Bin Tan, Indonesia

When Steve was putting all the travel plans together months ago, a few days rest at the end of all the activity certainly seemed a good idea. - it has actually proved to be exactly that! I can't say that we have done anything more exciting than get in the pool, have a swim in the sea and start to get rid of our bugs, but we are both feeling a bit better and are now able to look forward to going home and seeing our loved ones.

View from our window at Bin Tan

Yesterday we heard terrible news aboutLangtang  Village where we spent a couple of very happy days during our Nepal trek. The entire village which was home to around 400 people was completely wiped out in the earthquake and following Avalanche. The news has left us feeling devastated, especially as this was where we had made a connexion and friendship with Sonam, the nurse who had so proudly shown us her health clinic. We had both felt she was something special and has planned to look at sponsoring her wages as we were so impressed at the way she was trying to help her community, although she would have been able to earn do much more in Kathmandu. We had also met her boss  and even her Mum which somehow seemed to make the relationship stronger. It is heartbreaking to think that the life of such a special person has been cut short like this. There are no words. Just overwhelming sadness and incomprehension.

Sonam at the Heakth clinic in Langtang village. A truly special person who touched our lives.

So now we return home after seeing, experiencing and learning more than we could possibly have imagined. So much of life seems to depend on a lottery of circumstances and We find ourselves are so fortunate and blessed. Valuing what is truly precious in our lives, especially our family and friends, trusting that God knows what He is doing and will remain our Rock, ( even when we can't understand) and doing our best to touch and help the lives of others where we can seems to be the only things that really make any sense. To those of you who have read our blog and journeyed with us, thank you so much- we really appreciate you taking time to follow what we have been doing and value your friendship muchly. Looking forward to catching up very soon in person over a glass of wine or two!

Vietnam

This photo just about sums Vietnam up:

a vibrant thriving capitalist economy ruled by the Communist Party who keep control and suppress freedom of speech but are otherwise happy to reap the benifits of a free market economy. The whole country is a market place with endless shops lining almost every road. Cambodia was famous for its insect market - this times it was snakes and rats for sale to make a tasty stew - not as nice as chicken I understand.

Vietnam is much lusher and more photogenic than Cambodia or Thailand with picturesque unbelievably green paddy fields stretching for miles in every direction throughout the very fertile Melong River delta.

We have been riding shorter distances (50 a 60k) but it is still extremely hot. Our health has started to suffer with Sarah well below par with a fever and cough which she kindly shared with me. I've had my own problems with prickly heat which more or less covered me at one stage. I tried steroids and antihistamines but really the only answer (and what I would have told my patients!) is to hide from the sun which I'm now doing. I didn't come half way round the world to hide in a bus though!

Another highlight of the trip was a night in a home stay in the Mekong delta where all the houses are built on stilts to reduce the risk of flooding in the rainy season.

We were treated to fantastic hospitality as always including a home cooking lesson Vietnamese style followed by a fantastic meal which unfortunately Sarah was too poorly to enjoy. The evening ended with Chai our guide picking up the guitar and leading us in the elephant song dance! I' ll try and include the YouTube video link when I find it. 

It was with some sadness and considerable relief that we came to the end of the cycling part of our tour with a 35kph peleton sprint for the last couple of miles. The ride has been fascinating in parts but very challenging especially when our health started to suffer. The group has been excellent and the support teams outstanding. Just to give an idea of how exhausting it's been we've been ready for bed after the evening meal most nights and Stuart's pack of cards for playing Weetabix remains unopened.

We arrived in Saigon to coincide with the 40th anniversary of the 'liberation' of South Vietnam by communist North Vietnam. There was an excellent firework display staged from the helicopter landing pad of the Betaxa tower an iconic skyscraper near our hotel.

