Work!

It’s been a good (i.e. fun, productive, busy) couple days of work so I thought I’d blog about them to give you an idea of what I’ve been up to.

On Thursday, I had a regular day of work at Hands of Hope, except I left an hour early at 3pm because I had night duty that night. After doing a couple chores at home and showering, I went over to the Care Centre around 4:30pm. (The Care Centre is literally a 30 second walk away from my house.) It was my first time doing night duty alone, so that was exciting. Prior to this month I have not done night duty. However, since Kia and Katrine left to go back to Denmark a week ago, I offered to help take their place. I was also happy for a change in routine, more variety in my responsibilities, and an opportunity to hang out more with the patients, who are my neighbors but whom I don’t really see if I don’t make an effort to visit! So night duty is a nice way to carve that time into my schedule.

Night duty at the Care Centre mainly involves giving the patients their medicine before and after dinner, then at 7pm and 8pm, before and after breakfast, and then at 7am and 8am. It’s amazing. The patients who are less stable take up to eleven pills a day. Three or four of those pills are multiple times a day. But the patients who are more stable and healthy, even if they have HIV and TB, only need to take 4 or 5 pills a day. It’s also important to keep track of the medicine because one wrong pill can mean a terrible headache or nausea or other bad reaction. Luckily, I don’t need to prepare the pills. The staff does that each week. I just have to get out the pill boxes and help distribute them.

The other important responsibility is waking up if someone rings the bell in the middle of the night. Since I am not a nurse nor do I speak Thai, my job then, if someone does need assistance, is to check on them and then run to get Kate, who is staff and lives in the Garden too. Luckily, the other patients are very helpful too and would get up too. Furthermore, I know that I can always get the other women in the Garden if Kate isn’t around. Therefore, my main job then really is to just wake up.

Because the current patients are pretty stable right now, staff has assured me that there’s nothing to worry about. And I really don’t feel worried about night duty, though on Thursday night I didn’t sleep well. Probably the new bed and the thought of possibly having to wake up.

Unfortunately, Som was not feeling so well that evening. She was walking very very slowly and painfully and holding on to her hip. In the patient chart it said she had been dealing with a fever. Kate came to check on her and said she would take paracetomol throughout the night to help her sleep better. And the next day, staff would take her to the hospital to get checked. Som is a new patient and I hadn’t really spoken to her much yet. I could see right away that she was in pain and I wanted to ask her how she was, but something stopped me. I realize now that it was shyness, insecurity about my Thai, and just unfamiliarity with her – she didn’t make much eye contact with me and I didn’t know if she was the kind of person who just didn’t want to be bothered by this foreign girl. If she was already in pain, then I didn’t want to irritate her more. Frankly, I was intimidated. But later that night, I chided myself and realized that I was being very self-conscious for no reason. I could have asked her how she was. It was so simple. I promised myself I would try to talk to her in the morning. Fortunately in the morning, she seemed to be much better. Still walking painfully, but smiling and she ate a lot for breakfast! I talked to her a little bit and of course she was nice. The Thai people generally are. I also felt a sense of shyness from her too, which is probably part of the reason she wasn’t making eye contact earlier. So many lessons in that one encounter.

So all in all, night duty was really pleasant. The staff nurse left to go home around 5pm. The patients and I took our dinner and then watched TV, chatted, ate mak bohk which are these delicious tree nuts that somehow I can eat. They come in a shell that you have to crack open and are as addicting as sunflower seeds. I also brought my recycled chip bags to continue to make bags. There are currently only 4 patients in the Care Centre itself – Phang, Som, Chookiat, and Suban. But Dow, who lives in her own house in the Garden and cooks for the patients, came to hang out. And so did the 3 women, Mouy, Bun Hohm, and Deuen, who live in another house in the Garden. And Thip and Gay Sohn, two mothers with a baby boy each, Ton and Game, who share a house in the Garden. It was cozy! Well, except that it was cold. And by cold I mean Nongkhai cold at 60 degrees. I’ve actually been quite chilly this month and I can’t wait til it gets warm again and I no longer have a sore throat and chapped lips in the morning (that’s how NOT used to cool weather I am!).

