Burmese Clinic: A Collection of Short Stories

We got to work at the clinic that ACC founded today! It’s attached to a local church and normally sees about thirty patients a day with a Burmese patient population from the surrounding area. Unlike the camp we were in yesterday, these refugees are allowed to move about with a bit more ease. We saw about 130 patients split pretty much 50/50 between the number of adults and number of children.

Cat Nap

This cat followed the pharmacy team into their room as soon as we arrived and slept on our suitcase the entire time we were there!!

Brace for It!

One of our teammates had brought a wrist brace to donate because her mother was done using it. We really weren’t sure if we were going to find a new home for it, but sure enough, God chose to use it! A man came in with a crippled hand and we tried to splint it all sorts of ways but nothing was appearing to be comfortable long-term until Barb got out the wrist brace she had brought with her and it fit perfectly and was exactly what this man needed!

More Interesting Home Remedies

A woman came in with a burn from a motorcycle on her calf. We wanted to clean it for her and give her some burn cream but we first had to remove her home remedy: toothpaste! A quick google search will tell you that about 70% of people will put toothpaste or honey on burns to relieve the pain, although it is not super recommended ;)

Teaching the Teacher

Jadon got to train a local teacher in “the ways of the pharmacy” we teased him about teaching the teacher but she was a very fast learner and was excited to volunteer with us today! She normally works with the three and four year olds at the local school but since it was a Saturday, had some free time to help us out!

An Interesting Discovery

We noticed that both days have had a lot of people complaining of neck pain and we couldn’t figure out why so many people were struggling with this particular symptom. One of my teammates finally deduced that neck pain wasn’t really neck pain at all but was a headache! In both Thai and Burmese culture, the head is the most sacred part of the human body and in it resides the soul. Touching a person’s head without permission or good reason is extremely taboo. In this context, it makes a lot of sense why people might not want to say that their soul (head) hurts.

*Technically* in Myanmar

After clinic, we drove to the Myanmar-Thailand friendship bridge and according to our guide, stood on Burmese soil (passport control doesn’t agree, but Simon said so I’m going to go with it;))! He told us the story of how the Thai people got themselves a bit more land by shoveling sand onto their side of the river to divert it further into Burmese territory. We even witnessed some illegal border crossing from Myanmar to Thailand and back. You can see the boat on the Myanmar side (left) of the river. There’s people swimming past them as well.