Thankful to be home

Everyone is back in Minnesota now, recalling with fondness the 85 degree weather in southeast Asia.

The team didn't have much of a chance to blog while in Cambodia, so we'll be catching up now.

This photo was taken on Thanksgiving. There were 22 people at the Copelands' home, including several local missionaries. Teresa made pecan pies, there was turkey, dressing, sweet potatoes, cranberries, and so much more.

Someone even made personal name cards for each guest.

After dinner, some of the kids did the dishes. No dishwasher here.

Dr. Kent is a busy guy, always thinking of new projects, and interested in many things.

Here he is playing chess with his son, CJ. CJ is homeschooled (as are his siblings), and is a junior. Chris keeps plenty busy teaching their 5 kids.












Kent enjoys a few horticultural projects, experimenting with different plants that might help the farmers in Cambodia.

Here he has created a unique fence, with the vertical part being living trees. There's no Fleet Farm here to buy fencing materials, and if you don't do something, your pigs and chickens will run away.

Here he is loading up some hay to take back home for mulch.



Greg brought the parts for an egg incubator to Cambodia. Kent has plans for many omelettes!












We visited with this family on the same trip that we got the hay. They are active members of the Poipet church. He lost his leg from a land mine.










Now to the CAMA Clinic in Poipet.

It looks like Kent and Greg are at a radio station here, but those are really Geiger Counters. Greg brought them along from Minnesota, a vital safety component of the nuclear medicine program.

And this is the part of the laboratory where Rick worked. These machines do blood chemistries. He brought extra parts for them, and callibrated them for the many tests that Kent does. The supplies that needed to be refrigerated on the trip to Cambodia will be used here.

Here's the exterior of the clinic building. That white vehicle with the red light on the roof is the ambulance. Rick had the chance to ride along on an ambulance run. They picked up a homeless man and dropped him off at the local hospital. The primitive emergency room there wasn't much, and without family there to help, there would probably be no meals for him. Back in Minnesota Rick volunteers at the Zumbrota Ambulance, and has dropped off many patients at
St. Mary's Emergency Room. What a contrast... and so sad.



Here's the sign for the clinic.

CAMA stands for Compassion and Mercy Associates.

Day 10 Mongkol Borey

This is Karen again. The team hasn't posted in several days. Hopefully that means they are busy getting things done in Poipet. Rick has texted me several times. Everyone is well, and they had a lovely thanksgiving dinner with 21 people at the Copelands. Rick has been busy at the lab calibrating equipment. He also got to ride along on an ambulance call. It will be interesting to hear how that was.

They were planning to go to Mongkol Borey to visit the orphanage today. I haven't heard if they made it there, we'll try to post pictures here later.

They will be going back to Bangkok on Sunday evening (Sunday morning Minnesota time). They will stay at the CMA guest house overnight. Their plane to Narita, Japan leaves at 5:40 am Monday (4:40pm MN time).

Your continued prayers are much appreciated.

Day 7, A day at the Poipet CAMA Clinic

Rick and I (Greg) are currently at the CAMA office in Poipet. Dr. Kent sees patients here every Wednesday.




Teresa is at the Copeland home helping prepare for the Thanksgiving meal tomorrow. We understand that 22 are expected for dinner. (note from K: I think this is a picture of the Thanksgiving entree, at the Copeland home, not to be confused with anything happening at the CAMA clinic.)

Rick and I have been here all morning working on our specialties. Rick is setting up lab equipment and I'm working on procedures for the I-131 therapy program.

Rick was even pressed into duty helping Kent. A patient needed a blood draw so Rick jumped right in. He even made the stick in 1 try! (another note from K: Gregg, don't believe Rick if he tells you that he can do brain surgery... he always wanted to be a brain surgeon, but has no actual training in brain surgery.)

Another patient needed an x-ray. One of the CAMA workers, Matay, came up to perform that. I must say that Kent gives very personalized service to the patients. He made sure to take plenty of time to ensure the patient understood the information learned from the x-ray.

ggg

On Monday, Kent and I visited the Thai Office of Atoms For Peace or OAP and met with the Secretary General of OAP. We also toured some of the OAP facilities and the I-131 therapy department of a large Bangkok hospital. The meetings were very good and we anticipate Thai approval for our program to be obtained.

ttt

Yesterday, all 10 of us (the Copeland clan included) and our luggage, shoehorned our way into a 10 passenger van for the trip here from Bangkok. Along the way, we stopped for lunch and had the most wonderful roasted chicken. Tonight, Teresa will be doing English training with some of the church youth. We met some of them yesterday evening and they are really looking forward to it.

jjj
More to come....