Just as Cambodia will be forever associated with the Khmer Rouge genocide, Vietnam will always be linked with the Vietnam war ( or American war as they call it). We went to see the Cu Chi tunnels 60km outside Saigon from which the Vietcong repeatedly attacked and infiltrated Saigon. There are over 200 km of tunnels. They are a testament to VC ingenuity in defence - they made the tunnels too small for a GI  to follow or tapered them so the GI's got stuck - and in attack - some barbaric traps with barbed spikes covered in human shit to guarantee festering infected wounds. It must have been hugely frustrating for the Americans with their everwhelming firepower to be unable to gets to grips with a hidden and resourceful enemy. The end of the trip was a 100m tunnel crawl through a tunnel especially enlarged for westerners.

So reflections on the cycling tour - it has been a hugely varied and interesting tour with fascinating highlights. Angkor Wat was every bit as impressive as I'd hoped and great to explore by bike. Vietnam was great and probably the most enjoyable for me of the 3 countries.The cycling was very challenging and I think Sarah and I will limit our cycling to more temperate climes in future and reserve Thailand and Vietnam for a chillax with Aunty Helen. Off now for a well - earned rest in Indonesia..

Genocide

No trip to Cambodia would be complete without trying to find out more about the Killing Fields of the Khmer Rouge regime led by Pol Pot.  In 4 years 1975 - 79 he managed to exterminate almost a quarter of his population by a combination of executions and starvation achieved by the forced emptying of the cities and moving millions of people into the countryside to create a perfect agrarian economy - and break up any dissent of course. It really was the most pointless genocide ever - and against his own people!! We went to the execution camp where over 30000 people where executed

Including children and babies. Bits of bone were sticking up out of the mud together with articles of clothing of the victims. Perhaps the worst was the killing tree against which the guards beat children and babies to death.

It was a gruesome experience made worse by the total pointlessness of it all.This was followed by a trip to S21 a former secondary school converted into a torture centre where victims were tortured into confessing crimes they hadn't committed prior to being sent to the execution camp. There were still bloodstains on the floor of several of the cells. There are of course parallels with Dachau and Auschwitz in the depths of depravity to which human beings can sink.

Ankle shackles in a torture cell at S21.

Sorry to have dragged you through that with us. 

On a brighter note we have just crossed the border into Vietnam. This was a complete contrast to the frantic Thai border crossing. It was a 200 yard walk on a quiet stretch of road with beautiful views past bougainvilleas to lush paddy fields stretching towards the Mekong river. The main traffic was motorbikes overloaded with huge piles of recyclable trash heading for Vietnam, and equally overloaded huge cart of fresh vegetables heading in the other direction to Cambodia. Very photogenic but we received a stern warning from the border guards for getting cameras out.

Meeting the new Vietnam Exodus team of Chi,  Li and Mr Long just after crossing the border

A green and pleasant land after the relative aridity of Thailand and Cambodia. First impressions of Vietnam are of a much greener thriving country. Kids are great rushing out to greet us with loud 'hello's' and trying to high 5 us. 

Cambodia

I'm We've just crossed the border into Vietnam after 5 days in Cambodia. One plus for coming in the hot season is that queues are much less than in the high season so we hardly had to queue. No mans land between Thailand and Cambodia was a chaotic gambling metropolis full of casinos as gambling is banned in Thailand. we had to walk through while someone wheeled our bags through on a hand cart.  Fortunately we were reunited with them and with our Cambodian Exodus team of Channi and Wan without any hasssles. 

Cambodia itself was more developed than I expected and appeared to be thriving although still well behind Thailand. The lanscape was totally flat with fallow paddy fields extending for miles in every direction. Our first stop was Siem Reap which was a lovely shady old French colonial town which was the base for exploring Angkor Wat temples. The first we went to was Ta Prohm which was the setting for tomb raider.

An amazing temple from the Khmer empire (9th to 13th century I think after which they moved to Phnom Penh as they got fed up of being invaded by Thailand) with huge trees growing up through the masonry.

Next up was Bayon temple in Angkor Tom which was my personal favourite. We reckon it would be a great site for a fashion photo shoot for Anna when she is rich and famous and can get someone else to pay the air fare. 

The group is bonding well so starting to generate a few unoriginal team poses:

Smiling Buddhas everywhere to help you on your way to enlightenment..

