Home/Introducing the Crew

I have made it safely home from Cambodia, after 30 hours of travel on Friday (I know...a day is only 24 hours...I left Phnom Penh at 10:50 in the morning on August 21st and arrived in Anchorage at 9:30 the same day. How do you call the morning in Phnom Penh? Is it yesterday? Earlier today?), flying from Phnom Penh to Taipei to Anchorage to NY. After taking a cab from the airport, I finally made it to Christine's for the night around 1am (thank you Christine!). The next day, I took the subway from Christine's to Penn Station, was afraid I'd miss my train (which ended up being delayed, almost causing me to miss my bus) to Boston, from which I took a bus to Nashua, where my parents finally picked me up. I made it home at 9:30 Saturday night. It's been great so far to see my family--we had a barbecue yesterday where I got to see so many people, which was wonderful. I am doing well, other than battling jet lag. Seriously--why did my body decide to wake up at 5am when I had only fallen asleep at midnight and gotten no more than 5 hours of sleep in the last three days? But I'm not complaining. It's strange to think of Cambodia though. As I write now, it's 10:04am on August 24, and in Cambodia, it's 9:04pm on the same day. I think of what people are doing--I see Sokun sitting on the back deck, maybe talking to Hai, Linh, or the engineer, maybe alone reading his book on engines. If I were there, I'd more than likely still be on the back deck with him.

Being completely honest, I wish I were still in Cambodia. I love seeing everyone at home, and am looking forward to visiting everyone in NY next week, but I miss the ship more than I can say. I felt so at home there. The only consolation is looking at home everything worked, I know that if I were supposed to be there for longer, I would have been.

So let me introduce you to the crew that became my family after only a few days. I told them all when I left that when I come back to Cambodia as a doctor, I would track all of them down and hire them. Really, they are all beautiful spirits and some of the best human beings I have ever met.
Captain-He has a smile intermixed with golden teeth and incredibly kind eyes. When he focused, or was thinking or concerned about something, his brow would furrow. He cares so deeply about people, it's beautiful to witness. Outside of Bill/Rick, he has the most authority of anyone on the ship, because of his age and position (age is something highly respected in Khmer culture...so if he asked Linh to cook him something or someone to take watch for him, no one would refuse). He is fun-loving, compassionate, curious and highly intelligent, and works hard, whether he be driving the ship, painting, or meandering over to help me with triage (which meant mostly translating for me as best he could with his English).
Sam Ath-the engineer (meaning he worked on the ship's engines and spent most of his time during the day in the engine room). He wears thick glasses, drinks Vietnamese green tea, and has wicked mischevious eyes. He also cares very deeply for people, and surprised me in English class once with the complexity of his sentences. He's often quiet, but loves to cause affectionate trouble. He also loves to listen to music on his phone, and I will never be able to hear the word cyanara (I think I misspelled that one!) without thinking of the song he often played on it.
Dr. Tha-with the captain and Sam Ath, the third member of my English class. He would sit and think and work so hard until he got it--he really wanted to make sure he got everything right. He would get this huge smile too when he pronounced something correctly and I told him yes! He has a great kindness in him, and the ability to stick to a task. He loves to learn and does a great deal of good, seeing 65-70 patients a day during clinic.
Bun Roth-the pharmacist. He loves to smile and laugh, and has an amazing faith. He is the only one in the crew who is balding, and he wears glasses that slide down his nose. He has a beautiful daughter who turned 13 the weekend after we all met her on the ship, and he loves children with an amazing purity. I loved watching him with the kids who always gathered off the ship--you could see his open, genuine love on his face. He really and truly is a beautiful spirit and such a good person.
Linh-the cook and most recent hire--he started the week before I arrived. Oh man, is he a good cook. He can make both Khmer food and barang (American) food--on the team's last day, he made pizza for everyone. He works really hard, and has a great smile. Apparently I say ok more than I thought, because after a week, he would look at me, smile, and say ok! all the time. He studies English hard, and I always loved talking with him because he was a wealth of information about food, Cambodian culture, and many other things.
Daven-the nurse (well, he finshes nursing school soon), dental assistant, and my primary Khmer teacher. Especially in my first couple of weeks, he and I would sit after triage and he would steadily increase my Khmer vocabulary--and then quiz me on walks and later. He probably has more education than anyone on the crew, save the doctor, and has studied agriculture as well. He looked out for me and really took care of me, always making sure I was ok, always making me sit down. He also spoke English better than almost anyone in the crew, so he made for great company often.
Hai-the electrician (which basically means nothing--I am fully convinced Hai can do almost anything non-medical, and can fix everything). He fixes lights, air conditioners, and squeaky doors, keeps track of how much water we have left, chops plants off the anchor, and studies engines, Vietnamese, and English in his spare time. Although he rarely smiles for pictures (I think it's a cultural thing), he smiles easily and his eyes smile even more easily. My first impression of him was that he was a gentle soul, and I think I was right. He is one of the most beautiful people I've met, and he understood me well, because like me, he tends to be quiet and just watch and listen.
Sokun-the night guard. He was the first person I met on the ship, coming with Bill to pick me up at the airport because he had had an endoscopy that day (otherwise he goes to bed after breakfast), and the last person in the crew to whom I said goodbye. Honestly, he was probably the best friend I had on the ship. I taught him English mostly just by talking to him every night, and by the end, his confidence was up enough that he would speak English to everyone and wanted to return to formal lessons (I gave up those after my first with him simply because he became so frustrated with it that it was difficult)--I am so proud of how far his English came! He is softspoken and mellow, loves to smile. I loved to sit outside at night, and as a consequence, spent quite a bit of time with him. If I was having a bad mnoment (I never had a bad day), somehow he always made me feel better. I always felt bad telling him I needed to go to sleep.
Piseth-last but not least, the clinic coordinator, primary translator, and person who had been with the ship the longest. He has a great smile, loves kids (and people in general), and would burst into a room with a smile and ask what are you doing? He is truly one of the absolute best people I know. He does a little of everything and anything on the ship, from laundry to lab work to triage to fixing little things to buying clothes for the children. He currently wants to study to be a lab tech, but I hope he ends up doing something with people--he has tremendous gifts and an amazing capacity for love.

That was probably way more than you wanted to know, yet it doesn't even really begin to describe who these people are, or what they meant and will continue to mean to me. I promise more writing this week, now that I am home and have the time, that will try and describe the country and a little more of the experience of which I could only scratch the surface in my frantic quick posts on limited internet. Stay well, God bless, thanks for listening :)