It is Saturday afternoon and we are back from the town of Kampond Cham.  It is a busy town, but not quite as noisy as Phnom Penh.  Traffic is still crazy.  We visited a Vietnamese literacy school and did health assessment on the students.  The missionaries, making contact with people in outlying village and building relationships with them.  Dr. Don is in the process of writing material for Christians in the churches on servant leadership, forgiveness, commitment to marriage.    We spent an evening with them and the other missionaries in the area enjoying a time of worship.

                      Robert & Judy, with their 4 children have been in Kampong Cham for 10 months.
                       We shared the Lord's Supper with them.  They tell us what encouragement it is
                                                                 for them to have us there. 

                        At Lazy Daze Cafe we met a 6 year old pool shark who really put Frank to the test.


After clinic we had some time to see a Buddhist Temple. Enjoy the pictures!


                                          

                                    


Friday we went to Siem Reap to do physicals on children and adults.  The villagers have not had medical care for some time, so we were challenged to figure out what was wrong with them.  They speak Khmer

so, I asked our English/Vietnamese translator a question, she translated to our Vietnamese/Khmer translator and they then asked the patient the question in Khmer.  Then they have to translate the answer back.  It takes a lot of time and we were not always sure if the question would come out the way we asked it.  :)


                                         

                                               Our translator Amy with nurse Joann and their patient.

We do some sightseeing tomorrow, Sunday, then meet with the missionaries we worked with for a good-bye supper.  Our flight takes off at 11:40pm.  We will touch down in Mpls. on Monday afternoon.Look forward to getting some rest and reconnecting with each of you.

Thank you for your thoughts and prayers over the past 2 weeks.  We have definitely felt them.

Two more days to go, so keep praying for rest and safety as we fly home to the US.

Love to all,  Karin

Tuesday afternoon and a free 2 hours to catch up on email and rest.

Here's a recap of the past couple of days:.

Sunday afternoon we were at a church along the Mekong River.  Here we sang with the people and had communion with them.

                                               I sang to the children "Jesus loves Me"and
                                             they sang back to me in Vietnamese.  What fun!

                                                   Pastor Tin interpreted as I told my story.

                   They live on the metal houseboats.  They use wood canoes to get to them from the shore.
                  They live this way because they are not citizens of Cambodia.  so they have no land.
                            If the government comes, they just move further down the river.

                                      Trinh, Joann and Frank getting ready for a ride on a tut-tut.
                                    It is a Motorbike pulling a cart.  Our group filled 2 of them
                                            and we were off to supper.  What a ride!

Monday found us at a lake 2 hours for the city.  The Vietnamese people here live on a lake in the  houseboats.  They grow their food, vegetables in the water attached to their houses. There were more children's physicals and adults with indigestion, backaches and headaches.  These are the common concerns many of them have.  Headache.... diagnosis...dehydration, drink more water!  Pretty simple!  :)

                                                   I just had to take this young man picture.

Today, Tuesday, we were back to the river and the church where we had worshipped at on Sunday.  We were inside a 30x20' building on stilts.  The breeze was so wonderful we didn't the heat.

                              

                                                   Frank our pharmacist - his real job is IT. :)
                            After 7 years of coming to Cambodia he really has this down to a science.

On the way home we stopped at a roadside stand bought boiled corn on the cob. It was delicious, 

      just no salt or butter.  Notice this women's dress.  Even though it is 90's many of the peopl wear long
     sleeves so that their arms do not get too brown.    

Time to close.  We are packing suitcases tonight and leaving for villages 2 hours away.  Not sure if I will be able to blog until Sat. night when we will be back to the city.

Serving continues

Good morning.
It is 11am Sunday morning and I am at an internet shop.  We had to switch hotels last night and there is no computer to use, so my roommate Deb and I walked around the corner to the internet cafe/shop.

Now a little about the city.Here are some pictures of the crazy traffic we drove through.  I sat in the front seat with our driver, Judy.  I held on tight as she weaved through the maze of cars and mopeds.

 

                                                  The whole family can fit on one moped!
                                                  These are kids from one of the schools.

It was a busy Thursday and Friday as we saw 90+ children and adults at Little Market""School on Thursday and went to an outlying village to see adults and children on Friday.
How wonderful it is to see all these beautiful children and touch them and smile into their faces with God's love.

Now meet our medial team:

                                  Nurse JoAnne checking husband, Frank's ear.  He is our resident pharmacist.

                                     Nurse Karin with her 4th bottle of water.  We have to drink
                                                            4-5 botles or we get headaches.

