Monday the 12th was spent leaving Battambang and hitting up the city of Poi Pet. Almost with five suitcases short, they were leaving on another bus full of Americans heading somewhere else. Lucky for Rach who had everything in her suitcase, including her passport, the hotel had a contact number and the bus turned back. The 3 hour drive northwest to Poi Pet took us to the border of Cambodia and Thailand. An interesting place that I can only describe as sketchy, or as the lonely planet book explains as the armpit of Cambodia. Poi Pet is well known for its crime, drugs and human trafficking.
We set up camp at the City Poi Pet Hotel, met our new mate Sambo who is our local host for the next few days and headed to our first clinic in this area. A relatively short drive found us at Andong Thmor village. A cute little place that set up a big beautiful bright tent for us. 80 people were on the list however close to 400 people later we were packing up the clinic. Beautiful people once again, lots of caring extended families; aunts, uncles, grandparents looking after the young while their parents are working over the border in Thailand to provide for their family.
That night we hit the casinos in no mans land in between the border of Cambodia and Thailand and attempted to triple all the money from the donations (just joking). We only had dinner however a good win on the tables wouldn't do no harm right now.
Today, Tuesday 13th, we headed to Olahong village, an hour drive through beautiful rice paddies on a rather dodgy, slippery, muddy road. Fortunately, we only had to push the bus once this time when we arrived at our destination. This place is right on the border of Thailand and Cambodia in an area where just 9 years ago nearly every morning Sambo was driving down with an ambulance because someone overnight had either stepped on a landmine and been seriously injured or killed. This area is also known for their high rate of mortality during childbirth. On the way to the village an iron cow was carrying an 18 year old girl to the hospital. She had just given birth in the village that morning and had not stopped bleeding. These villages are unlike other undeveloped countries. Most of their old midwives would have been murdered during Pol Pots rein so these people have not been fortunate to have the teachings passed down the last generation.
Today's clinic we saw lots of ear infections, infected scabies, TB, gastro and chest infections. We also saw a few injuries due to trauma, whether it was landmines or farm machinery, which were left untreated and left the patients deformed and in pain for many years. Denise and Shanila saw a case of mastitis which neither of them would have seen such a severe case before. The worse cases however were a couple of little boys, each from different families. They had obviously been exposed to some sort of infection to the brain and were left having convulsions reguarly. They could barely walk and had tremors constantly. One of the boys had a full blown seizure a metre away from the clinic. We are thankful for those last minute donations that we have asked for while we have been over here as they have given us enough funds to take these kids to Siam Reap with us on Thursday. There is a decent free children's hospital there which these families can access but do not have the funds for transport to get there or food while they are away. These boys are very ill and need tests and medication to help them not get any worse. Diseases that in Australia would have been quickly treated and would have left minimal damage.
These are only some of the patients we saw. There seemed to be a lot of chronic problems or very sick people in this particular village and after seeing close to 400 people we were physically and emotionally worn out. We dodged cattle, dogs and various other animals and vehicles to get back to Poi Pet and then it was back to no mans land for dinner which was quite a spicy affair for some!
From Bec Fuller xxx
We set up camp at the City Poi Pet Hotel, met our new mate Sambo who is our local host for the next few days and headed to our first clinic in this area. A relatively short drive found us at Andong Thmor village. A cute little place that set up a big beautiful bright tent for us. 80 people were on the list however close to 400 people later we were packing up the clinic. Beautiful people once again, lots of caring extended families; aunts, uncles, grandparents looking after the young while their parents are working over the border in Thailand to provide for their family.
That night we hit the casinos in no mans land in between the border of Cambodia and Thailand and attempted to triple all the money from the donations (just joking). We only had dinner however a good win on the tables wouldn't do no harm right now.
Today, Tuesday 13th, we headed to Olahong village, an hour drive through beautiful rice paddies on a rather dodgy, slippery, muddy road. Fortunately, we only had to push the bus once this time when we arrived at our destination. This place is right on the border of Thailand and Cambodia in an area where just 9 years ago nearly every morning Sambo was driving down with an ambulance because someone overnight had either stepped on a landmine and been seriously injured or killed. This area is also known for their high rate of mortality during childbirth. On the way to the village an iron cow was carrying an 18 year old girl to the hospital. She had just given birth in the village that morning and had not stopped bleeding. These villages are unlike other undeveloped countries. Most of their old midwives would have been murdered during Pol Pots rein so these people have not been fortunate to have the teachings passed down the last generation.
Today's clinic we saw lots of ear infections, infected scabies, TB, gastro and chest infections. We also saw a few injuries due to trauma, whether it was landmines or farm machinery, which were left untreated and left the patients deformed and in pain for many years. Denise and Shanila saw a case of mastitis which neither of them would have seen such a severe case before. The worse cases however were a couple of little boys, each from different families. They had obviously been exposed to some sort of infection to the brain and were left having convulsions reguarly. They could barely walk and had tremors constantly. One of the boys had a full blown seizure a metre away from the clinic. We are thankful for those last minute donations that we have asked for while we have been over here as they have given us enough funds to take these kids to Siam Reap with us on Thursday. There is a decent free children's hospital there which these families can access but do not have the funds for transport to get there or food while they are away. These boys are very ill and need tests and medication to help them not get any worse. Diseases that in Australia would have been quickly treated and would have left minimal damage.
These are only some of the patients we saw. There seemed to be a lot of chronic problems or very sick people in this particular village and after seeing close to 400 people we were physically and emotionally worn out. We dodged cattle, dogs and various other animals and vehicles to get back to Poi Pet and then it was back to no mans land for dinner which was quite a spicy affair for some!
From Bec Fuller xxx