20.2.08
Third day of eye camp.
We first ventured into the consult room to see if the doctor
was alright and I helped to make packets of pain killers for post-op patients
(seeing this was the only thing I could do not knowing the language very well!)
I met a young woman who came in for some treatment since she had irreversible
blindness. I learnt she was a widow with two kids and no other family to help
her. Her clothes were stained with dirt and haggard. She was incredibly poor
but soldiered on despite her misfortune. My heart broke as I learnt they could
do nothing to reverse her blindness and wished I could give one of my eyes just
to make her life a little bit easier. I realised how lucky I am and how
fortunate I have been in my life.
I interviewed Dr Kakada first thing before his
day became too busy and we soon left to revisit Mot Suan to see how he was. Not
only did we see he was recovering extremely well, we watched him help his
daughter make rice noodles. The process required a high amount of manual
labour. Before this, I never stopped to think how the noodles were made! There
are over 4 steps to the method of making the noodles which takes them quite a
few hours to make one basket full. The alarming thing was however that one
basket would fetch only about US$10! It really puts getting a pay rise no matter how small back
home into perspective! I also had the pleasure of interviewing his daughter!
We
said our goodbyes and made our way back to Kampong Thom for an afternoon of
relaxation. We all got our nails done (which cost the equivalent of 25 cents –
it’s crazy considering I wouldn’t touch someone’s toe nails for a million
dollars!!) and also had my hair done in dread-like braids so admittedly I
didn’t have to wash it for the rest of my trip! However, I had to put up with
the fact I looked like a drowned river rat! After dinner we unwound from three
gruelling days of eye camp with a few beers and a spot of karaoke. It was good
to let loose but I think the neighbours were sick of the dogs in the area
howling to our tunes (or out-of-tunes).
