This morning all but four of us left the Red Piano Hotel in Siem Reap at 5:00 AM to see the sunrise at Ankor Wat, one of the famous temples in Cambodia. Unfortunately, there were clouds and we couldn’t see the wonderful sunrise but it was still worth it and fun any ways. We then toured another one of the ancient temples before meeting up with the four people who stayed behind. They then brought us our breakfast (french bread and freshly sliced fruit) and we ate at a little restaurant where we got iced coffee Cambodian style. The coffee was delicious! It is basically iced coffee with sweetened condensed milk for sweetener.
The group then saw several more temples, one of which included where they filmed the movie Tomb Raider. We then came back to Siem Reap and most of us got a foot massage from this great place down the street. We were so relaxed! Lunch followed, then free time to explore the town. Melissa, Hannah, Kristian, Emily P., and I went to the local market and had a fun time bartering for goods. As soon as we were done it started pouring down rain, so we hired a Tuk Tuk, a Cambodian motorbike driver with a cart hitched on for passengers, to take us back to the hotel (which was quite an experience…). At the end of the day, we went to a dinner and traditional Khmer dance and now off to bed for yet another day of traveling…

It has been really good to get to know some of the nursing students at Belmont and interact with them at the hospital during this trip. As part of the School of Pharmacy, I feel like we don’t have a chance to get to know or work as part of a health care team with the other programs at Belmont like nursing or physical therapy. So it has been really fun to become friends with some of them and, from what I can tell, they will be some wonderful nurses when they graduate. I believe that we are forming well as a team and can’t wait to work more at the hospital and HIV home visits together. This has been an wonderful experience so far and it will be exciting to see what else God has in store for us!
– Brandon –