(Meeju)Mobile clinics have been the highlight of my time here lately, and I realized that I haven't shared much about them here on the blog.
Two weeks ago Libby and I went on a mobile clinic in Burma. We woke up early and hitched a ride into town with some village friends in the back of their truck. Once in town we walked about a mile more to the bus station and took a bus, and then a songtaow the rest of the way to the border. Once we crossed the border we were met by our sweet Akha friend Meeju (who is 15 years old) who walked with us to her village. We ate a delicious Akha lunch with her family, and then saw about 15 of the villagers who had different health problems...infections, backaches, fevers, colds, allergies, rashes, broken bones that weren't healing well...etc. Meeju helped translate for us from Thai to Akha. It was such a special day to be in a small villlage and to be able to interact with these villagers who were so welcoming and thankful for the medicines we were able to leave with them. We left with bags full of vegetables to take home from Meeju's mother and grandma who walked us back to the Thai border. Many of the villagers use natural akha medicine because they are unable to afford to go to a hospital. In many cases this works well for them, but in others (broken bones) there can be some long term problems. Meeju and her cousin returned with us back to Thailand where they both live at youth hostels and study. We took the songtaew to the bus back to Chiang Rai where Rusty met us and took us home. We are looking forward to going back and visiting this village again in the next few months.
Yesterday we went on another mobile clinic to a village near the border of Laos and Burma to an Akha village that we had never been to before. One of the evangelists that works for Luka called us and asked if we would come because so many of the villagers were sick. We drove about 2.5 hours to this small Akha village where most of the villagers were without Thai ID cards making it too expensive for them to afford the local health care centers. We saw 42 patients on a bamboo outdoor porch with a thatched roof. In this village we saw more disabled children then we have seen in other villages...a child who was 12 years old, but had the body of a 4 year old, another child without a spinal column who was also mentally handicapped, and others. We sent three patients to get chest x-rays who had symptoms of TB, and took another very sick little girl to the hospital with her mother on our way home from the clinic. We had such a nice time in this village and were so thankful for our Akha friends Blah, Yosu, and Allah who were helping us translate during the clinic as well. Riding home in the back of the pick up yesterday with the cool breeze and stars over head was one of those days when I felt really thankful to be alive, and grateful to be here with these people at this moment.
We have been meeting with other Akha staff and brainstorming ways to make mobile clinics more effective for the villages we visit as well as more sustainable over the long haul. One of the ways we are seeking to do this is to spend time at the start of each clinic doing teaching on different healthcare issues we see in the villages. Another way is the monthly preventative healthcare training sessions with the leaders of each village and a yearly seminar that is more in depth. Please pray for wisdom for us with all of this.
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