Thailand: Week 2

The adventure and stressful situations never stop! Since I’ve been doing so much traveling, I was beginning to wonder if something new that I’ve never experienced would happen. That’s a very bad thing to wonder about, I’m in a situation that I haven’t ever experienced stateside let alone international. 

Since you are probably wondering what happened, here it is. I lost my credit card so now I’m in Thailand without access to my money which I was going to use to live off of while I’m here. I don’t know how I lost it, I just know it’s gone but I’m praising God that it wasn’t used before I got it cancelled. 

I’ve figured out the easiest way for me to get the money that I need, but it’s going to take a little time. I’m not completely out of money, but if I run out before I get more then I’m going to have to borrow money and then pay people back. That’s really not what I want to do, but maybe there is a lesson in here that I need to learn. Holding onto finical security is really easy to do, but then it means I’m not depending on God. Maybe it has nothing to do with that, I don’t really know. 

Onto a better topic, the second week here was a little easier. Maybe I’d adjusted into the routine a little more, but I had fun working in the medical clinic’s that we did that week. Each clinic was in a different place, and so we would see different people. 

During all of the clinic’s I was the pharmacist. After the patients had seen the doctor they would bring over their paper with the medication written down and I would give it to them and explain how to take it. For the first 3 clinics I had the same translator which made it fun, but by the end he had everything memorized so I didn’t have to say much. 

The last clinic we held, was a good 3 hour drive from where we staying and so we drove up to the village the evening prior and spent the night there before having clinic in the morning. Since, it was so far away, we worked with different translators. 

After the clinic started I lost my translator for part of the time since he was needed for other things. Motions became my explanation because I haven’t learned enough Thai vocabulary to explain it myself. It was also an entertainment show for those waiting to see the doctor. As people would walk over to get their meds, those who were waiting would turn and watch, waiting to see what I would do and we’d all start laughing. Eventually, a very helpful lady who didn’t speak English but understood my gestures would translate from my gestures and that seem to help. It made for an interesting day in the pharmacy. 

I do think the best part of that trip was sitting in the bed of a pickup truck with three others as we went speeding down the road at 70 miles per hour. Most people have trucks here and it’s not illegal to have people riding in the back, so transport has been a fun!

The rest of the team that I came with left and so now I’m working on starting to figure out my routine and what I will be doing here for the next several months. I think it’s going to take a little bit of time, but eventually I’ll get there.