DAY 6: DESTINATION: SAHASARTSUKSA SCHOOL

SMILE : )

We had a very different day today at the village school. Contrast today with yesterday where the villagers still live in last century or even the century before. Yesterday we visited the Akha Village and used the church to set up clinic. It ran very smoothly. We saw many of our former patients who remembered us and are still smiling when we saw them again. Some of the elders adorned their full Akha dress with elaborate headdress down to the shins. Many had no shoes. You see generations of the family come together. Some traveled 2 hours to get to this clinic for a consultation and treatment not even knowing if we could help them or not. Now, that is faith. Americans must look funny to them. Some, I’m sure haven’t even seen a “pale face”. Is that why they stare at the Jacks or Richard?


Maybe they’ve never seen someone so tall, an oddity to them. No, Richard I didn’t say you were odd (he’s so sensitive). They let us use the sacred sanctuary and changed it into a makeshift clinic. If Robin saw the mess we made he’d say “Holy sanctuary, Batman!” We reflect upon their gratitude displayed then and now and how they were impacted. CURING their medical or dental disease and CURING their poor eyes site seemed less significant to our CARING. Who in there right mind would travel half way around the world to treat people they don’t even know. I perform a lot of cosmetic surgery for thousands of dollars and taking off someone’s skin tags, all 30 of them, is as important to them as it is to someone getting a facelift. The “human touch” cures more than we think. Since many are laborers we treated a lot of tendonitis and carpal tunnel syndrome in addition to the usual aches and pains and colds. It was frustrating to see surgical conditions like a chronic sinus tract in the leg present for two years or a 2 inch pulsatile mass on the scalp that may full of blood ready to burst that would go untreated. We realized that we can’t help everyone but I hate that helpless feeling. It takes the sting out when we can see the success stories. Do me a favor. Take your glasses off just for a moment and look around and walk around. Do you dare drive? Are you legally blind? Picture those who see the world in a different light appreciating clarity for the first time after they receive their glasses. Those optometrists are awesome. Kudos and props to Dr. Chinn and Dr. Tajiri. Dr. Tajiri observed the “common language of laughter.” A smile goes a long way. On a sad note, the “fishermen” that we saw fishing on the lake were not fishermen at all. They were poking the waters looking for someone that had drowned. Life goes on.


CLASS IN SESSION


Not too far from the Inn is the SAHASARTSUKSA School. There are about 2000 children but we didn’t have to see all of them. Thank you God! We visited this school last year and set up shop in more modern facility than at the village. This school was initially established by our very own American Baptist Church missionary Mr. C. Carter in 1957. I can’t put it into words but it touches Pastor heart that the school has a Christian heritage and that Baptists that influenced a remote part of the world 50 years ago and that influence persists today. He especially feels the presence of the Lord here and that His work is present and flourishes. Is Pastor actually getting glassy eyed? Dr. Chinn, Pastor has something in his eye…a tear.


The school teaches K through 12th grade and is coed though the dorms are separate of course. This school comprises students of which 80% are from hillside tribes (primarily Akha). The other 20% are from local families. There are about 125 students here who have a parent in the Chiang Rai prison that we will visit tomorrow. So for most of the children this is boarding school and their families are either not accessible or too remote to visit regularly. When we arrived I think there was a school assembly. The children were aligned in the balconies facing this huge soccer field on each of the stories of the building. There were singing in unison and there were several young speakers talking through a PA system. We got a tour of the school in the morning before we started. The school is subsidized by the government. The children live in dormitories which look more like barracks in the military. We smile as we see that some of the beds are dressed with typical “girly” teenager type bedding with which we are all familiar. However, we are easily saddened by the fact that the thin blanket lies directly on particle board on which they sleep. Only a few have a “mattress” which is thinner than some dog crate liners we have for our pets. Some children can’t afford the comfortable bedding which costs about $30 US. We need to make more Doong for the fundraiser. We are impressed that the children do there own laundry. Here that kids? They each have a locker about the size of two school lockers at US high schools for all of their belongings. It’s cute to see the young children in their uniforms and we are attracted to the small group with pink hats waiting to go to the zoo. They crammed about 20 or so students into the packed truck but they looked liked they were having a good time. Kids will be kids.



