The Bagan Medical Clinic opens every weekend of the year except for Thingyan, the Water Festival celebrating the Lunar New Year and the following weekend. In 2018, Friday 27th April represented the first day that the Clinic would be open after the two week shutdown. The previous evening, the Doctor had been told by telephone that 150 patients had already arrived and registered and that 60 of those were from Chin State.
So the Doctor and I were aware, as we left his house in Yangon by taxi at 5.30 a.m. for the airport, that he was in for a busy weekend. The Doctor is always keen to save Clinic expenditure, so he had taken advantage of a special, reduced air fare to Nyaung Oo available to him. But, if I had accompanied him, my fare, as a foreigner, would have been expensive so, instead, he had booked me with a different airline on a flight ten minutes later.
Another sign of the changes since my first visit was that we left from the modern Domestic Terminal, similar to hundreds of airports world-wide, in marked contrast to the rather eccentric arrangements of 2008. I counted twelve ATR-72 turbo-props from various competing airlines on the Domestic Apron.
Both flights were on time and I met the Doctor in the Baggage Hall at Nyaung Oo. Simpler, manual arrangements for handling passenger’s luggage still suffice here. We were met by one of the Clinic staff and driven to the Clinic. Even in the few months since my last visit, a number of new hotel building projects were evident. Unfortunately, the rise in planned accommodation has coincided with the collapse of foreign visitor numbers following international consternation at around 750,000 Rohingya Muslims fleeing to Bangladesh in what has been characteristed by the United Nations as ‘Ethnic Cleansing’.
The Clinic was buzzing with activity and I was able to greet many old friends. The Doctor immediately started Consultations. During Friday, a further 230 patients arrived and registered. The first 160 arrivals were added to Friday’s list, making a commitment to 310 consultations for Friday. The remaining 70 patients formed the start of Saturday’s list, but this number was expected to swell with more patients arriving on Saturday.
Bagan Medical Clinic Friday 27th April 2018: The main waiting area faces the original clinic building of 2011, now provided with an illuminated LED sign.
I toured the busy compound, noting the changes and examining the progress of various building works although there were no builders at work that day.
Bagan Medical Clinic Friday 27th April 2018: The 28-bed recovery unit is nearing completion.
I found the Abbott in the open-air kitchen area and we greeted one another warmly, although he has no English and I have no Myanmar language. He was checking on the progress of vegetable preparation and cooking (over wood fires) for the free lunch which would be given to patients and their companions.
Bagan Medical Clinic Friday 27th April 2018: The Abbot, checking on progress of lunch for the patients
For long periods, I sat-in with the Doctor observing, as always amazed at his ability to process three patients at a time with his lady assistants, together with frequent telephone calls and review of patients returning with test results or E.C.G. printouts.
Bagan Medical Clinic Friday 27th April 2018: Doctor Hla Tun.
At 11.30 a.m., the Doctor suggested I go to see the lunch donation. As soon as the announcement was made over the public address, a long queue of patients formed at the donation point where a number of staff were rapidly making up meals on stainless steel plates.
Bagan Medical Clinic Friday 27th April 2018: Queuing for the free lunch.
The final handing of each plate the recipient was being done by the Abbott. After dealing with, as I thought, the majority of lunches the Abbot invited me to take over whilst he observed benignly. But the people kept coming, until we were literally scraping the saucepans to complete the last few meals, with a small number of ‘seconds’ where requested. A wonderful, joyful event illustrating one of the Buddhist tenets I admire.
Then I spent more time in the Doctor’s consulting room as the ‘tide of humanity’ passed through.
Bagan Medical Clinic Friday 27th April 2018
With so many patients to see, the Doctor did not stop for lunch but just ‘snacked’. His assistants took it in turns to break for a quick meal, and I was summoned for my ‘special menu’ of congee, plain omelette and Coca Cola.
During the afternoon, there was a brief thunderstorm. Shortly afterwards, at 4.40 p.m., the electricity went off. It was restored a minute or two later and, when I went outside to check, I was delighted to find the package generator running the site, as intended.
Bagan Medical Clinic Friday 27th April 2018: The vital Standby Generator was donated by a local hotel.
After half an hour, the mains electricity must have been restored and there was a brief ‘blackout’ as we switched back to the mains.
At 7.0 p.m.the Doctor paused briefly to take dinner with his assistants and the writer before continuing until after midnight. I’m afraid I took to my bed much earlier.
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.
My pictures
Bagan Medical Clinic Friday 27th April 2018
All my pictures on this trip to Myanmar can be found at Burma 2018.
[Pictures linked 10-May-2018, pictures inserted 28-May-2018]
