Thailand Mission Trip

Yes, it has been a while since this trip actually occurred, but Compass Church is gearing up for another trip to Thailand in the summer of 2019.  Got me thinking about the last one and thought I would finally post my notes from the 2017 trip.

Community of Blessing

Medical Mission

Chaing Mai, Thailand 

Dec 30, 2016 (I think)

Arrived last night in Chaing Mai.  It was too late and dark to be able to see much,  temperature was about 72 degrees (lovely, but muggy).  The plane rides has significant turbulence and were soooo long.  On the first leg, I watched five movies during the first half (Suicide Squad, Finding Dory, Nerve, The Secret Life of Pets, and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest).  Listened to music and napped on the second half (surprisingly, I liked Ariana Grande and Demi Lovato's newest albums).  On the ride to the university, noticed several familiar Western sites...KFC, McDonalds, and a 7-Eleven on every corner.  Greeted by staff and students with a flower necklace and for some reason it was more special than the tourist-y Hawaiian necklace that is given on island vacations.  We got a quick tour of the facility and began to unpack.  The new mattresses were hard as concrete, but glad for a pillow.  Somehow, I fell asleep quickly.  Fairly quiet, but awakened at 6am by crows from roosters and a disturbed cat.  Figured it was a good time to shower before everyone woke.  Forgot soap!

Today will start orientation and training. Shouldn't be too stressful.

Dec 30, 2106

Evening

Went over to the new campus property to see the school facilities that have been recently built and the bulk over the training was conducted over there.  Nice facility, constructed with significant quantities of local bamboo.

Carmen, one of the Thailand Mission leaders, mentioned that this trip was significant because of the size of the group, but also because one of the villages that we were going to this year was a village that the Mission Founder started a church plant and ran the church for about 3 years, in the sixties.  After that time the village leadership turned more hostile to the Christian faith and ultimately arrested and tried the founder.  He was kicked out and the church had to be abandoned.  Fast forward to last year, as a new generation has risen in leadership ranks, the village leader comes to see what the mission team is doing in a neighboring village.  He is so impressed that he specifically invites the mission to come back to this original village at the next opportunity, so the message of Christ can be heard again in this area to this new generation and help can be given to those that live there.

In the morning, I found out that I, along with most of the guys, was assigned to the construction crew.  I talked with the group leader and explained that with the back surgery and 10 years of industry experience that I would likely be more effective in the pharmacy role.  It didn't hurt that when describing each of the functional areas she mentioned that the pharmacy area tends to get backed up and somewhat overwhelmed.  She was very understanding with regard to the surgery limitations and willingly agreed, even suggested, that I move to the pharmacy team.  When we get together for the functional training and are introducing ourselves, the main doc that is associated with the mission loved the dermatology bent to my experience.  He also loves to use the mission efforts to get people to come out of their comfort zone, believe in their abilities, and hopefully learn and be able to grow and use the experience in future missions (he is a board certified doc in ER and family practice and he is trying to grow and learn the dentistry side of the mission).  We can use the lack of government regulation to grow and explore these roles with decision making responsibilities, but not for the specific intent to run over the rules.  Instead we are there to supplement the existing health structure in place for the (often) marginalized people.  Toward the end of his presentation he even specifically asks if I was going to run the pharmacy efforts.  So I went from construction crew to 'in charge' of the pharmacy within a couple hours...Crazy, but a challenge that I am loving tackling.

We spent the rest of the morning sorting and inventorying that medicines that were on hand and making sure that they had not expired.  In the afternoon session, the task was to get the most common, frequently used medicines and vitamins prepackaged and ready for quick and easy dispensing.  So I was leading a group of 10-12 people in getting these meds broken down from bottles to little packets of 20 tabs.  Honestly, most of my focus was trying to take hurdles out of their path in their individual tasks, opening large bottles and removing the tamper resistant seals, making sure they did not run out of the packets to put them in, cleaning trash and silicone packets out of their workspace, making sure that they had the needed bottles near them, etc.  But there was the occasional question that was asked, like I knew what was going to happen on site.  'Answer with conviction and fix it onsite if it is wrong' served me well, but it was fun to feel like I was leading this team.  Hopefully things go smoothly at the villages and we can make use of the additional practitioners that are available on this larger mission trip.  I definitely do not want to be the bottleneck.

