Thailand Mission Team Project at Huay Som Poi Karen Village “Starbucks Clinic”

Tuesday, February 9 –

This is the first full day of our mission team’s clinic project at the Huay Som Poi Karen village with Sandy, Becky, and I. The day dawned with a bright sun and the promise of a warm day, even though it must have been in the 40’s during the night. We had a breakfast “fit for a queen” cooked by our home-hosts of fried rice with herbs, pork meatballs, and tofu in a broth soup, along with bananas, watermelon, and coffee.

After breakfast, Sandy, Becky, and I began the 1 kilometer (0.7 mile) walk over a deeply-rutted dirt road through the Huay Som Poi Karen village to the Starbucks Clinic on top of a hill at the end of the read. The clinic is a spacious building with a large waiting room, a small room where people can sit and talk before they’re examined, and a two-bed infirmary. The medical technician for the clinic is Kuhn Rot, a full-time ITDP staff member. She’s a young married Karen woman who received 6 months of medical training at a school in Chiang Mai.

When we arrived at the clinic about 9:00 a.m., there were five women waiting with their toddlers to learn how to care for their babies’ teeth. I taught them about dental care, and answered their questions with Becky’s help. Sandy (a registered nurse from Rochester, Minnesota) and I (a retired R.N.) saw a steady flow of women and children throughout the morning. Two women walked nearly an hour from their Karen village after they heard that Sandy and I were there.

Kuhn Rot said she’d never seen anyone examine patients as Sandy and I did, where we first discussed the best treatment for those we examined, keeping in mind the medications available at the clinic before conferring with Kuhn Rot, and if necessary referring them to see a doctor in Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai, or another city. This is difficult for many village people to do this since most are poor and don’t have Thai government assistance for health care because of their non-citizen status.

At noon, Sandy, Becky, and I walked back to our home-host’s house for a lunch of rice, dried salted fish, meat balls, tofu, and fruit. Our ITDP driver Kuhn Boondai overheard us talking about our longing to have a Starbucks coffee, and ran out to a local store to buy the ingredients to make us a cup of mocha coffee. It was surprisingly delicious!

We are so appreciative of Kuhn Boondai’s servant heart. He was born in a poor Lawa village and was selected to receive an ABW scholarship to attend a Christian high school in Chiang Mai. While he was at that school, he received Christ as his Savior. He is now in his 40’s, and has such a joyful spirit and loves our Lord. He also ministers to people in his home village when he has time. We were so blessed by his servant heart during our time at the Som Poi village.

Kuhn Boondai drove us back to the Starbucks Clinic after lunch, and we continued seeing patients during the afternoon. We also met two young Karen men who’d left the Som Poi village to get a university education and then came back to teach at the village school. One of them (an English teacher) invited us to his home, but we were unable to go. To have such young educated people return to their village was such a blessing to the villagers. Most who continue their education past high school find jobs in Chiang Mai or elsewhere, and don’t return. The children in this village school attend kindergarten through grade 8 school, where the children from also seven other surrounding Karen villages. Some of the children from far away villages stay in a hostel during the school semester.

We finished our first day at the Starbucks Clinic at 5 p.m., and returned to our home-hosts for a delicious supper of rice, fried chicken, a vegetable that looked like peas (but was a bit bitter), soup with pumpkin leaves and stems, potatoes, and chicken. We all sat together after the meal, and Sandy and I enjoyed talking to them with Becky’s translation help.

To visit a Karen village such as Huay Som Poi, one must be adaptable and in fairly good physical condition. Since there are no showers, we took “sponge baths” using river water. Since there are no chairs in their homes, we sat on grass mats for our meals. Since there are no western-style beds, we slept on pads placed on the floor using sleeping pads provided by Mike Mann. Since there are no western-style toilets, we had to use “squatty-potties”. Since there are no paved sidewalks or roads, we walked on uneven ground with many ruts and stones. However, this was balanced by the mountain air in the village that was so refreshing, and the stars at night lit up the sky as I have never seen before. And our Karen home-hosts and other village people we met -- they are so gracious, welcoming, and hospitable.

