A bit of Mischief!

How goes it my friends? I'm thinking of you all and when I'm lying in my bed trying to fall asleep I think of all of you just waking up and having breakfast! It's a bit weird when I think about it...but it's all really cool;)

I thought I should give you a little update on Daughter's. It's going good. I've been taking the clinic on my own with Nurse Ruth upstairs in the office or running about delivering water filters to the new Mama's! We've got a lot of preggy ladies! 13 to be exact. And we're actually finding a place for them all. None of the girls want to keep their babies so orphanages or families are what we're focusing on finding now. It's weird, even though they worked in the brothels they have no idea how to use a condom or what an STD is! Nurse Ruth and I have our work cut out for us;)

There's been some funny times in the Laboratory these past few days when Kimberly Foster enters the premises! There was one poor soul who had hemorrhoids so I gave her some suppositories to administer to herself at home after each BM (cough cough). Unfortunately, or fortunately, whichever way you look at it; she didn't know how to use a suppository. Like I'm sure many of you people may not know too. So I was attempting to explain how but stopped and said like my new British friend would, "Oh bother. Let me show you!". So I lied on the ground (fully clothed! People, come on! Get your minds out of the gutter!) on my left side, raised my right leg and pointed with my finger to the, well, you know...the spot! And I explained to her how to do it! Well...let me tell you, it sure released the tension in the room because all of the women; the translator, nurse Ruth and our poor client were howling watching ME on the dirty floor! Yeah, I'd say I've got the moves.

I also find it so tempting to say things in English to people when they have no idea what I'm saying. Like, for instance; I had a client who was 5 months pregnant and I had to do an abdominal assessment and also use a Doppler to hear the fetal heart rate. So she lies down and after I wash my hands and start poking around her very obviously pregnant belly, I say out loud, "Yep, you've definitely got a baby in there. I'd say your pregnant!" Okay, so unfortunately I can't exactly remember what I said but it was hilarious...the poor translator standing beside me looked at me with a very confused and shocked face as if she wasn't sure she was hearing right...Nurse Ruth had to explain through a cackle that Sray Kim was just joking! It's probably one of the biggest pros to living where almost no one speaks English! Fun times!

I went to Sway Pak yesterday to do some simple triaging and nursing care with Nurse Ruth yesterday afternoon. We went in a van about 30 minutes away from where I live. It was an old brothel. The van was filled with ex-brothel girls from another housing centre a ways away from Daughter's. The girls go twice a week to play with the brothel children and kind of i guess do Sunday School for them. They had gutted the old brothel building into one large room and left only one brothel room in tact to use as a monument or a sort of reminder of the hell that existed in the past there but doesn't have control now! I walked inside the little pink room and immediately got the chills. It was about 5 feet by 5 feet with only a wooden bed frame. The walls were disgusting with dirt, blood and writings on them. I stood there and felt sick to my stomach imaging that THIS is exactly where deeds of pain and shame were committed. I had to leave. We quickly got on with the nursing stuff and I was forced to focus on something else...

Last night though it came back to me in the form of a nightmare! I was a brothel girl. I was raped. It felt real. I was sobbing out loud! Eileen woke me up and I darted for her bed. Thank goodness for shallow sleeping room mates! I fell asleep shortly after I got into her bed with salty tears drying on my face. It was just a glimpse into what they went through EVERY day of their lives...

Well, I should cut this thing short but I just wanted to point out that my favorite part of my day is riding to and from work on the back of a motto. I get to see and feel and smell Cambodia up close. I see the strangest things too! Yesterday I saw two oxen pulling a wagon and also a small horse pulling a carriage!! I smiled with glee. I miss the farm.

Over and out,
10 4
Kimbers...