In December, I got a call from Dr. Song Tan, a Cambodian-born pediatrician now practicing in Long Beach and the head of the Cambodian Health Professionals Association of America. For five years CHPAA has sponsored medical missions (dental,eye glasses, prosthetic hands, family practice, and surgical to rural Cambodia. Two years ago I worked with them in Takeo; this year their Ob-Gyn cancelled and Song asked if I could come instead.
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| Buddhist Monks are great at crowd control. |
I had already signed on for two weeks in the Philippines, with the second week coinciding with the one week of CHPAA's mission. You guessed it, I decided to both; better to have one ob-gyn each in different missions than two in one and none in the other.
We flew from Manilla to Saigon to Phnom Penh, then hired a driver for the 4-5 hr ride to Sva Rieng. He came from a village and managed to work as a motorcycle taxi driver. He saved money, borrowed more from relatives and bought a car. He's engaged and saving for a wedding, which is very expensive because the groom is expected to put on a big show--as in feeding the entire village. We arrived late Sunday night. Monday morning large crowds were waiting.
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