The culture of our Cambodian
mission is such a unique, vibrant and rewarding place to experience. How great
is our God, the one true God. When we put our faith and trust in Him the fruits
of our life journeys will be blessed. The Cambodia mission is a brainchild of
initiative churned with God’s love, dedicated servants and the exuberance of
the Khmer youth creating an atmosphere
where faith does thrive.
I was fortunate enough to be on
my 2nd visit to Phnom Penh, the last being one and a half years ago
for two weeks on my university holidays joining in on my parents' fieldworker
trip. At this time there was an abundance of fieldworkers present at the BEC
and I was content to sit back, observe and learn from the more experienced
people around me to add to past mission experiences. Not only to learn which style of teaching can
be beneficial to a younger crowd but also learn how the organization, resources and
management can be best juggled to make the most of the mission in Cambodia. I have
been pondering on a few niche ideas I saw that could be beneficial here and
other mission fields for the future.
I am currently studying in
Europe, half way through my degree and until this summer holidays I only had
spent four days in Australia (wedding) in the past two years. After having a
much needed dose of home medicine I could only afford a three-week stay in
Cambodia and I was very reluctant to leave. I arrived to meet Jess and Luke
busily managing all the classes and was relieved that there was much I could do
to help out around the place.
In my first few days I was able to take the
English class in the evenings and the Saturday Night Seminars. Also through my
friend Sister Nirath, I was able to organize to spend a Monday to Friday in the Trauma
Ward of a hospital I won’t mention the name of. This hospital is a government
owned hospital and it was my first experience of a 3rd world
hospital.
I currently study in Latvia and I would rate their hospitals 2nd
world standard. I witnessed the sad truth of the poor conditions that a
government with a lack of funding for healthcare can fall to. The hospital only
caters for the poorest people who can’t afford more. The day would always start
with a meeting of all the doctors and important nurses, the doctors would
discuss the 2D plain X-rays of each patient and discuss their course of action.
Then, as a group of ~15 people we would follow the head doctor like ducklings would
follow their mother duck in our white coats inspecting each patient’s conditions
and wounds. Then when the round had finished all would disperse to clean wounds
and replace casts or go to surgery.
I had three fantastic days in surgery, two
of which I got to scrub up and assist the surgeon. There are four surgery rooms
and each only does 1 surgery per day. All the surgeries are paid for by NGO
organizations.
I saw a man with a break of the lower 3rd of his
humerus get the ends of his break sawn off and screwed together, now shortening
his arm by at least 10cm. A man with a large leg ulcer get cut out, then a type
of skin graft from healthy calf skin to cover that area, then the remaining
hole tightly stitched together. And finally, a man with polio who had a tendon
from a strong muscle of lateral calf attached to a tendon of a medial weaker
muscle to give the man stability and ability to walk on that leg. Very, very
interesting to experience. These were also my first surgery experiences.
Many
of the medical terms and language here are still in French. There are two
universities that teach medicine here, one English speaking and one French but
next year the French will change to English. I believe that on the whole the
medical staff manage well with the little they have. The two days I wasn’t in
surgery I was in the ward helping the nurses clean wounds, take out stitches
and take off and put on casts. From my short experience, the nurses' main role is
to look after the wounds of patients and not so much the hygiene and welfare.
This is where our great Sister Nirath was noted a while ago. She would care for
her patients while she was a third -ear medical student helping not only
medically and spiritually, but also financially with her own money for medications
and treatments even though she doesn’t have much. A visiting western doctor
noticed this and said he had connections with a charity group which now has a
permanent place in the hospital providing one meal a day, patient washing and
financial help for patients. All because of the love of Jesus Nirath showed,
she will be an amazing doctor in the near future.
It seems the system has a kind of siesta
after 11am. The surgeries would be finished and the wounds clean and bandaged. The
doctors would disappear and the medicine and nursing students would go off to
their universities so there would be nothing to do, so I luckily did not need
the 5-days leave I asked for and could go back to the BEC and continue to help
Jess and Luke in the afternoons. This was great because it allowed me to get
into the swing of things as Jess and Luke were soon to leave back to Australia
to a wedding for a week.
The weekend before they left,
Luke and I were able to have some more intense baptism sessions with Savvy, a
high school Chemistry teacher who lives out in a province outside Phnom Penh.
He cannot travel in very often and now he has had his interview and
soon will be baptized. I also was able to have many lessons with Tut a man with
a big heart from the dorms. Soon also he will be ready. I am greatly looking
forward to the news when these two brothers will be baptized.
As Luke and Jess
left, my timetable became much busier. Weekdays up to 6 lessons per day
starting with bible readings at the dorms at 6am, private and group bible
lessons during the day and finishing with English class and Bible Study ending at
7pm. The new English lessons at the dorm are gaining in popularity as I was
told it was originally 4 students but now ~10 are there every day. The added
inclusion of a weekly quiz on Friday of the content covered that week and
competitive English word games with lolly prizes helps the motivation to study
harder and make it challenging and fun. The weekend was less intense having a
2hr class Saturday and Sunday with a group who come to learn English via the
Bible. Here I partially took to two students, Soumy and Kunthea, who had a keen interest
to learn about the Bible. I also went to the Olympic Park with them to do their
daily aerobic style exercise to music and hung out with them at City Mall
after. Also, they joined me at the BEC on my day off for a guitar lesson.
The time I spent with these
lovely people reminds me of a quote from one of my all time favourite movies
Dances with Wolves, John
Dunbar says: “They were a people so
eager to laugh, so devoted to family, so dedicated to each other. The only word
that comes to mind is harmony.”
I live
in isolation away from regular contact with young Christadelphians in a cold and
dark country that reflects many traits of the culture. Only once a year during
my summer holidays do I get the time and chance to have fellowship with my
family and friends. I feel so blessed that through God I got the opportunity
not only to help the people learn and grow and build our friendships but also I
was blessed in getting the intense injection of bible study, fellowship and
love I am deprived with during my studies. I truly was reminded of what a
glimpse of the Kingdom of God would be like with all the wonderful people in
Cambodia. Also, I’m now addicted to drinking coconuts.
Love in the Lord,
Rowan
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