We unload, load; story of our lives here. Richard is in charge of the boxes and bins. Bin there, done that. Richard has things contained. It takes about an hour to set up and an hour to break down. The day went very smooth. We saw 171 medical patients. The docs treated mostly upper respiratory illnesses. Dr. Owyang was in his own world. He spent about an hour with this one child running back and forth between patients. The child was lying down for a long time. Then he took the child to the bathroom. We hear a loud roar in the direction of the bathroom, “WHOAAAAAAH!_There was this huge chunk of ear wax that came out lying in the sink about an inch long. I thought we were going to need Drano. “I once was deaf, but now can hear.” Dr. Owyang was on a roll. He diagnosed something called “benign positional vertigo.” A child had seen several doctors and was told to do things differently so he wouldn’t get dizzy. Maybe take some OTC type drugs. He was running into things and strained his neck from bending over so much and trying to read. Dr. O taught him simple maneuvers to treat the inner ear (which had a stone floating around affecting the fluid) that controls balance so that the symptoms would be less and be less dizzy. It worked! The boy felt a noticeable improvement.


The dentists treated 73 patients. Vicki, you would be proud to see you boys in action. It was lacking a women’s touch but good thing Rachel is here. Tooth after tooth after tooth. Abscesses, rotten teeth, impacted wisdom teeth, and teeth that don’t belong there were pulled. Halitosis! is definitely not Hallelujah! Rachel is in dental heaven. You go girl. Maybe Bill can work for you when we get back to the States. They are working hard, working fast, working efficiently and it’s like watching a ballet, a Nutcracker. I tried picturing Richard in leotards but I warn you don’t EVEN try to imagine it. Ming did his usual translation: “Pain?” Patient nods. Next patient, “Pain?” Patient nods. The dental patients all have that peculiar look-the “Q-sign”. There mouth is wide open with a dental roll sticking out of the side.


When the optometrists were seen by the children, they were certainly a site for sore eyes. They treated 57 patients so they get credit for 114 eyes. So far Dr. Tajiri’s invention is a success. The children were amazed at how well they could see and read immediately after sporting their new shades. One ran with out stretched arms with the glasses tightly clutched in her hand running to show his friends. They read a lot and have straining and have headaches and fatigue as a result of them. Therefore, proper eyesight is imperative and welcomed with enthusiasm.
One optimistic patient even asked if we had rimless eyewear. So they gave him just the lenses.



TEARS OF ENDEARMENT


As we closed the evening devotion tonight a rarely seen moment of a teary-eyed, choked up Pastor described an incident today where three children were standing around him staring at him. He gazed away as if he didn’t noticed them and the kept staring. Then he looked at them and smiled. “Do you remember us?” one of them asked with youthful innocence. Pastor hesitated and said, “Yes…yes!” “We just wanted to know if you remember us.” It broke his heart of children just wanting to feel important and that someone cared. Kodak moment.


SORRY, WRONG NUMBER!


Okay (deep breath), I just got a call from Vicki Lowe. Its 12:30 pm HER time and 3:30 am MY time. Oh, she just happened to dial the wrong number! Lena’s phone is…6356. Mine is 6357. Jennifer’s, poor Jennifer who should have been here, is 6357 (please give her a call and give her your support. I should give you Bill’s so you can ring up his bill in Thailand! Okay, okay, enough, but “I love you Jen!”) You wonder why I can’t sleep through the night. I bet even Collette sleeps through the night.


“Well Mark, what are you doing?” “Sleeping.” “Oh, well since I have you on the phone, have you sent the next ejournal?” “How is it going?” “Well, REM was wonderful a moment ago…” “Vicky, no the next ejournal isn’t ready. I don’t know when I am going to send it. I can’t tell you how the day went, who we saw, and what we did. If you need to know NOW, please call Lester, HE may be up or you can read about it LATER! Do you have HIS number in your phone, otherwise I can give it to you.” “I appreciate you reading them, but come on, I can’t give you news “hot off the press” and I can’t tell you what I’m going to write about.” Then she said she just wanted to get in the ejournal. Well, she just suceeded. “What did you say, you’re breaking up, must be a bad connection”…click…oops we accidentally got disconnected.
Lester, I’m with you man. You see folks! There is just no way I make this stuff up. I am just taking notes, literally and mental, and just passing on the facts. There’s just no way to keep this ejournal short! Maybe someone can do a Cliff’s Note on this ejournal. Yeah, then maybe even the high schoolers will read it. “Good night, it was nice talking to you. Vicki, can we hang up now?”…………..Great, I can’t sleep….…..Where’s my computer……..Better yet, where’s the Ambien……No, better not, look at Anna Nicole and Heath Ledger…..where’s the mirror….Ewww, looser! Now where was I….REM.