After dinner, several of the students developed a worship service for the group and lead the missioners in singing and prayer.  They did really well, despite feeling nervous.  You can really tell that the notion of stretching yourself and your comfort zone and leadership development are core fundamentals that are taught and encouraged throughout the efforts of the School and Mission work.

That is all for today, tomorrow we load the vans and then have about a six hour ride to where we are headquartered for the next few days.  Going to try to turn in early and beat the jet lag!

Dec 31

Transit day to Pua

Not much mission related for this day, as we were in transit for most of it.  We started the day catching up with family back home, as the new campus has decent wi-fi access.  Got to FaceTime Hailey, Cooper, and Tammy, it was good to see their faces and I miss them much.  They were at the TCU/KU basketball game, I'm hoping KU won.  Then I FaceTimed with my parents and caught them up with what was going on.  I was able to show them some of the new campus building that we were at and go over upcoming plans.  There was no apparent lag in the video stream, which was surprising considering we are literally half way around the world.  The ability to video chat through today's technology is super cool.  Before the kiddos came along, I remember traveling internationally and we would just go off the grid for that period of time.

The trip to the 'resort' that we are based out of for the next few days took about 7 hours to reach.  The route there was very strange, as we went significantly south and then turned north as we eventually drifted eastward.  I am assuming that this was more a function of geography rather than purposeful sightseeing of the countryside.  In general, the drive is smooth, mostly four lane highway or major thoroughfares between towns and cities, with an occasional pinch point in a couple smaller villages.  Saw a couple of very large and ornate Buddha statues along the highway, hopefully I can have the camera better prepped for pics on the return to the college in Chaing Mai.

Some more general observations of this area of Thailand...even now in the 'cool season', it is very lush and green with heavy vegetation all around.  There is a sense of poverty, but it does not feel oppressive.  Like it is there but they just accept and keep on being.  Safety has not felt to be in jeopardy in all the places that we have been in.  Nothing like the more oppressive version of poverty that presents in Central and South American areas.  Perhaps it is more cultural and/or more hopeful, and it helps that prices in general seem quite low (a 1.25 liter bottle of Coke, two packs of Kleenex, and a bag of hard candies cost me 75 bhat at a 7-Eleven rest area that we stopped at along the way, about $2.10 US).

The other thing that was noticeable was the vehicle population. The cars are set up for right-hand driving, so they drive on the left side of the road.  Some roads are very Western in their feel and others are more stereotypical of third world roads.  Granted there are lots of motorcycles, scooters, and bicycles, but some of the roadways are very narrow.  If I had my truck on them another car could not pass coming the opposite direction.  Composition is mostly Toyota, Honda, Mitsubishi, and Isuzu.  There is an occasional Benz or BMW and then a Ford Ranger truck or Jeep CJ will make a rare appearance.  No GM's.  Not sure if it is a right hand drive issue...There are more cars than I expected, but (at least in these areas that are less populated) we have not really run into traffic issues.

Jan 1, 2017

Today is the first day of our clinic operations.  Everyone is excited.  The day started out cloudy and humid and progressed into light rain through most of the day.  We had about a 15 minute drive to the construction team site.  It was at a church where they were needing an additional building.  Some children arrived for a church service while we were there and we got to see them and the college students interacting with them.  You could tell that they had been there before, as there were a lot of hugs and happy smiles.

After that stop we loaded back up in the vans and began a 30 minute ride up the mountains, with lots of ups and downs and twists and turns.  The road was recently put in and it was a journey with incredible beauty and forestry.  There was one section of the road that you would swear was modeled from the corkscrew at Laguna Seca.  It would have been a real joy to drive that road in a Corvette.