The last and grandest was Angkor Wat which was hugely impressive but less intimate than the other two. We went there first in the sweltering afternoon, but it was much more atmospheric to see it a dawn - well worth the early start.

Coach transfer to Phom Penh uneventful except for a stop at the insect capital of the world - fried insect of every description. I tried a fried grasshopper but drew the line at eating a cockroach.

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Thailand

We've just finished the first leg of our Exodus cycle tour having ridden through parts of eastern Thailand in blistering heat and crossed the border today into Cambodia. We had an easy journey from Delhi to Bankok where we met up with Clare and Stuart and the rest of the Exodus group as well as Sue and Lucy Rocke who were in Bangkok at the same time. The Exodus support team of Chay Nut and Not have been great as well as hilarious at times, always ready to give a surreptitious shove up the occasional hills we've come across. The first day was memorable for losing Pauline - a super fit Dynamo from New Zealand who had missed a turning and gone 10k in the wrong direction. Fortunately she had the contact number of Chay so he could send the support lorry on a rescue mission to retrieve her. 

The second day was memorable for the heat - we rode 90km in up to 43 degrees in the afternoon which was exhausting and would have been impossible without copious supplies of water, electrolytes and ice. Fluid replacement and keeping body temperature down was a constant challenge - we regularly got through 40 litres of water between 10 of us, and that doesn't include generous supplies of Coke and Sprite. In the afternoons when it really hot they prepare ice water buckets for us to dunk our arms in, pour over our heads etc. Neck scarfs and bras doubled up as ideal receptacles for ice cubes! One of the group Naomi got heat stroke so we had to play doctor and nurse - she narrowly avoided hospital and is fortunately much better now.

The first day we came across a Buddhist celebration of Songkran - a water festival. We joined in the dancing procession and got soaked by a water cannon which was great

and a much needed cool down.

The landscape so far in Thailand has been unspectacular with loads of tapioca fields and rubber plantations.

 This should change now we are in Cambodia although it is their hot season so a lot of the paddy fields are lying fallow.

We sadly said goodbye to our great Thai support team yesterday and are really looking forward to Angkor Wat tomorrow.

Crossing the Thai Cambodia border

Sanjay

Yesterday we had the great privilege of meeting Sanjay the 10 year old boy we have been sponsoring through Compassion. He lives in a fairly grim slum in North Delhi which looks like the trash and transport capital of Delhi with a massive mountain of waste 100 times the size of the one at Crittals Corner, smoking away and casting a pall of smoke and dust over the surrounding area. It was teeming with rag pickers, goats and vultures - and no doubt rats. Across the road was a large shanty town of temporary shacks - homes made of tarpaulin roped together which must be dire in the rainy season.

Sanjay and his family are struggling with the serious illness of his father who is in a coma in the local government hospital following surgery for brain tumour. His mum has rarely been allowed out of the slum and is unable to work to support the family. So the future for the family is very uncertain as they may lose the main wage earner and there is no welfare state to fall back on. Sanjay has 3 younger brothers, the oldest being Rahul aged 8 who is a bright spark. He recently took his mum on a 1.5 hour double bus journey to see his dad in hospital and remembered the two buses numbers and where to change buses, and which floor his dad was on.

Sanjay is relatively shy but has a lovely nature and engaging smile. This is a selfie taken by him!

We started off meeting the Compassion team then Sanjays schoolmates. Sarah was once again a star leading them in action songs and we rehashed acting out the Good Samaritan story again. Next time we come we'll be a bit better prepared with a activities (Jerry Nelson we need you!).

From there we went to Sanjays house to meet his family - again all gorgeous kids with a large extended family of cousins. Once again we were touched by the hospitality and generosity of people who have very little. The day ended with ice cream and praying for Sanjay and the work of the Compassion team who have been faithfully working in this community for 15 years. 

The state school operate a shift system with girls in the morning and boys in the afternoons. Compassion supplement this with extra lessons and a square meal at lunchtime to ensure adequate nutrition for the children who have been selected for support as they are vulnerable to malnutrition.

