Well, I just can’t believe we leave in one week from today. This trip has flown by. I am so excited to get home to see all my loved ones that I have missed so much, but at the same time, I am so so sad to leave all the wonderful people I have fallen in love with here. Because sleep was very needed last night, I decided to blog this morning. So I will outline our yesterday for you!
In the morning, Victoria went out on the mobile clinic and the others of us took our posts in the hospital. Emily and I decided to go give blood for the same patient Mrs. Dryden and Victoria gave for yesterday. So we go through all the paper work, and finally make our way to the blood bank. After getting our fingers pricked and waiting for about 10 minutes, the woman who works there comes out and begins speaking in Khmai and shaking her head. We were very very confused, and finally after asking questions to our driver in a few different arraignments of broken English, we found out our hematocrits (pretty much the percent of red blood cells in a draw of blood) were low. So Emily and I are slightly freaking out because we have no clue if something is wrong with us, and no one can understand to tell us!!! Finally, we get out that it was just 2% off the percent they accept. After calling our teachers and realizing that we are a little dehydrated- our fears were gone, but then we were just frustrated! SO FRUSTRATED. We were sitting, pretty much pouting, and thinking- “”Our blood just isnt good enough!”” The doctors at the blood bank were very kind though, and they gave us the units of blood to take back to the patient that they had already in the bank. So we didn’t feel completely worthless!
Author Archives: ticee
The Way I See It
Well, today was an incredibly emotionally draining day for me (and many of us), so I am going to use today’s blog to kind of unload and filter through my thoughts. While Kim went on the hospitals mobile clinic and Stephanie worked the emergency room and operating room, the other three of us (Emily, Victoria, and I) had our turn to go out to the slums to talk with the HIV patients. Because we had a lot of time, we got to sit in their houses with them and have conversations through our interpreter Chaveleth.
Walking through this area of garbage and insects and who knows what else, I couldn’t help but think to all of the many things I take for granted. It really was an emotionally challenging day to us and to Kim and Stephanie yesterday because you see these people who have nothing and live with a disease that is so challenging, and you wonder how they have a will to get up in the morning. But not only do they have that, they have smiles on their faces and joke about the little things just like we do. While sitting with them, they told us of how they looked before they got on the Anti-retro Virus drug that helps the patients with HIV. They would laugh about how they gain so much weight once getting on the drug and would joke of how different our skin looks from theirs. One woman, in order to make a living for herself and her two children, sweeps the streets at night. But instead of letting her situation bring her down, she picks up posters and pictures people throw away and hangs them on her walls in order to decorate her small tin hut. She was so pleased that we liked them and it brought a huge smile to her face just to show off her little treasures.
We Have Arrived!
Well, we have finally made it to the beautiful Hanoi, Vietnam. It was a long trip, and for a first time international traveler like myself, it was a little scary and overwhelming at times… well pretty much all the time. By the time we were boarding our international flight in LAX, we were all so exhausted and delirious that everything was funny to us. After our 13.5 hour flight to Taiwan, and another 2.5 hour flight to Hanoi, we finally were at our short term destination. During this process though,we completely skipped Friday, which was kind of a joke among us!
We hopped in a bus and were all pretty much in awe of our surroundings. On the 30 minute ride to the hotel, we were fascinated by the rice fields, the huts, and the thousands of mopeds (which I could have sworn our bus was going to hit). When we got to our hotel, we were all so excited to be able to relax! The five of us nursing students went for a swim in the pool until it was time for dinner. We walked down the streets of Hanoi and went to a restaurant right on the lake. Have I mentioned that it is absolutely beautiful here?!
On our walk back to our hotel from dinner, we were walking in a single file line, trying to dodge the oncoming, speed-demon mopeds. While dodging these scooters, we are being stared and pointed at from all around, because we look so different. Now back in the hotel, my mind is completely overwhelmed soaking all this in. What a beautiful country we are in! The people, the food, the scenery is all so completely beautiful. I am so blessed to be with a group such as mine, in a country such as this one!
With love, from Hanoi!
Chelsea Stevens