When we arrived back from Chin State on Thursday evening, 74 patients had already registered for Friday but we knew that more were on their way to the Clinic.
The Doctor’s wife was returning to Yangon on Friday so, after we had breakfast together just before 7.00 a.m., the monastery car whisked her to Nyaung Oo Airport, in time to catch the 08:20 flight to Yangon. This flight is not direct but makes calls at Mandalay and Heho, and is due Yangon 11:00.
The Doctor started consultations before eight o’clock and I observed for a while. An attractive, well-dressed lady came into the consulting room, whom the Doctor introduced to me as the Dentist.
Bagan Medical Clinic 2nd weekend: The visiting dentist observes the lunch distribution.
There’s a public address system in the compound over which a man periodically broadcasts what is, I believe, an appeal for funds. There are certainly a number of clear-sided collecting boxes around the site, of the type you find in pagodas.
Bagan Medical Clinic with two clear-sided Donation Boxes visible on the right.
When the free lunch is ready, an announcement is made over the public address which I didn’t hear on Friday but the Doctor prompted me to go and witness this inspiring event. As I walked to the distribution point, a long queue was forming and the Abbot had started handing out meals.
Bagan Medical Clinic 2nd weekend: the Abbott distributing free lunches to patients and their companions.
As soon as the Abbot saw me, he waved me across and I took over. Of course, all the work is done by the team of volunteers loading the metal plates with a generous portion of steamed rice followed by two or three other items which vary day-by-day.
Bagan Medical Clinic 2nd weekend: Plates with free lunches being made up by clinic staff and volunteers.
Sometimes, a person will collect the meal for one or two companions but somebody was on hand to prompt me if I failed to understand a request for extra meals. I’m always pleased to watch the meal distribution as it seems to represent an excellent basis for a philosophy of life and I'm humbled when asked to participate.
Although the 2-storey building had been put into use, full utilisation and completion of the adjacent 28-bed hospital recovery unit is dependent upon the receipt of donations. Building adaptions had been agreed to improve access to the upper floor of the 2-storey building and I was pleased to see builders at work on the new stairway on the river elevation of the buildingh. Although each flight of stairs has been cast on site from concrete, the final profile of each step was being defined by cementing bricks in place. Two bricklayers were working down the stairs, taking the required bricks from an adjacent small pile being kept topped-up by lady labourer.
Bagan Medical Clinic 2nd weekend. Bricklayers working on the new staircase.
What I found remarkable was that the lady, just wearing a wide-brimmed floppy, woven sun hat, was somehow balancing twelve bricks on her head, six on the left, six on the right, climbing the rough-cast stairs to where the men were working and then slowly crouching down to cautiously unload the bricks (unaided), one from the left, one from the right until another dozen bricks were safely in the pile ready for the bricklayers to use.
Bagan Medical Clinic 2nd weekend: Having transported more bricks upstairs, the labourer positions them ready for the bricklayers.
Bagan Medical Clinic 2nd weekend: River elevation of 2-storey building showing stairway extension under construction.
I was quite tired after our intensive trip to Chin State so, other than periodic strolls around the compound marvelling at all the activity, I divided my time between observing the Doctor and his team dealing with a wide variety of cases and working on my computer offline in my room.
Although I took my regular meal at 1.00 p.m., the Doctor only snacked but finally, after 8.00 p.m., he stopped briefly for an evening meal before continuing consultations until after 1.00 a.m. by which time I was sound asleep.
Related posts on this website
This is one of a series of posts describing my 13th visit to Myanmar.
The post Travelling again is the first post in the series.
Clicking on the 'Next report' link will show the post describing the next events. In this way, you may read about the trip in sequence.
Next report
Alternately, clicking on the 'All my Burma-2018 reports' link displays all the posts on this trip in reverse date-of-posting order.
All my Burma-2018 reports
My pictures
Bagan Medical Clinic 2nd weekend
All my pictures on this trip to Myanmar can be found at Burma 2018.
[Pictures linked, minor edits and pictures embedded 19-Jun-2018]
