Megan Heath, pharmacy team.

Today we started off our day with breakfast at the Destiny Cafe. It was very welcoming and homey with pancakes and syrup along with omelets and fruit. After breakfast we traveled to the Bridge of Hope Center and were greeted by lots of little kids in the middle of a school lesson. Then we went into the clinic site and met with Perlito. He gave us an amazing devotional that was helpful and inspirational to start our day off and centered around breaking through any downfalls or doubts. We also had a great time worshiping through songs lead by his two daughters. After devotional, we began to set up and organize our clinic for the day. We had a lot more space and tables to work with than at the last clinic site so everyone was thankful for that!

Things at the clinic already started off better and smoother than the day before I think, everyone was getting more used to their individual roles, but were still integrating as a team to get work completed. Throughout the day kids would run in and out of the building and stop and play with students who were taking a break from their clinic stations. Almost all of them wanted to play with us and some even knew a little English so it was fun trying to communicate and play common games like rock, paper, scissors, tag, and head, shoulders, knees, and toes. We also had a few dogs laying around the clinic enjoying the cool floors and even some puppies that were scampering about in between feet and table legs.

When stepping back and looking at the clinic as a whole there was a ton going on. Patients, translators, students and professors all moving around from station to station. Exams being performed, education given, vitals checked, drugs distributed, but between all the hustle and bustle there was a sense of order and things were flowing about as smoothly as they possibly could. Everyone had a place and we worked together as an interprofessional team.

At lunch we were able eat some yummy rice, chicken and vegetable stir fry prepared by Rose who was Perlitos wife. It was awesome that we were all able to pause the clinic for a bit and enjoy lunch together today. We were able to focus on conversations with each other and enjoy some time relaxing and laughing. The translators sat with some of us and joined in our conversations making us even more integrated as a team.

After lunch the clinic got up and running again. We saw patients for a few more hours that day. Towards the end, the sky started to get darker as a storm rolled in. Most of the patients were finished but the last few ended up being very complicated cases for the pharmacy with lots of children dosing of antibiotics and pain meds. Then in the middle of our busy time, the power went out. Everyone paused for just a heart beat then picked up right where we left off without skipping a beat. It was wonderful to see everyone continue to work even in less than ideal circumstances and make do with what resources we had. We pulled out our phones and used the flashlights to see our calculations with and to help light up the medications we were counting out.

Once the clinic was wrapped up, we packed up our supplies and headed back to the hotel for a quick break before riding back over to Destiny Cafe for dinner. We had some more “American” food that was yummy, then had some group discussion about how things were going so far. We reiterated points about weathering the storm and working as an inter-professional team. We also recapped our cultural humility played an important role in our work.

Overall we had a great day with lots of learning opportunities and teamwork at every corner. Tomorrow we will still be in Poipet and have another clinic at the Bridge of Hope Center before moving out to the more rural towns on Monday.