We re-christened the hospital, and now it just feels truly official that we are back.
There were other events in the weekend, too–so we’ll start with the high points.
We went to Famous Rays, a new burger restaurant in Mae Sot, for the first time. Beef is very rarely a high point in this entire country, and it still got Stephen’s approval! It just feels so Western all the way around, with french fries and onion rings and milkshakes. Very fun.
I realize this is a pretty rough photo, but hey, you win some and you lose some. We are still sitting there with a delicious cheeseburger and veggie burger!
We were in the midst of playing games with a friend after this dinner out when we were interrupted for a hospital visit. The first guy was about our age and looking very jaundiced in his eyes and face. We made arrangements to go in the morning, thinking it didn’t need to be an emergency room ordeal.
Then we were interrupted with a little five year old breathing very heavily and quickly. She had no other symptoms really, but they said she had been having problems for a couple days. Her mother has had a breathing or feeding tube (something going into her nose; we’re not doctors!) since we arrived, so we don’t know what the family health problems are. We decided to take her in that night, which meant we wanted to go ahead and take them both.
Thus, at 9:30pm, eight of us headed off to the hospital.
The little girl has been admitted and is receiving breathing treatments regularly; the man had quite a few tests run and we go back tomorrow to sort it all out. Really, I just have a few comments about the hospital that I really didn’t miss at all.
Victims of a motorbike accident were delivered to the emergency room just as we were arriving–two children and an adult. One child was pretty badly injured, bleeding, and screaming. As they were wheeled in, everyone rushed over to lean over the railing and see them wheeled in. And by everyone, I mean truly everyone. I was across the main hall at check-in, and about thirty people ran over to see the sight.
I instantly was offended at how rude it was to go see their misery; to rush over and stare at the obvious discomfort and suffering, let alone the fact that a crowd doesn’t speed up the process of their being helped.
I turned back to my paperwork, thinking I was being respectful. And then I wondered, do they find me disrespectful because I don’t care enough to go see? While I paint it as disrespectful gawking, are they wanting to respectfully show concern?
I really have no idea, but it just amazed me how much culture just slaps me in the face at every turn. I really have no idea how many times I offend in one day, or how often when I seek to serve I am completely misrepresenting myself.
Either way, the accident was quite horrible, and one of the poor little kids screamed and screamed for hours. I have no idea why they didn’t give him more pain medicine or something to go to sleep, but we listened to him scream until we left at midnight.
That singly might be enough to make me go insane.
This and other things just reminded me how creepy the hospital here is. They just don’t seem to see that or attempt to hide it, but it feels very horrific to me. The screaming, the old metal beds scattered everywhere, the windows splattered with thick, white something. There is water that pours off the side of the building, even when its not raining, and it is not apparent where it comes from. I’m hoping somewhere sanitary, but I can’t imagine where that might be in this hospital.
I went to visit the little girl this afternoon on the way to church, hoping to bring her some fun foods to eat and games to play. I arrived to find the old children’s ward closed, now filled with creepy old metal beds stacked and scattered everywhere, old mattress shoved onto each other, and empty cleaning bottles everywhere. I did find the new ward, which is shockingly not much better than the last.
I don’t know how to describe it except to say that it feels like a prime location for a horror film, and I hope to never sleep there alone.
That said, we are thankful it served our community. We are {pretty} thankful we had the opportunity to spend a few hours sitting there last night, trying to love on our friends sitting beside us.
And we are still very thankful to be back.
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