more from Ang Sophy school

During the days at the MEDCAP we were working nonstop! From 8am when the first patient showed up at the pharmacy until our lunch break around 12:30, I didn’t pause once to look at my watch or even take a sip of water. During lunch, I scarfed down the edible portions of my MRE and chugged about 2 liters of water before getting to work in the pharmacy restocking the supplies that we had used all morning. Then at 1pm it was back to the grind until we finally finished the last patient of the day around 5:30pm. And by that time we only had an hour of daylight left. Our team was designed to see about 500 patients per 8 hour day, which would be 1,750 for the whole MEDCAP. But we kept pushing the envelope and tried to help as many people as we possibly could, and by the time we left we had seen 2,949 patients. The pharmacy had a team of 3 people and 2 translators, and we filled 5,809 prescriptions in 3 and a half days. Our translators and students were very helpful and we also had a preventative medicine tech helping us out. The other pharmacy tech and I would fill the prescriptions, then the pharmacist would check each one and tell the translators any special instructions, and then the translators would dispense the medication to the patient and counsel them in Khmer. Our system worked well and flowed smoothly all day, but it was nonstop work and the line of patients seemed to never end. We joked that we were a human conveyer belt. We worked really hard and poured sweat all day in the 100°+ weather. At the end of the day we had another delightful MRE for dinner and usually walked down the street to the local cafes. Each café is basically a house that has a large open area in front of it with tables and a tv. The family that lives there runs the business, and when customers show up, they bring out the chairs. Most of the time they serve food for breakfast, and the rest of the day they only have beverages. Cambodian people love to drink hot tea and iced coffee all throughout the day, but at night it is hard to find food for sale because each family eats together. We got to know some of the families who own the restaurants over the 5 days that we were there. Most of them didn’t speak English, but we usually had a student with us so we could have some limited conversations. For the most part, this is how every day went at the Ang Sophy school MEDCAP. The days kind of ran together since we were constantly occupied. However, on Saturday the Commodore and her team took a helo to visit the MEDCAP and see how things were going. She was very proud of the work that we were doing, and shook hands with each member of the pharmacy team with a coin in her hand that she transferred to ours. Apparently, it is a big deal to be presented with a coin in the military, and a lot of the sailors have showcases for their collections of coins. The Commodore also brought 2 huge bins of extra supplies for the pharmacy. We had been running out of medicine since the MEDCAP was helping many more people than we had originally expected. If we had not gotten the resupply we would have run out of almost every medication. Also on Saturday, one of the students from Ang Sophy had his mom make lunch for us! We all chipped in a few dollars, and she made white rice, chicken curry with coconut milk, marinated pork jerky (my favorite!), shrimp, bread, fried plantains, and watermelon! It was a delicious break from the MREs and it was nice to get a taste of some real Cambodian food. Then around 6:00 after the MEDCAP closed for the day, one of the translators took us to a Buddhist Pagoda. I was expecting a temple that looked like all of the rest that I had seen in southeast Asia, but this one was much more exciting! It was a temple that was build inside of a huge cave! When we parked, about 20 children eagerly came running to the vans to give us a tour. There were natural rock formations that were in the shape of animals and other objects, and statues of Buddha interspersed throughout the caves. The children were so excited to point out all of the rock formations and tell us what they were called in English, but when we tried to have a conversation with them they didn’t know many other English words. It was a mini business for them because they all expected a tip or gift at the end. They were adorable though, so everyone gave them something. I think that temple was one of the coolest sites that I have seen during my whole trip so far! On Sunday, we left Ang Sophy and came back to the Mercy, and I have never been so excited to take a shower in my entire life! Camping was a lot of fun, but we were all excited to finally get out of the heat and the mosquitoes. On Monday and Wednesday I have duty in the Mercy pharmacy and on Tuesday and Thursday I have liberty in Sihanoukville. And on Friday I will be at another local MEDCAP. I still have many adventures to share, so hopefully the internet will hold out! Thanks for reading!