                                                    Nurse Amy letting the fan cool her off.

We had to leave our hotel and move to another one due to some unsavory things happening in the room next ot ours, Thursday and Friday night.  So after a long day on Saturady, we packd all our belongings and supplies in 15 minutes and moved next door to another hotel. We slept most of the night for the first time since Wed.  :)

Today we went to a church service with Pastor Tin and his wife, Ian.  This afternoon we will go to another church where I will give my testimony .  What fun to see some of the students we saw earlier in the week.

Now we are off to lunch and a little down time.

Please continue to pray for our safety, strength and a sound sleep.

Today, Thursday, March 1st we went to the school called Mekong.  It was another open air building with lots of children!  We saw 81 children and 14 adults. This group was healthier than the last 2 schools, however, there was still lice. :)

All the volunteers work great together.  After only 3 full days on the job we know our roles and and work quickly to start the day of physicals.

                                             This is Du with one of the student reading the eye chart.
                                             He is one of our regular volunteers.  He does many things
                                                    and we couldn't do our job without him.

Tonight we went to a Vietnamese Rest. and one of our adventurous crew had fried squid. We have seen a wide variety of food. However, there is always rice or noodles.

There is one more day of school physicals and then Saturday we are off to other new adventures.

Continue to Pray for us:
Our health as we have long days.
That the children will see Jesus's love in us.
That we continue to work as a team.

Blessings on all your lives at home.

It's hard to believe it is already Wednesday night.  We were up at 6am and on our way to the school called Saigon 2 by 7:30am.  Between the 3 of us nurses we saw 78 children and 23 adults.  Can't wait to share some of the cases with the nursing students.

                                     Ann, one of the missionaries was my translator for the morning.
                                                We were interviewing one of the students.

                                My roommate, Debbie was our intake & blood pressure person.
                         We used the electronic machines.  She is not a nurse, yet she did a great job.
                                      Next to her is Judy, one of the missionaries and a translator.
                                                  Her story as a Vietnam refugee is incredible.

                                               Met part of our team 4:30am Sunday morning
                                   Amy, Trinh, Libby, Debbie and me waiting for our 6am flight.

                                         Libby, Debbie and Amy still looking fresh, even though
                                        we are now on our flight to Korea for a 13 hour trip to Korea.
                                         It was a huge plane and it was full.

We arrived in Cambodia after 11pm (10am Minn. time)  They are 13 hour ahead of Minn.  This is now Monday night.  We were in bed at 12mn, in an air conditioned room. Then up at 6am to get ready for a full day of children's physicals.
The sights, sounds and people of  Cambodia is unbelievable. So is the temperature.  It was in the 90's today.

 
                        Frank, our only male, Amy and Libby decided to ride the coolest way!


We arrived to the small church to find out that the electricity was not working.  Not that there was air conditioning, because it is open air, but the fans weren't working!  I drank 5 bottles of water to keep hydrated.



We did physicals on some 50 children and also saw adults with different health concerns.
The thing that hit me the most was the amount of children with tooth decay and teeth missing.  They have a poor nutritional diet and they eat lots of drinks with sugar in them.  They were also small in size. A 12 year old looked like a 8 year old.

                                                    Karin listening to a child's heart sounds.

It will be an early 6am start tomorrow, Wednesday, with an even fuller day than today.  So goodnight until next blog

The suitcases are packed.

Our trip to Cambodia is just 4 days away as we prepare to leave early Sunday morning, Feb. 26th.  It's hard to believe.  Time passes quickly when there is much to do.  

Our team of 7 started packing 3 weeks ago, filling 10 suitcases with medical supplies, medicine, chewable vitamins and toothbrushes.  My suitcases now weigh 40#'s and 25#'s respectively.  We have a limit of up to 50#'s so I have a ways to go.    

Our carry-on bags and backpacks have to carry most of our clothes and snacks (I have peanut butter and of course some hard chocolate!) and any medicine we need.  That's just in case a suitcase gets lost or arrives late, which is always a possibility.

Sorting toothbrushes(L to R: Amy, Libby, Debbie, and Kathy, a friend of our leader, Trinh.)

With the time growing closer I am spending more time contemplating my time with the children and praying for  them. I think about  my faith story that I will be sharing with the churches we will attend.  How at the age of 10, I asked Jesus to come into my heart and life to live through me.  Then the dream was formed that someday I would serve Him by serving others in His name, far away.  That time is now. God is faithful.

 "May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit."  Romans 15:13