Phnom Penh (2)

  Phnom Penh, Cambodia
Monday, June 11, 2007

Phnom Penh (Wednesday)
 
Worked all morning getting ready for meeting this afternoon. Like in the classes yesterday there were two primary themes in the meeting: compassion for the poor and pride in themselves and their hospital. From some notes I took:
"Very poor ... we cannot accept ... very, very sad. I want to help the person who is dying and cannot speak ... maybe they want to say something before they die (but we don't know how) ... they want to go back home, but cannot. No family to care ... poor ... no food ... no one to help to the toilet ... he has a house (apartment on 4th floor), but unable to go up the stairs ... patient hopeless/end stage so stays here until she dies. I want to help poor people. I love this hospital - helping the poor. My heart just pours out for the hospital ... faithful to the hospital ... faithful to the poor people."
 
After work I walked up to the internet café while Leslie stayed in our room waiting for Linda to come and work on immigration papers. When I was finished, I went by Linda's and discovered that she had not gone to our room to see Leslie because her grandfather is sick with a liver problem for which the doctor said nothing else could be done (it turns out he has liver cancer). And there he was, half sitting, half lying in kind of a chair outside their house with family all around. He was cachectic and too weak to stand. Linda said, "We want to cry, but cannot in front of him" (because he might lose hope).

01 Tuk-tuk

 
Thursday: I worked fast this morning to get ready for afternoon class. I remembered as I worked that the woman for whom the ceremony was being held at the crematory when we were there had killed herself.
 
Friday: Cambodian pho for breakfast - excellent as always. On the way to work stopped at the Central Market to buy some shirts (3 shirts for $7). Spent the morning working on a report on the 1st week's activities. Went back to Hagar for lunch (the place where they help people in tough situations learn food service). While we were there I saw someone in a t-shirt that said "I Am Not For Sale." After lunch we went to ...
 
Community Resources Center (CRC) - Ahhhh, home at last.
 

03 DOT waiting area

We walk through the waiting area where people are waiting for direct observed therapy (DOT) for TB and up (of course, what else) 3 flights of stairs. When we get to the top we talk for a few minutes with Chhanvileth and some other people on the HIV home care team. We all reflect on the photograph of the team member who died from AIDS 2 weeks ago - these moments of reflection seemed deliberate and important. Then (of course, what else) the plan was for us to go back downstairs for a tour and then (of course, what else) back up for a meeting with the medical director and Chhanvileth. Leslie passed on the down and up plan. I went down and saw some of the people I met earlier this week - still today, taking care of people with HIV and TB. Then back up (have I mentioned that Asia is all about hiking up stairs?) to meet with the medical director and Chhanvileth. It was a good meeting - Leslie and I will both work with home care, infectious disease, and hospice staff and some with patients. So everything seems to be coming together perfectly.
 
Now we're at a farewell event for the outgoing director and his wife. We're in an auditorium that gets pretty warm about 4 minutes into the festivities. It all begins with a blessing flowers dance and just a few moments into the hypnotic dance I click well and truly into Cambodia. It's not just the dancers, but the day of writing about what staff said to me, lunch with David, Leslie, and Gerlinda, the time at CRC ...
 
Cambodia!
 
After blessing flowers there is some folk dancing (blessing flowers is a formal court dance). All the dancing is the best I've seen - no surprise, this being Cambodia and all. Some of the music is recorded and some from gamelan and the dancers as well. At the end of the dancing we learn that the dancers (~30) are orphans.
 
Cambodia!
 
I'm sitting on a row that goes like this: me; my son David on his journey through Cambodia; Miriam, a quick, funny internist from Germany who has worked here for several years; Ian, an Australian CPA whose ongoing mission across Asia is to balance the books; and Leslie, ah, Leslie.
 
All the speakers at the event are men except for Karen (the director's wife) who speaks for <1 minute. Hmmm....

05 Art Cafe

 
It's evening, 7:30. We're at the Art Café with Leslie, me, Igor (Filipino singer), and Cec (Filipina HIV educator), listening to David and Antone playing a Mozart duet - geckos on the wall, hunting mosquitoes, Bia Lao ...
 
Cambodia!