It's been a while. . .

Written July 7th

Another month has passed. The rainy season has been coming full force; almost every day there has been a downpour. I no longer live on a dirt road, but the potholes still make going anywhere an obstacle course. The other day I took a shortcut to the internet shop, but the road was nothing more than a mud pit. The market is a mess. I come back with my purchases and my legs and pants are polka dotted with brown spots. And the rainy season has only just begun!

And speaking of the market, I now only go two or three times a week...I have a fridge! And a real oven. The Graber-Neufelds left Cambodia a little over a week ago and I adopted their oven and Barb got a new fridge so I purchased hers. Last week I was standing on my porch drinking a cold glass of water. I have never appreciated cold water so much before.

I visited Dhammyhatara, an NGO that works with patients with terminal illnesses-mainly AIDS and cancer, with Sherry about two weeks ago. This organization works in Banteay Mancheay, the northeastern province next to Thailand. Mainly they provide home visits to patients so check up on their progress and deliver more medicine as needed. Also, DYBM works with the local hospital, mainly in the pediatric clinic where dengue has been really bad this year. Within the past year a new hospital has been built with donations from Japan. Wow, that places does not even compare to the referral hospital in PV. Sherry, Arlis (head of DYMB), and I got a tour from the head surgeon.

On our way back to PP, Sherry and I stopped at the Emergency Hospital in Battambong to visit a burn victim, Chean Vin, who Sherry met back in December. He was an illegal migrant working in Thailand and while working was spilt with chemicals. His work buddies took him to the hospital and left him, but he was brought back to Cambodia. His father has since remarried and his new wife no longer wants to care for this son from a previous marriage. (Stepchildren are often banished from an immediate family and sent to grandparents or other relatives.) Last December when Sherry met this man, he was laying on a cot with oozing wounds and contorted limbs. DYMB decided to help and sent him to a hospital in PP, but since he was malnourished they couldn't help him, so he was sent back to Battambong to the Emergency Hospital. The dilemma when we visited was that his father didn't want to stay at the hospital and care for him; he wanted to return to his wife and other kids in Mongkol Borei. The hospital structure here is so different from the States. Families still care for their sick one in the hospital by providing food/ feeding, fanning them, bathing them, etc. The nurses will change their wounds but the patient is still dependant upon their family. But when the family is taking care of them, they are not working and losing money for rest of their family. So, basically an injury is a compounded problem. For this young man, 21, his whole life is changed. Due to lack of immediate attention, his limbs contorted and now he needs physical therapy. And I stand here and watch and wonder what I can do.

So, what am I doing? I complain I don't have a partner organization yet, but we, as the PV unit, are taking steps towards that. We have started to interview translators and have started surveying local NGOs in PV province. But the work is slow. Life here is slow and you meander your way through. Khmer aren't very direct people, perhaps that's part of it. I feel I can't explain how life here is; you have to experience it to understand it. I think back to college where I used every minute to its fullest and went weeks without enough sleep. I'm not as 'busy' here, but I'm not bored.

Amy left today. But she'll be back in two months; I'll still miss her though. The next two months will be a time of change as the Sandovals leave and three new SALTers arrive and two new families and another single woman.

I still love getting emails. Life in America still goes on too.

July 30, 2007

Well, the goal was to post the previous post at the beginning of the month but the past few weeks have taken a path I did not expect. For those of you who don't know, which means you're not in direct contact with my mother, I had dengue fever. And as being my first major tropical illness, it wasn't fun. But it wasn't so bad either. The worst point was on the second day when I was dehydrated and it took the nurses 5 times to get an IV in my arm at the clinic.

For those of you who want details, I'll list a summary of my dengue experience! I woke up on Thursday July 12 with a headache. I rarely get headaches, but it wasn't that bad, so I went to the market and the internet shop. But by the time I got to the internet shop, I knew something wasn't right and left without checking my email. I went to the office and laid down for a bit. Then the next hour consisted of trying to get Scott's attention, who was reading the newspaper on the porch, and tell him to go buy a thermometer. Needless to say my temperature was around 39 C and we called Nurse Sherry to see what she thought. She said not to worry until it get around 40C (104 F), so I went home. Scott and Charles stocked me with coconuts and blankets (I was freezing in 90 F weather) and decided I shouldn't be alone. They also called Barb, another expat who has lived in PV for 12 years and is a midwife, and she came and said yup, it's dengue. Barb then saw my cat and asked if she had a recent bowel movement and how she was doing. Never mind that I have dengue, Cricket is the important one!

Crystal, Charles's girlfriend, was visiting that week and was staying with me. I'm so thankful she was here and could spend that night with me. I slept ok, but was starting to get dehydrated. The next morning Scott brought a taxi to my house and along with Crystal we went to PP. The trip was dreadful. There's been road construction on the road between Neak Leoung and Phnom Penh for the past 8 months. And the car didn't have air conditioning. And I hurt everywhere. But we got to PP and I got to see the doctor. And then they decided to admit me...for five days. And here is when the ÏV got put in. About day 5 my fever broke and I was no longer dehydrated. My headache went away around day 6 when the rash appeared.

Sherry was amazing through everything. Cambodia has the best CRs ever! Food isn't provided in clinics here so she brought me fruit to entice my appetite, which was completely non-existent for about 6 days, coconuts, drinks, and even spent two nights in the bed beside mine in the clinic for moral support. After I got out of the clinic the Groffs let me stay at their house for another 6 days until I felt strong enough to come back to Prey Veng.

The strange thing about it is, is that I'm still recovering. I have heard anywhere from 3 to 6 weeks for full recovery and they weren't joking. I feel fine and look normal again, but I tire so easily and my energy is zapped by lunchtime. My liver is still functioning at a high level and my last blood tests showed my platelets were still low. But I'm taking it easy and going slow. And since there are four strains of dengue, I am determined not to get it again. Just because I won the prize for being the first PV member to get dengue (we had a joke that I would be the first one to get it since mosquitoes love me anyway) does not mean I'll get it again.

Friday when I went into PP for a partnership meeting at MCC, I tried to talk to the young mother sitting across the aisle from me on the bus. She said he son had dengue and that it was really bad this year. I said I just had dengue and she turned to me and said no you don't have it! Most Cambodians believe only children can get dengue. For someone who grows up here, most people do have it as a child and don't get it again. So when a foreigner says she just had dengue and there is no more rash; they don't believe her. And dengue has been really bad this year. More children have died so far this year than all the cases resulting in death from last year.