Singing in the rain

Today was a bit lacking in luster. There was major traffic getting to the clinic because a body had washed up under th bridge we took. We only had 4 surgeries on the board and I opted out of them because again we were crowded (new med student from UK). I observed the consultation doctors for a while and saw some tragic cases come in. One case was this little 5 kg (~10lbs) girl with a bilateral cleft lip/palate. She was so tiny and cute but after looking at her chart I noted something strange. She was 2 years old!! Even by Cambodian standards that is way too small. In fact, the doctor asked the mother several times if she was actually that age. Another gentleman came in that had be burned severely by acid, his chin had melted to his chest, his teeth were severely miss aligned, he had no ears or eye lids. His eyes bugged out from his skull and looked sickly dry. He had been burned in 1994. I almost could not bare to look at him... I can't imagine anything more tragic than his situation. After sending him to a special consultation the doctors took me to lunch. Later, after waiting around for several hours I gave my presentation to the entire staff on Spondylolisthesis. It sound horrifically boring (I know). Most of the other presentations have been huge failures in attempting to hold the attention of the Cambodian medical staff here. It is something I am very acquainted with; while in the Peace Corps, Spanish speaking presenters were nearly impossible to follow let alone they weren't using large medical terminology. But, I had a secret weapon (other than my passion to teach) I opened with a game of siamon-says and offered chocolate (the expensive kind) as prizes. I had the whole staff stand up, doctors and secretaries, and tested their English listening skills. It was a HUGE success. Dr. Lang won the first round and his eyes lit up at the sight of his chocolate prize. Everyone was laughing and energized for my presentation which followed. Again I find my self with a unique ability to captivate any audience but severely lacking in sufficient intellect to pass on valid information. I would make a great career in politics. Two of the Chinese students followed me to the grumblings of a tired staff. What their presentations lacked in vigor it certainly made up for in purposeful content. One presentation was on Abdominal Aortic Aneurysms and the other was on a new-ish surgical technique used to approach the nasopharynx to remove cancer the "maxillary swing". It had started raining during our presentations and flooded the area around the clinic (see video). Sorry about no photos of the presentation but I was using Brent as an example so he forgot to take pictures :(