Hard work pays off! Time for some fun

The team has been hard at work for 3 days now. First clinic was Sunday evening. We went full tilt Monday and had vaccine clinic for evening. We did 300 Japanese encephalitis, and hundreds more polio, and hepatitis B vaccines. We have found a great online EHR that was simple, intuitive and most importantly FREE!! We spent most of today entering the exams and vaccine records into this database. We will be able to access this later via the internet and this will permit us to follow and better plan for future trips. The team will go up into the mountain villages tomorrow to see the Akha families of these children. This will be more of an acute care setting but they have no other access to any care.I did a video interview today of David Stevenson and hope to use it in presentations back home. They plan to build a school here and we are discussing making some rooms dual use as a medical clinic as well. The center has grown significantly since my first visit including chicken coop, food and fruit gardens, playground, and volunteer housing.

I am grateful for the enthusiastic help and support I have received from the students, fellow faculty, Drs. Jennifer Light, Mobeen Rathore, and Rich Petrik, the Emergency Department and the College of Medicine.

We are making a big difference to the Akha kids, not just protecting them from sex-slavery and pedophiles but also providing a true future with training in sustainable farming, and education that can be the foundation for higher education. Indeed, 2 of the CGT graduates are now studying at Universities in Thailand; the first Akha to do so EVER!

We are winding down the clinical phase and will begin to focus on art and play therapy. Tonight is American Movie night. We will be showing Fantasia 2000 and popping popcorn and we have ordered ice cream for all the children.

After tomorrow's village clinic we will be handing out more of the toys we purchased and Thursday we will take 2 children each for elephant rides, and lunch in the mountains. Thursday night we will be leaving to return to Bangkok where we will have 2 days of shopping and R&R. Saturday night we'll return to the airport for our late night flight home. We should be back in G'ville Sunday evening.