Thailand: Bringing Vision Back

Sunday August 24th
I fell asleep around 8pm and sleep all the way till 6am. It felt good to sleep that long. Breakfast was quite interesting, I just wanted some cereal, but I had to keep in mind to embrace the culture and not to be so.. well America! We loaded up the bus and headed to the hospital around 8am, when we got there, the empty chairs from the day before were now over flowing with people anxiously waiting for pre op's. We got off the bus and everyone went straight to to work, my job being to take pictures of course. I was sure that most of these people hadn't seen white people before, from all the stares I got, either that or I had a booger or something. I love taking pictures of all the people, I felt like a creep getting up in their face, but I got some good shots. I enjoyed taking shots of the kids the most, I was kneeling and one even came up and touched my hair, not many blondes in Thailand! I walked around taking photos for a good hour, all the people just sat patiently, happy to even be seen. They were the poorest of poor, it was probably some of their first time even seeing a doctor. walking out of the pre op room I caught one lady starring at me and gave me a big smile and nodded, i smiled back.Surgery would be starting soon and I wanted to be part of the first team that got to go in the OR (operating room). I found some scrubs, threw em on and found Kim, hinting I was ready to go. She gave me the go ahead and I went to the OR. Cheri explained the instruments and their purpose, and other necessities for surgery. Not long after the first couples patients were being prepped and Dr.Aryah and Dr.Haines followed and we were off for the races. I had seen John do cataract surgeries before, but always fun to watch. Cataract surgeries are fairly simple, a small incision is made close to the iris, then a small tool hooked up t the machine in inserted in the slit and works as a small jack hammer that breaks up the cataract. Then another tool is inserted and sucks it out, after that a new lens is replaced. Fascinating. I got some good shots of the first surgeries of the day and left, feeling as though I was in the way. The rest of the day I hung out with mirror one two crew. aka the 12-21 crew. We got to see the country side which was pretty rad, and we stopped at a Sunday market and tried some more pallet intriguing foods consisting of duck foot and fried banana. Back at the hospital, still hurting from jet lag I fell asleep on the cement floor and woke up to about 8 bug bites. I had a small heart attack about the possibilities of malaria, but felt better when John ensured me there was no malaria in this area. Surgeries ended around 9pm with a total of 50 surgeries, quite impressive. Tomorrow I think our goal is 65, bring it on.

Thailand: Indulging in the culture.. literally

Today was definitely a day that tested my comfort with western/ modern culture and lifestyle. We took a short plane flight to Trang (pronounced trong) where we met a few more doctors that we would be working with. The medical supplies wouldn't be making it to the hospital, so surgery was pushed back until tomorrow. Dr. Sam Su Ran the main Thai opthomologist of this mission planned a few pit stops on our way to the hotel since our day was now open. First stop, lunch. I was excited to try authentic Thai food as compared to Americanized Thai food, I just hoped for nothing too spicy or to out of the ordinary. The dishes ended up being quite normal and things I had eaten before in the US. I was a little worried when out Thai friends told us to not drink the water until they made sure it was ok. It ended up being fine, but made me a little nervous for future stops.

