I was pretty much out of books and not able to get to the library, so went searching the shelves here in the house. And I found this book, which I didn’t even remember that we owned; it was a gift from my sister, Therese.
Dr. Braile, aka Papa, was a doctor from Minneapolis who did a volunteer tour on the Thailand-Cambodia border following the Pol Pot days. Many Cambodians (or Khmers) were fleeing Pol Pot or a subsequent Vietnamese invasion and trying to get into Thailand; many ended up in camps on the border hoping to secure permanent homes pretty much anywhere other than Cambodia. The camps were open for years, and conditions weren’t great.
Braile’s first tour was in 1981 when he was in 60s, and he kept going back (usually to the same border area); about a dozen times in total through 1996. Somewhere along the line he retired from his Minneapolis practice but kept returning to Southeast Asia. Obviously this must have been pretty challenging for his spouse etc.; one way they dealt with the separations was to write lots of letters.
Braile was traveling mostly under the auspices of an organization named the American Refugee Committee. I know just a bit about this organization, as Therese has worked there for a few years. Somebody at ARC or somewhere had the bright idea to compile all the letters into book form – and it works well. (Though they could have edited it down quite a bit and still gotten across the story.)
Anyway, the book comes across as an unusually effective way to get some sense of the day-to-day lives of folks that undertake these tasks. Braile talks about getting used to living in the Thailand-Cambodia border area: tracking down food (lots of pineapple and chicken-on-a-stick); dealing with snakes and insects; basic transportation via bicycle or crowded buses; heat and humidity; local restaurants (ice cream at Kim Kim’s); and on and on. Also day-to-day adventures in medicine: limited technology and resources; efforts to train Khmer medics; evacuation rules for leaving camp if Situation 2 or higher (shells landing in camp); rides in a hot, cramped ambulance where the Khmer passengers always seemed to be getting sick; the faith of the locals in IVs; etc.
I liked that the guy had a very positive way of describing the many, many challenges and difficulties he encountered in living situation and medical service. Also that he seemed very respectful of the local ways and didn’t automatically try to impose Western approaches, and genuinely took this as a learning opportunity for which he was grateful.
Well worth reading. And, TMG is acknowledged at page 326. ARC info is here.
No comments:
Post a Comment