When we arrived at the village they has us go up a very steep hill and set up shop in an elementary school.  The medical folks set up in one classroom and we set up pharmacy in the next classroom.  Dental was down at the end of the class building in what looked to be a chapel type of area.  Setup went fairly smoothly, I got the various medicines organized by class of drug and we went over some of the instructions from the mission leader with the translator that was assigned to pharmacy.  Our team comprised of the student translator, Uuan, two other older ladies, Jessica and Barb that worked in a diagnostic lab, and myself.  Got the ladies setup to receive the Rx's, prep the bags the medicine would go into and write down the number of pills to take and times per day.  I would pull the medicines and talk with the docs on more complex requests.  The crowds were a little lighter than expected, likely due to the weather issues, but that allowed us to find our rhythm and work out kinks in the processes, as well as being able to spend more time with the translator to make sure that instructions were well understood for the various medicines.  There had been mention of one of the drugs used to treat impetigo and I asked Dr. Ken (the head doc for the mission) if we would see any cases, and if we did if he could come get me to see it.  We had a drug at Galderma that was in development for impetigo and thought it would be cool to see the condition first hand.  No impetigo showed up, but we did have one dermatology patient come through that he had me examine.  A little eight year old boy with severe dry skin/eczema on the legs and arms and dry skin on the trunk front and back.  Not really sure how it came to be, but we thought it might be caused by bathing in laundry soap.  Dr. Ken had me apply Vaseline to the legs and lotion to the arms and trunk to get some immediate hydration to the skin.  Then set him up with more lotion and Vaseline for the future. Very cool moment for me to be involved in the exam and treatment of this little boy and another example of how these folks take areas of expertise and interest and really get the volunteers involved.

Most the the patients were aches and pains related and were setup with NSAIDs and vitamins.  Again, the goal is to supplement and support the existing medical system more than fixing problems.  Show love and compassion for these people and using the medical clinic as a way to open more doors for the church.  We finished the day with 92 patients that came through.  85 more used the vision services for glasses and dental had 40 that were treated.  Felt like the dental was light, but in talking with Dr Ken on the way back to the hotel, typically they see about 40 dental patients in the entire three days.  Having double the staff of dentists and hygienists really opened the floodgates as far as they were concerned, so very cool.

The fog persisted through the day and into the evening as we left, so the view was very muted, but I think we all left feeling good, smiling, but tired.  When we left the village I had to climb into a different van, as the one I was originally assigned to was the construction group.  There was room in the lead van so I jumped in.  It also had the mission leaders in it, including Dr Ken.  As he got in he slapped my left and told me good job today, which made me feel very satisfied with the day's efforts.

Jan 2, 2017

Day two of the clinics.

It is a much brighter and clearer day today, but 6:30am came early!  Slept pretty soundly despite the rock hard beds.

We had about a 45 minute drive to today's work site.  The views today were even more beautiful than the first day.  It was less mountainous and more agricultural, less ups and downs and more diverse natural beauty.  Along the way we went through a couple of villages with buildings that were more developed. The woodwork and the bamboo exteriors on some of these buildings were amazing and ornate.  As we got closer to what we thought was going to be our destination, we went through a small town and then turned into the police station and provincial government office buildings.  Considering that this is a Buddhist country with no separation of church and state, even I knew that this was a big deal.  The government may not be outwardly hostile to Christianity, but it is typically not friendly either.  As it came to be known later, the recent rains had made some of the roads rougher in passage, so the governmental leaders opened the provincial assembly hall to us and spread the message to all the surrounding villages.  Remarkably good luck, God's deliverance, and/or the reputation of Community of Blessing doing good work and treating people with compassion and love...whatever the reasons, this was a big deal for the mission.