The next place we stopped was a cave. We took a boat down a river to get to it and once inside we came to a stop where we could get out, our guide showed us different formation from the cave rocks which were quite interesting. My favorite was all the tree roots that were in the cave from above. The two events that happened next was something that I was completely unprepared for. The cave ceilings were quite low, having to duck at times, but it was lit by lights through the walls. On our way out and back on the boat, we turned right instead of going straight out and kept going into the dark, our guide told us to lie all the way down and not to move. With a dinky flashlight he pushed us deeper into the dark side of the cave as the ceiling got lower and lower. it came so low that my nose would gently brush the ceiling. I had to keep myself calm and not think about it, after about 5 minutes Katie asked how much longer and he said "300 meters"! It felt like forever, John made the time pass with some jokes and finally we saw light. Our guides kept trying to ensure we were alright with "believe me, very exciting, believe me!". I was happy to finally see light and eventually sit up right. Getting out of the boat and still laughing about our extravaganza my mom found me and quickly told me to come look at the monkeys! I saw a few up in the tree's, but one of them was quietly sitting on the roof. Being touristy we "ooed and awwed" over the monkey until we were interrupted when we heard a loud noise and the monkey fell off the roof falling face first to the ground. I thought someone had shot him, but there were no signs of blood. The little monkey just reached out to us as he swayed and fell. His eyes rolling to the back of his head as he tryed to find somewhere safe. Confused on what happened to this poor animal I asked Nancy what had happened and she pointed and said "that man in the black shirt hit him with a sling shot", I looked at the coward and saw him laughing, he approached us and in broken english said that the monkey was crazy. At that point it took everything in my power not to scream at this worthless human being and take a sling shot to his head. I looked back at the monkey still reaching out to us as he obviously showed signs of head trauma. Kim had tears in her eyes as she took me back to the van knowing I would make a scene if I weren't pulled away. The man was still laughing.I sat in the van and looked around and noticed some monkeys eating from the trash cans. They were probably pests to these people, but this is their home too. They are the ones in their home and in no way were this monkeys threatening them or putting them in danger. If anything another tourist attraction and another way to bring people to their stupid cave. On the way to our next destination I tried to not think about the monkey, but I couldn’t help it. It bothered me so much. and why? It was only a monkey right? I thought a little deeper, if that was in America and someone had shot a squirrel with a sling shot just for fun, people would be extremely upset and if this person did that all the time, some sort of animal abuse unit would be called. Sure its "just a squirrel", but we realize that it feels and can experience pain, we give something horrible like that for no reason? Grrrrrr.

I ended up falling asleep and when I woke up we reached our third pit stop, the beach! Absolutely beautiful. Colorful umbrellas decorated the un-crowded shore giving it a tropic feel. After 20 minutes of picture taking and gawking, we were brought to the shade of the tree to a big table filled with food, i looked at my watch, only 3 hours since we had eaten last, wow these people sure like to feed us. The meal was definitely more exotic then the first. Sea snails, kfdklsfjdk, and durran. My first encounter with durran, luckily was a good one, but I would soon despised this fruit. With durran its only appropriate to cover all the senses. Let's start with sight, durran is about the size of a soccer ball, spiky and has a thick outer layer about 2 inches thick. AND that’s just how it looks. Moving on to the SMELL. overly ripe fruit + dirty socks + BO + propane= durran aka smells HORRIBLE. At least we were at the ocean and the smell was diluted a bit. The taste and feel of the durran is less horrible of the smell (thankfully). It quite mushy which is the reason I didn't care for it, but the taste is a nutty almond flavor, hard to explain. Finally we got to our hotel, I mean our resort (Bara Resort). I knew it was "nice" for a country hotel because of the toilet. It's a flushing, toilet paper included, western toilet, thank you Jesus. I all for trying new things, but I'll stick to the western style toilet, I'm over this squatting, drip dry what not.

Thailand: the land of smiles

Camp of course came to a sudden end as it always does, good bye's were said and last hugs took place and off I went, down that black top road out the gates and one last head turn over the shoulder to see the yellow and blue "Sandy Hill Camp" sign. This year brought a sense of closure and I feel in my heart I won't be back for another full summer, but never say never.
Lovely, beautiful Portland. How I love thee. It was so good to be home, but didn't last long. I literally took all the clothes out of my suitcases and put half of them back in and before I knew it I was started my journey to Thailand.

