Part 2- Thailand
And now..greetings from Thailand!
It's taken a while for me to get back online as we have been in a bit of a transition period, to say the least. We left the US on 9/22 and flew to Vienna where we took a one week stop over to visit one of my good friends from college and her husband. We spent a couple of days wandering around Vienna and went to Budapest, Hungary over the weekend, which was AMAZING. We had an amazing time walking all around the city, cruising down the Danube that ran through the middle of the city, eating langos, and getting Megan and Juan addicted to Settlers of Catan:)
After a lovely week long break visiting Megan and Juan it was time to take the next step in our journey and get to Thailand! We flew overnight and landed in Bangkok the morning of 9/30. The old director of Kwai River Christian Hospital met us at the airport along with our driver Toe and we were off. We spent that day coordinating our visa documentation, getting SIM cards, and getting acclimatized to the new time zone and the new country. The following day we took the 6+ hour drive to Huay Malai. I can't comment much on this drive as I fortunately slept almost the entire way there, however Chris was more than awake, as our driver bravely whipped around the windy/hilly roads on the way to our small village. He claims he aged 5 years during that drive, so now he looks 33;)
Today is 10/5, so we have been here in Huay Malai for 5 days. Since our arrival everyone has been so welcoming and gracious. We have had multiple meals prepared for us to help us during this transition and have someone even doing our laundry for us (!). The people here have so far been lovely. We have a large apartment with 4 rooms, a working stove, a new refrigerator, and a nice shower. We have figured out to procure drinkable water (free of charge), have Wi Fi access from one of our neighbors as we await our connection, and found a great little coffee shop where we can get iced coffee!
Dr. Jen Tan is the current acting director at KRCH (as of 10/04) and him and his family have been incredibly helpful in our transition into the community. His wife Liz and their three daughters have welcomed us and answered innumerable questions about life here in the village. Since getting into Huay Malai Jen has been incredibly helpful in orienting me to life here as well as to the hospital. It has been amazing to see the breadth of pathology already and what Dr. Jen and the hospital staff are able to do in such a resource limited location. I have no doubt that I am going to learn more than I can imagine from Dr. Jen and the other doctors, nurses, techs, interpretors here at KRCH. I only hope that I can offer something in return.
Needless to say, it has been an expectedly difficult transition. As we reflect on our daily challenges, while we knew it was going to be hard, no one could have prepared us for the challenges we were going to face upon landing in an entirely new culture. We remind each other daily of how grateful we are for a roof over our heads, clean water, a nice place to sleep, and food in our fridge. We really couldn't ask for more.
It's taken a while for me to get back online as we have been in a bit of a transition period, to say the least. We left the US on 9/22 and flew to Vienna where we took a one week stop over to visit one of my good friends from college and her husband. We spent a couple of days wandering around Vienna and went to Budapest, Hungary over the weekend, which was AMAZING. We had an amazing time walking all around the city, cruising down the Danube that ran through the middle of the city, eating langos, and getting Megan and Juan addicted to Settlers of Catan:)
Travel Catan on the train!
After a lovely week long break visiting Megan and Juan it was time to take the next step in our journey and get to Thailand! We flew overnight and landed in Bangkok the morning of 9/30. The old director of Kwai River Christian Hospital met us at the airport along with our driver Toe and we were off. We spent that day coordinating our visa documentation, getting SIM cards, and getting acclimatized to the new time zone and the new country. The following day we took the 6+ hour drive to Huay Malai. I can't comment much on this drive as I fortunately slept almost the entire way there, however Chris was more than awake, as our driver bravely whipped around the windy/hilly roads on the way to our small village. He claims he aged 5 years during that drive, so now he looks 33;)
Today is 10/5, so we have been here in Huay Malai for 5 days. Since our arrival everyone has been so welcoming and gracious. We have had multiple meals prepared for us to help us during this transition and have someone even doing our laundry for us (!). The people here have so far been lovely. We have a large apartment with 4 rooms, a working stove, a new refrigerator, and a nice shower. We have figured out to procure drinkable water (free of charge), have Wi Fi access from one of our neighbors as we await our connection, and found a great little coffee shop where we can get iced coffee!
Dr. Jen Tan is the current acting director at KRCH (as of 10/04) and him and his family have been incredibly helpful in our transition into the community. His wife Liz and their three daughters have welcomed us and answered innumerable questions about life here in the village. Since getting into Huay Malai Jen has been incredibly helpful in orienting me to life here as well as to the hospital. It has been amazing to see the breadth of pathology already and what Dr. Jen and the hospital staff are able to do in such a resource limited location. I have no doubt that I am going to learn more than I can imagine from Dr. Jen and the other doctors, nurses, techs, interpretors here at KRCH. I only hope that I can offer something in return.
Needless to say, it has been an expectedly difficult transition. As we reflect on our daily challenges, while we knew it was going to be hard, no one could have prepared us for the challenges we were going to face upon landing in an entirely new culture. We remind each other daily of how grateful we are for a roof over our heads, clean water, a nice place to sleep, and food in our fridge. We really couldn't ask for more.
Chris on our borrowed 5G wireless internet watching the news, iced coffee in hand.
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