At the beginning, after we got the pharmacy set up, Dr Ken was making the rounds to see if there were any issues or hurdles.  Let him know that we were set and ready and he responded, I knew that you would have it covered.  It was a great shot of confidence for the day to know that he trusted the team and didn't need to worry about pharmacy issues.

The weather was dry (well, no rain and muggy) and the sun was shining so the turnout was expected to be better today, and it was!  Chief complaints were similar to the first day, aches and pains, so lots of NSAIDs and vitamins.  Since this area was more agricultural, there was a greater need for allergy meds as well...we even ran out of our Benadryl 95% through the patient load.  It was heartbreaking to have a couple Rx's at the end that we were unable to provide for.  I brought my bottle of Clobex just in case we ran into a dermatological case that could use a steroid to knock down a flare, and sure enough, we had a 30-something gentleman that presented with some bad eczema flare ups.  Talked with Dr. Ken on the treatment options and mentioned the Clobex.  He okayed using it on the worst section that was on his arm, so I applied it and sent him on the way with lotion and a mid-potency steroid for the ongoing treatment.  We had a man that wanted us to pray for him, so as soon as the translator finished explaining the medicines given, the man, the translator, of of the ladies on the pharmacy team and I all prayed over this man and for the medicines to work on his ailments.  All in all, the medical team served 133 people, vision served 85 (they got a bit backed up from the older population today presenting with more cataracts and other eye issues that made the machine that reads the prescription needed harder to use), and 44 dental patients, including two soldiers that came to check out what was going on.  It was funny, but you could sense the tension when they first arrived, but they were toured around and were pleased with what was happening.  So much so that they sat down for the dental procedures.  So a resoundingly successful day.

Dr. Ken's 23 year old son, Samuel, is on the mission team with us and seems to have an interest in the dentistry part of the clinic.  At the end of the day, he was beaming!  One of the dentists that he has been working with had him start working on the patients.  His second patient, he got to extract a tooth, and on the next patient she let him shave a tooth down that had fractured.  He was quite jazzed to get the opportunity and Dad was proud of him for taking it.

We got everything turned down and packed up in the evening, with an efficiency that made the mission leaders impressed.  They commented how it is usually everyone standing around waiting on Pharmacy to finish, but not so this trip.  Made me feel good that we working well as a team and exceeding their expectations.  We headed back to the hotel and when we got back Dr. Ken said he was going to head up to the pharmacy to get more allergy meds.  I asked if I could tag along to see the pharmacy operations and experience and he said sure, so we headed off with Samuel joining us.  We get to the pharmacy and purchase the allergy meds, 1,000 pills for 90 bhat (less than $3 US)!

From the pharmacy, we headed down the road to a small supermarket in search of lotion and containers for dispensing the lotion.  As we were walking around the aisles an older lady and her 20-something daughter walk by and the Mom starts to talk about the three round eyes and here was a chance to score a husband.  Well, Dr. Ken jumps into the conversation and you could tell they were not expecting us to know what they were saying.  He was jokingly prospecting out Samuel to the mother.  It was a funny moment and we all had a good laugh.  On the way back to the hotel Doc was talking to Samuel about the dental procedures that he had performed and that he was proud of him for seizing the opportunity.  Then we got talking more about derm and my past.  He asked if there was another area that I wanted to check out tomorrow.  I told him that I really liked the pharmacy side and it married well with my interests and experience, but it was another confidence boost that he felt high enough of my abilities to stretch me out in other areas if I wanted as well.

We got back to the hotel and I caught a quick shower and then it was time to eat.  Guess what we had, rice!  Again...And there was some cabbage dish too.  Not sure if there was a meat dish and I had just arrived too late, but there was talk of an ice cream shop down the road, so I just skipped dinner in hopes of a sundae and a Snicker bar from the 7-eleven.  A group of about 10 of us left for the ice cream shop about 7:30 excited for ice cream-y goodness.  The store was closing at 8pm.  When we got there at 7:40, it was already closed and dark.  So much for signs that advertise the closing times.  Headed back to the 7-Eleven for goodies.  Loaded up and there was a street food vendor selling sausages and some sort of meat balls (chicken versions and pork versions).  One of the Compass folks, with the aid of the Australian that could speak some Thai, decided to try a couple of skewers of the balls.  Cooper would have had such a laughing fit with the whole exchange and all of the ball jokes and innuendos that we were going through over the next several minutes.  He let me try one of each of the meatballs and I have to admit that they were tasty, even with the hot sauce that was added.