In the morning, I woke up at 5:45am and opened the house. Chookiat helped me open the gates. The sunrise was beautiful. Dow arrived shortly after to cook the patient’s breakfast. I distributed the medicine. And then the vegetable lady arrived on her motorcycle with two big baskets on either side full of things to sell and since I’ve never actually looked at her stuff, I was really excited. And all the residents came out to buy “groceries.” It’s good to know that she comes every day, just in case I can’t make my weekly trip to the market. She also sells kenom (snacks) so I’m happy about that. Then of course Boonlai called me over to have breakfast. She and her family were sitting on the bamboo platform outside their house, having sticky rice and bbq pork. I went over and had a little bit. That morning, everything felt so normal. It was really nice to feel ordinary here!

I went home when Bon, the staff nurse, arrived for the day around 8:15am. I had breakfast in my house (oatmeal with brown sugar and bananas and a cup of tea, yum). Then I headed over to Hands of Hope an hour later than usual, at 9:30am. I was pretty tired after only sleeping about 4 hours that night, but it was a productive day at Hands of Hope. We got a nice big order from Ireland so everyone had plenty to do. Also, everyone was there since it was a Friday. On Fridays, Antonia pays all the workers, so the home workers, women who do their work at home most of the week, also come to drop of their work for the week, get new supplies, and receive their pay. That Friday, we were also preparing some samples to send to the 5 major customers. The Hands of Hope workers designed a bunch of new products, so Antonia was sending some complimentary samples along with the updated catalogue. All day, I helped prepare the samples, which meant redoing one of the products to make it more durable (I understood more why people study design!) and then packaging the products with labels and codes and sealing them. It was nice to be busy. And I always love working in the packing room with Wasana, Pik, Ning, Faa, and Jiem. They’re always laughing and joking around!

The day ended at 4pm, with the five boxes to Australia, the USA, Italy, Ireland, and the Netherlands ready to go. Success!

The next day, Saturday, which was yesterday, I got to go with the Outreach team – Perm Sak, Kate, and Maew – to visit families in the village. On this trip, we visited families who were more local – sometimes they have to drive as long as 2 hours to reach the families they serve. Yesterday, we visited a young man who was in a motorcycle accident so his leg was all torn up. His wife and 3 kids were also home. Later in the day, we went to visit his father, who has HIV and is currently not doing well, in the hospital. It was my first time in the Nongkhai hospital. We also visited 2 students. Last year, the students were coming to the Friendship Centre (where Hands of Hope and Outreach office is located) for activities and English lessons every other weekend. But now, with the new year, they are unable to come on weekends because of school activities. So Outreach will just have to visit them and check up on them in their homes. Yesterday we saw 7-year-old Panda (her nickname) who has HIV. She took out her medicine box and showed Outreach staff that she knows which medicine is which and when to take each. She’s very smart! She’s also a rascal and hyperactive, making funny faces all the time. The other student we saw was Om, who is 12-years-old. She doesn’t have HIV but her mother does. Really lovely girl, easily smiles all the time. We also visited Bia, whom I love visiting. I think she’s 10 years old and is bedridden because of water in her brain. She doesn’t talk, but she is responsive and smiles often. She also likes to sing! She’s really sweet. We visited another little girl, a little over 1 year old, whom Outreach gave milk powder to because her family is poor. For the babies that Outreach gives milk powder to, they also always take the baby’s weight and height. But often the babies don’t like to cooperate. This little girl was no different, except that she kept saying “mai au!” and “mai dai!” which means “don’t want!” and “no!” in her little teeny tiny voice. She was beautiful and so cute. Her mother left when she was 1 month old and so she lives with her young father and his family. We visited a grandmother who is poor and whom Outreach gives food and money to regularly. I also love visiting her because she is just so cute and kind of reminds me of my own independent Grandma. And then a new visit was to Maew’s neighbor, who is an 18 year old girl with a 1 year old baby girl who kept throwing things. Already a character! The mother has contracted TB bone. Outreach staff took a look at her medicine, I think they might continue to offer support. I think we made about 8 visits yesterday.

The Outreach staff always thanks me for going with them which always makes me laugh because I don’t really do much, other than help carry food from the truck to the houses, which they don’t really need me for. They do all the work - talking to the people, giving their advice and expertise, filling out the reports. But I very much thank them for allowing me to tag along and visit everyone. I learn so much and my heart and mind opens a little bit more after every trip.

So. I know that was a lot! Thank you for reading this. It’s been a long time since I’ve updated and I was very excited to finally have the energy to share more in depth about the work that I’ve had the privilege to be involved in. So I just kept writing til I could write no more! J

The Good Shepherd work here is truly amazing and I am so grateful to be a part of it and to be able to share it with you. From Nongkhai to you, much peace and love.