2010 Mission Trip to Cambodia
from Chelsea Stevens
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!

In the afternoon, we held a discussion/teaching session with the charge nurses about compassion and what that means in nursing. This was such a great session! Mrs. Taplin held the discussion, and the charge nurses were very active in it. It was very encouraging just to be reminded that our job and compassion are linked hand in hand. We students were involved by performing a little skit- yes not only are we nursing students, we are actresses too! That was my favorite part of the day in the hospital!
Last night, we went to visit a children s home called Chibodia. There were 23 children there, and a few are orphans, but many of them have families that just cannot support or feed them. Chibodia provides a home, food, family system, and education for the children. After they go to school in the morning, they come back for their English lessons in the afternoon. It is a wonderful thing they are doing- giving these children that would not normally have the opportunity to have an education. When we asked them what they wanted to be when they grow up, just a few of the answers were English Teacher, Doctor, and Manager. Each would come up and say in their best English- “”Excuse me, what is your name?”” Many of them already had very good English! We probably had more fun than they did playing with them! We all were so so sad when it was time to go, and many of them asked if they could come with us. If it was up to us, I bet we would have 23 stowaways in our suitcases on the trip home!
We are staying very busy, and we are leaving for Siem Reap tomorrow! We finally get to ride an elephant! haha. Thanks for all of your love and know that we are thinking about all of you!
With so much love,
Chelsea