Back to the hotel room to sleep...Good day!

Jan 3, 2017

Day 3 of the Clinics

This village was more along the lines of what we were expecting!  After we got off the main road, the road was paved but literally on the edge of the mountain and mostly only a lane and a half.  Up and down, twisty and turning doesn't even begin to describe the path.  Dense vegetation covered both sides and at times even darkened the path with overhead cover.  The road quickly turned to concrete and then degraded to rough pocketed concrete.  It as funny, we ran across a couple of potholes and instead of fixing them, thee was just a blue bag of sand or concrete mix laying in the hole.  There were two times that half of the road surface was eroded out from heavy rains.

After about 45 minutes along this trail we came to the village we were to serve.  It comprised two roads that made a T-intersection with a round about at the T.  About 600 people, 140 houses, and 145 were Christian.  We were told by the pastor there that there was a lot of spirit worship that hindered progress in getting people to accept Christ, people worried that if they followed Christ that the spirits would persecute their family.  We began to setup shop at the church at the end of the town.  About 30 minutes into setting up power went out.  There was some worry that we wouldn't be able to do the dental and vision portions as they require power for the machinery.  The teams attached to those areas finished setting up and then blew up gloves into balloons for the children.  About an hour later power was restored to the village and were able to kick it into high gear.  The makeup of the patients was primarily children and older people, perhaps because of the workday calling the middle aged to jobs.  No derm patients today, but there were a couple of sick kids.  One was a three year old that we tried to give a dose of amoxicillin on site and he threw it up right away.  Had to change course and go to a shot...he was not a fan of ours afterwards, but we sent him home with more medicine and hopefully the fever calmed down.  The medical portion had less takers, perhaps 60, on this day.  Largely a function of the remoteness and isolation of this specific village.

As the day wound down for the medical/pharmacy team, I went over to the dental section and helped out with dental procedures by holding a flashlight to help illuminate the mouth.  By this time of the day the movement of the sun had caused the dental area to lose much of their light, so it was helpful.  Between her patients I went down to another dentist and watched a tooth extraction, that was a sight.  Finished lighting one last dental patient and then headed out of town about 0.6km to a small waterfall.  Took some pics and headed back to town to make sure the vans didn't leave without me.  On the way out of town, we stopped at the village coffee roasting business.  Apparently coffee is a major crop in this area.  We toured around and then loaded up on some freshly ground coffee before heading out.  An hour drive back to the hotel.  It was 5pm and I took a shower, got dressed for dinner, and then laid down...that was all she wrote.  I missed dinner and another failed attempt at the ice cream store.  Oh well, 12 hours of sleep was needed more!

On the team debrief it was mentioned by the Mission Leadership that the government officials that had visited made mention of the fact that we were all either wearing black or had a black ribbon pinned to our shirts (in respect for the recently deceased Thai King).  They appreciated the gesture and said that it showed our love for Thailand and its people.  Overall the Clinics ran smoothly and when flexibility was needed it was there and appreciated.  We had experienced a wide cross section of tribes and physical locations and hopefully helped those that we came into contact with.

Jan 4, 2017

The drive back to Chaing Mai

We got up and ate breakfast at the hotel then packed up and headed to the construction site to see their progress and pray with some of the church members there.  After that we loaded up and set off on the 7 hour drive back to Chaing Mai.  Just a long uneventful drive but took in the unique scenery.  Got back to the college and unloaded the vehicles, ate dinner, and then off to bed.

Jan 5, 2017