#World Malaria Day
April 25th is World Malaria Day. Before I started working in South-East Asia, Malaria Day would have been just a matter of statistics: “Malaria 2015: 212,000,000 new cases globally. 429,000 deaths.” Or perhaps Malaria Day would have inspired me to review a bit of esoteric medical information, knowing I would probably never use it in the …
Reflections on Kyaukkyi, Myanmar
My wife and 9-month old daughter traveled with me for a week in Kyaukkyi. This is where the clinic associated with Earth Mission Asia’s health practitioner program is located. We traveled there in early January of 2017 to train the local clinic staff members, as well as, finish up Anatomy & Physiology and Medical Math …
Why Do They Live so far Away?
Last week, seven of us set out from Chiang Mai, headed to a couple of villages in the mountains. Our task was to help provide shelter for a pair of Karen widows. We traveled in one truck – crammed full with people, tools, and backpacks. The seven included Nathan, a friend and fellow leader at …
How to Learn a Language
Over the past several months, Earth Mission Asia (EMA)’s dream of starting a healthcare training program for practitioners in rural Myanmar has blossomed like magic. Of course, God’s plan often looks like magic so I’m sure it’s His power that I’m seeing. It’s been just a year since EMA walked through the first major door God …
Obstructed Labor
We all have to die someday. I get that. All of our lives hold a measure of suffering. I understand that. But not this. For a woman to die from obstructed labour is an unimaginable horror that still happens here in the jungle. This is actually an almost unheard of event in our modern world. Women do die from the surgical complications …
Transitions
Two young Karen men, sweaty, breathless and moving fast carried a long bamboo pole with a hammock strung closely underneath. In the hammock a young pregnant woman moaned with labor pains. Like the reserve horses of a pony express relay team, several more young men ran along the narrow trail behind the precious load. Surrounded …
A Healing
Almost every time I do my month long rotation of medical teaching at the Jungle School of Medicine (JSMK), I end up with a case that is way over my head. This time, he was already waiting for me before I even arrived. A stoic 5 year old Karen boy lay quietly on the first floor space …
Poe Kaw Moo
Saw Poe Kaw Moo comes from a remote area in Karen State, Burma. His family, like most Karen families in Burma, provides for their livelihood through subsistence farming. They grow rice and all the food needed …