This beautiful couple arrived at the hospital about the same time that we did. Each morning the wife would greet us with a big smile and "Ghaw Ler Ah Gee!" (Good morning!). Jess attempted to use some Sgaw to speak with her, with limited success. Despite the language barrier, she would chat with us each morning and afternoon. One afternoon, Kaley accompanied us to translate and the couple shared part of their story with us.
They came from Bon Dan Yang refugee camp, about 20 km up the road. Together, they run a children's home for orphans in the camp. She explained, "We are very much hoping that my husband gets better, so that we can get back to our children. There are 24 of them." This after they raised 4 children of their own! :)
Their presence was such an encouragement to us. She told us "we pray for each of you-that you will find the right medicine, and for each of the patients." Today they were discharged, but not before many, many blessings and two bags of candy "for the young girl doctors". They made us promise to send pictures for them with the next patient that is discharged back to the camp.
















This past Friday, we got to exercise the Public Health portion of our brain by accompanying the TB outreach team to Three Pagoda Pass for their monthly TB treatment day. Three Pagoda is a border town that straddles the border of Burma and Thailand. It is a very important site from a Public Health standpoint because people from the Burma side can apply for a one-day pass into Thailand to get treatment for medical conditions. The Thai government allows this on a humanitarian grounds.
Most of the patients needed refills on their TB meds, and some were there for sick visits. The first picture shows four team members sitting at the portable pharmacy. The second picture shows Pi Lea, sitting next to Amanda. She heads up many of the public health efforts (when she's not busy force-feeding us).





\Behind us are two of the three pagodas that give the town it's name. They are tiny, don't let the picture fool you. Kaley told us about the town in the 1970s, when he made the journey to Thailand. He says that the town was nothing but a few houses, a market and Three BIG pagodas.









This is the actual border crossing at Three Pagoda. Just a few miles to Yangon! :)

It appeared people were freely walking across the border, without being checked by the guards...until we got there. It turns out there is a reason the stop sign is written in English.

Sorry to disappoint Amanda's Grandma. We couldn't make it to Burma.