Well, I'm here in Cambodia. For those of you wondering why I am here, I'll give you the short story. There is a free children's hospital in Siem Reap, Cambodia started six years ago by a Japanese photographer. The director of the hospital is originally from Rhode Island and since everybody knows everybody in Rhode Island, I ended up here working for the month.
My trip was long and arduous. The 17 hour direct flight from JFK to Bangkok pushed the limits of my endurance due more to the lack of good movie selections. The Longest Yard, yikes! Didn't get to see too much of Bangkok before heading off again to Cambodia. The saddest part of the journey was finding the only option for breakfast in the Bangkok airport was KFC. The Thai have obtained the Colonel's secret Hot & Spicy recipe. I repeat the Thai have the Colonel's secret recipe.
Siem Reap is the town just outside the temple area of Cambodia and the location for much of Angelina Jolie's stellar film Tombraider - this was the birthplace of her Cambodia fixation and every bar in town where she drank will be sure to tell you about her.
The hospital is hard to describe. Somewhere out of a movie and a Sally Struthers commercial. Where 1-2 kids might die a month at my hospital in Rhode Island, death is a daily occurence here so I am trying to get used to that. I saw a bunch of kids yesterday with heart disease who will most likely die in their teens, but if they were only born in the West they'd live just as long as me or you. There is this 70 year doctor from New Mexico (imagine your typical New Yorker who spent the last 32 years as the pediatrician on an Indian Reservation - yeah tough for me to imagine as well) who has been trying to convince me just to block it all out. Ahh yes, repression of emotions - always healthy. Anywho, I am learning a ton - about medicine and the world.
Keep checking back. mike
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