Wednesday, February 10 –
As I wrote this account at 6:00 a.m. using a flash light in our host-home’s guest home, I heard the first rooster’s crowing. The first time they crow between 3-4 a.m., they told us that a new day was coming. When the rooster crowed many times in a row around 6:00 a.m., they let them know the new day’s darkness was about to break.

We heard our home-hosts get up, so it was time for us to get up too. Tuesday was “sponge shower day”. The water was numbing as I washed one limb at a time so as not to shock my body. Then Sandy, Becky, and I joined our home-hosts for breakfast.

As worn by the wife of our home-host family, married Karen women wear the traditional tribal dress of a wrap-around red skirt, blouse, and sandals. Older Karen women wrap their heads wrapped with a twisted cloth. Most of the younger women wear the “global dressing-style” of a T-shirt and blue jeans, while school-aged girls are often seen in their school uniforms.

On Wednesday morning at the Starbucks Clinic, we taught over 20 Karen women had to do self-examination for breast cancer through English-to-Thai translation provided by Becky, and spent the remainder of the day with Kuhn Rot examining many people who came to the clinic after Kuhn Rot announced our being there. Sandy and I were surprised by some of the women who went through great detail in explaining their medical problems, and then would tell us through Becky’s translation after we advised them of what to do to improve their condition that they’d been told the same thing by a doctor they’d previously visited. Apparently, they wanted us to simply reassure them that the previous medical diagnosis they’d received was correct.

About 4:00 p.m., Becky left the village to return to Chiang Mai with Kuhn Boondai since she needed to attend a meeting on Thursday morning. At 8:00 p.m. on Wednesday evening, Kerry arrived by truck with another ITDP staff member Somsak. Kerry had returned with team members Beth and Karen from the Akha village on Tuesday after they’d help construct a floor for an ITDP building in an Akha village that’ll be used to house coffee-processing equipment. He wanted to take photos our Sandy and me as we completed the Starbucks Clinic project on Thursday. The village was completely dark when they arrived since the power-generator run by a local stream had been temporarily shut down.

Thursday, February 11 –

After enjoying another delicious breakfast with Kerry prepared by home-host Kuhn Noi, Sandy, Kerry, and I were driven to the Starbucks Clinic by Somsak. Sandy and I talked with a few people who came to the clinic at 9:00 a.m. before we walked with Kuhn Rot to several nearby village homes to make “house calls” to check on people who’d previously visited the Starbucks Clinic. One of the calls was to see a boy 8 years old who’d become physically weak and sometimes unable to walk or speak about one year ago. Because of this, he wasn’t able to attend school and play with other kids in the neighborhood. Kuhn Rot and the village doctors the family had taken the boy to couldn’t understand what caused this affliction, but the boy’s mother said he’d lately been getting better. Then we visiting another village home to check on the health of a very elderly woman, and enjoyed meeting her daughter and granddaughter. Since Kuhn Rot had told the village that Sandy and I would be leaving back to Chiang Mai on Thursday afternoon, we didn’t examine any other people later in the day.

We made a short stop at the Huay Som Poi village school to talk with the two teachers we’d met on Tuesday before our ITDP drive Somsak took us back to Chiang Mai. Unfortunately, they were away at a teachers’ meeting, but we were given a tour of the school by a staff member. We were impressed by its facilities where currently 177 students from kindergarten through grade 9. The staff and kids take great pride in the school, and have many posters about the class activities. There’s also a nice school sports area for playing volleyball, “dekraw” (a combination of volleyball and soccer using a small ball made out of light wood strips), basketball, and soccer.

The theme our ABCRM Thailand mission trip is “Watch for God at Work”. I’ve seen God at work through the hands and hearts of generous and caring people like Becky and Mike Mann and their ITDP activities, the building of the Starbucks Clinic through the Starbucks high-level managers and the teams of Starbucks staff who come here to help, and the leaders of the village like our home-hosts Kuhn Nat and Kuhn Noi. God is at work here in northern Thailand, blessing and sustaining a community of hard-working people who’re very content in their lot in life, not wishing for worldly thing and living simply, and enjoying their work as well as their family and friends. I’ve been blessed to come here and be a part of their lives for a short while.

Arlene Bowie