It was an emotional roller-coaster today as the team went to She rescue, the local hospital and then a funny dress up dinner.
The She Rescue Home exists as a safe haven for girls ages 5 to 16 who have been trafficked, raped, prostituted or are at risk of any of these things. We were given a briefing off all the good things that She is doing for these vulnerable girls. www.sherescuehome.org.
The team then went to the local hospital to provide some comfort to the patients which many off us found extremely confronting. As we entered the institutionalised looking building we were met with screams which definitely gave us a clue that this was no western hospital. The screaming was due to the patients getting the bandages changed on there horrific injuries. The team provided as much support as possible but there was very little we could do for the many motorbike, burns victims and amputees. We did help volunteers from ICC hair washing, and give out protein and milk drinks to those that wanted it as nothing is provided by the hospital not even dressings or medication.
PERSONAL VIEW of the hospital by Amy Chapman
This morning we visited a local hospital. It was nothing like I expected and like no hospital I had ever seen. Our team came in and helped wash people's hair and gave them some protein shakes and milk drinks. Some of the patients had significant injuries but there appeared to be minimal pain medications eg no antibiotics and only saline drips. However they were so grateful for our help and I really enjoyed caring for them and helping them. There was a particular man that was in the hospital with his family. He was in serious pain and I spent a bit of time washing his hair and gave him a nice head massage. As I was leaving the room his family and him stopped me and said thank you over and over even though I felt like I didn't and couldn't do anything significant to help. I will never forget this experience.
Amy and Jo washing a boys hair who had fallen off his motorbike and Broken his leg
PERSONAL VIEW of hanging out with the locals by Mal and Kylie Topperwein.
Malcolm, Kylie and Em hung out with some local kids and threw balls, frisbees and jumped rope. After starting with 2 kids we were soon surrounded by many who were eager to play catch and skip. Then some hats began being distributed; the first was given to a local Nanna who had the most thankful smile. The sounds of fun and the smiles of the children as more joined in the games with us were infectious. As we were getting ready to leave, there was an almost endless stream of high-fives given out as we headed for the tuk-tuk and the children fairwelled us with the biggest brightest smiles and waves as we disappeared around the corner.
Sun smart Nanna
We were all pretty wrecked emotionally by the mornings activities so Troy gave us a challenge for dinner. Everyone drew a name out of a hat and went to the market to spend $10 on an outfit for that person to wear out to dinner. As you can imagine it was a welcome release and many a strange costume was purchased (much to the grief of the wearer).
While we were at the market we also needed to buy food for the family we are staying with in the village. The only problem is each pair was only allowed to spend $2 max on dinner and breakfast to feed themselves and a Cambodian family!!!! There was much frantic bartering going on in the market but we all walked out with rather small bags of food.
As the team are staying out at the village tomorrow night and as they are lacking in the wifi (and running water, flushing toilets...) area there will not be a blog tomorrow.
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