Click on any picture below for an uncropped image.
I spent Friday night in the Guest Room at Dr. Hla Tun’s house in Yangon. In a ‘Western style’ bed I started to catch up on sleep but still had to get up at 04:45 on Saturday because the Doctor and I were flying to Nyaung Oo to get to the Bagan Clinic. The Doctor’s charming wife had specially prepared oatmeal for my breakfast (my intolerance to even mildly spicy food is becoming well-known).
Around 05:20, I think, we set off by car, with the Doctor driving (together with his son, presumably to return the car after we’d left). At the Domestic Terminal, we were quickly checked-in for our flight by small turbo-prop to Nyaung Oo. I didn’t spot a single computer but the system usually works smoothly (albeit with a lot of manual checking and note-writing). Since this is the hot season, I was quite surprised to see that a lot of our passengers were European or Japanese tourists together with their guides. A few minutes later, we were shepherded to a waiting bus for a transfer of only a few yards to our waiting aircraft. Deparure time was 07:20 but, as has happened before, we were airborne before 07:10. The flight took around 75 minutes, in which time the friendly cabin crew had distributed daily newspapers, a pre-packed sandwich breakfast and hot and cold drinks.
Once landed, we disembarked, leaving passengers who were destined for Mandalay and Heho on board. No carousel, no belts, but the checked baggage very quickly arrived.
The Bagan Monastery ‘People Carrier’ was waiting to take us to the clinic. On the way, we paused at a tea shop in the town for the inevitable Sweet Tea before continuing past various 1000-year old temples to our destination.
On our arrival, the elderly Head Monk was waiting to greet us. The Clinic is on Monastic land and the active support of the Head Monk is essential.
When I first visited Bagan in 2008, there was no clinic in the dusty monastery compound. I became involved in the vision of the Head Monk and Doctor Hla Tun to provide a Free Medical Clinic for the people of this rural area. The original clinic building opened for business in 2011 and I attended the official opening ceremony on 30th October 2011 (Opening of the Bagan Medical Clinic). I'd certainly not realised the scale of demand which would be unleashed and there are a series of posts (Medical Support in Burma) showing just how many patients arrive on clinic days, sometimes travelling huge distances to seek affordable health care.
The original Clinic Building, formally opened on 30th October 2011, remains in use for consultations and dispensing medication.
As the clinic became better known, local and overseas donors have provided further support and I was impressed to see the New Clinic Building which has been built a few yards away from the first building. This building was brought into use in February 2014 as a temporary Physiotherapy Unit since the majority of patients attending can benefit from physiotherapy.
The New Clinic Building.
A Permanent Physiotherapy Unit, donated by a United Kingdom Travel Company and their clients, is currently being constructed.
Builders at work on the new Physiotherapy Unit.
On Saturdays, a free lunch is prepared by the monastery and distributed to waiting patients.
The Head Monk distributing free lunch to waiting patients.
Having taken plenty of pictures of the event, I said I'd walk back to my hotel and try to return when Dr. Hla Tun took his lunch at around two o'clock.
However, it was 42 degrees Celsius outside and by the time I'd arrived at my hotel, I was fit for nothing but resting, so I abandoned the idea of visiting the Doctor during his lunch. I knew that the Doctor normally took an evening meal in the Monastery about ten o'clock in the evening. I arrived back at the clinic around 9.30 p.m. when the Doctor was just breaking-off for food.
9.30 p.m. and now much quieter, but there are still patients waiting to be seen by a doctor.
Doctor Hla Tun said he would then continue to work until about 11.30 p.m. to deal with the remaining 15 waiting patients but I'm afraid I left him to it and slowly made my way back to the Aye Yar Resort and bed.
My Pictures
Bagan Medical Clinic (My visit, April 2014).
Aye Yar River Resort, Bagan.
More
Next Post describing this trip.
All my posts on Medical Support in Burma.
[Revised 17-May-2014, 20-May-2014]