4am Eugene, OR airport:
I met the rest of our team.. medical eye mission 2008: Bringing Vision Back yo! No really that's what our shirts say, ok maybe not the "yo", but I sure wish they did.. maybe I'll sharpie mine in. Anyway, all of us had been told before hand that we were only allowed to check one bag because the other one would be a bag-o-medical supplies. After assembling a nice tower of suitcases and bags, Ms.Snatchface, an United Airlines employee disapproved of our mountain and pushed us in the long line with everyone else, our "we are going to go save the world" spiel didn't work. After a good 45 minutes of moving items around from bag to bag to meet the weight requirement we finally headed off to our gate and headed off to San Fransisco, CA.
San Fransisco, CA Airport:
Our layover in SF wasn't bad because my step dad is gangster status and has the red carpet membership which is were all the big wigs of the world chill out when waiting for their flights. The lodge had nice chairs, free bagels and fruit and not to mention a full bar in which I took advantage of. Nothing like a cocktail with the fam at 10am! My mom and I were off to a rough start, clashing as we do. I bit my tongue hard and hoped for the screaming inside to stop. God help me please, help me tolerate my mother on this trip for the sake of everyone. 12:30pm we finally boarded and off to Tokoyo we were. 10 hour flight, at least I got a window seat and a sleeping pill.
Tokoyo, Japan Airport:
Our layover was only suppose to be a few hours, but as we waited we were glued to the airports window witnessing a small typhoon consisting of large amounts of rain and lighting. Hmmm.. maybe we will be delayed. Off to the beer can vending machine, yes vending machine. Rad. Flight delayed. Flight canceled.. ugh. After a good 4ish hours John (my step dad) worked his magic and we got on a flight leaving later that night, instead of the next morning. I guess the "we are going to save the world" card works in foreign places. hah. 6 hour flight here we come..
BANGKOK, THAILAND:
Finaaallllyyyy. 2am 8/22 we finally met our destination. The "we are here to save the world" card worked for customs too. So getting through customs in record time.. not a bad gig. The Thai people that John and his nurses and techs have worked with for the past five years were there to greet us. Not surprising that our bags didn't show up, but definitely surprising when we realized that a two story, neon colored, black light and disco ball- PARTY BUS, was our ride to the hotel. hahaha. Luckily no strippers jumped out and we had a peaceful trip to our hotel. After getting to our hotel my first taste of Thailand was that there were a lot of stray dogs, advertising, poverished housing next to nice skyscrapers, and lots of motorcycles of all sizes color and styles.
Our hotel is ah-mazing. The Peninsula, apparently ranked in the top fifty in the world. This would be our home base for all our travels that we will be doing while we are here. I am rooming with K^2. Katie who is Johns 14 year old daughter and Kate who is 17 and the daughter of the director of the Newport, OR hospital. Both quite, nice girls. I didn't sleep much when we got to the hotel even though it was 5am. That whole time change thing, throws ya off. It was nice to rest in a bed horizontal and not vertical, like on the planes. 8am rolled around and I woke up to find their was a river outside our hotel that I didn't noticed at night. It was obviously used for transportation and I sat in the window for awhile watching the colorful boats go up and down the river. But soon enough I was in need of a friend named caffeine and I went on a search for coffee, I found my coffee and found an amazing buffet as well. I indulged in the fruit selection and wow, America, we are missing out. Even fruit we have at home like bananas, watermelon and pineapple are nothing compared to here. After breakfast I hung out in the room. Sweats pants + humidity= not a lot of fun. John showed up a bit later and we embarked of a journey to find a bathing suit for Katie and I so we could at least lay by the pool. We met up with the Arie family and we took a ferry across the river and hoped in a motorcycle cart thingy which was an experience in itself. The driver told us about getting in an accident awhile ago and being in a coma. Crazy little Thai man. He took us to this tailor that would give them free gas for doing so, we poked our nose in and we were instantly bombarded with sales men insisting we all needed suits. John and Kayron gave in, and before we knew it their measurements were taken and material chosen. Persistent buggers they were. We got to the BMK mall which was five stories, and probably had 1000's of stores because each store was the size of a cubicle, no exaggeration. Walking down the halls we heard about 10 different languages, it truly felt like the world had came together at this mall. My want to be there ended quickly with the smell of fish oil and confusion of where to walk, because it is the left side here, not the right. It's funny how we become so second natured to things like that. Back at the hotel we enjoyed Pina Coladas pool side and then jet lag kicked in for me and I was out at 5pm which I'm hating myself for because its 2am and I can't sleep. poop. Tomorrow we are off to our first round of surgeries, I'm excited. xoxoxo