So reflections on India... It is a rapidly developing country, the whole of which seems a massive building site. The two things most widely advertised are cement and mobile phones. Standards of sanitation and the transport infrastructure have improved hugely since we were last here. The Delhi metro is a pleasure to use and far better than London Underground. You can now eat ice cream and not fear Delhi belly nearly as much - although I would still avoid street food unless it was freshly cooked in front of me.?

A consequence of all this development is a rapidly growing middle class. There's a shopping mall near us with almost identical shops - and prices, as Bluewater. The gap between rich and poor is huge and getting wider and much more obvious in Delhi as rich gated communities exist right next to slums rather than the poor living in ghettos miles away. The caste system and the position of women in society is very slowly changing. Community health volunteers we met talk with pride of no longer having to cover their faces and being listened to with respect. However in the villages the pace of change is very slow and will probably take more than a generation. People in Delhi talk quite openly about the bus rape tragedy and people we've spoken to welcome discussion as necessary for a change in attitude - although we have probably spoken to the more enlightened. We met a delightful young women called Usha who translated for me in a couple of clinics who grew up in a slum, did well at school and through Asha who had great struggles persuading her dad to allow her to have an education. With the covert support of her mum she succeeded and has now graduated at university and is one of the stars of Asha's student ambassador program.

 It is still a country of great spirituality, generosity and hospitality. Many times we have been humbled by open hearts and homes from people of all walks of life. Sanjeev and Anita who run the Grace Home guest house deserve particular mention for going way beyond the call of duty keeping the fridge stocked with beer, taking us out to concerts, inviting us for meals. So too do Paul and Maliki parents of Anurag who organised our program at Asha brilliantly; they had never entertained westerners before and were so anxious to please and make sure we enjoyed our time with them. So too do numerous slum dwellers and community health volunteers who opened their homes to us.

Definitely major lessons for us to take home with us. In fact so many experiences, friendships, and lessons that will take time to digest. the great thing about having a sabbatical is that we will have time to do this. So with some sadness and fantastic memories we are leaving Delhi- on to Bangkok for the next leg of our adventure.

Last week in Delhi

Our last clinic with Asha was held at Myopuri slum which was one of the grimmest places you could imagine. It is locAted along a busy railway line where trains pass through every 30 minutes 24/7 causing a huge safety risk for young children as well as noise and dust.

The slum is also adjacent to a huge breakers yard where men work with no safety equipment in filthy conditions and polluted air that is thick with burning rubber and dust.

A thick layer of mud covers the ground . This turns to a quagmire of mud and filth in the rainy season which means that people have take off their sandals and wade through knee deep in order to get out of the slum.

Despite these difficulties the slum dwellers keep themselves so clean. The Asha community health volunteers Are incredibly proud of their achievements. They have a 95% child vaccination rate, have campaigned to get water delivered by tanker and public toilets installed and a number of the young people are going through university. 

This CHV has worked with Asha for the last 20 years and has real hope for the next generation. She herself has had such a hard life with her daughter losing both legs under a train when she was just 8 years old. Despite this she us cheerful and optimistic. The CHVs also told us about their experiences when get go back to their home villages and women are astonished that they can go out of their houses and don't have to cover heir faces. Things are slowly changing in India and they really see themselves as empowered to help bring this about- wonderful!

We have now said our goodbyes to Asha after giving them our feedback. We really have had such an amazing time with them and will certainly continue to support them in the future. I have promised to do some midwifery training for the CHVs in the future and Steve is going to create some information for diabetic patients as this is really needed. We know we will be returning at dine point.

Chumba

From Selakui we headed back to Dehradun and then up into the mountains again to Chumba to visit Ravi and Usha who have been working with local village communities for the last 15 years and now work in almost 20 villages. Once again we had fantastic views of the Himalayas from their kitchen window.

They were a lovely couple who had faithfully served and supported and prayed for their village communities with few resources for years. We visited several of the village churches and were once again blown away by the hospitality and generosity of people who have very little of their own.

Highlights were an amazing worship service in a mud hut

The second highlight was when Sarah nearly started a riot when she directed a performance of the Good Samaritan - the robbers/ thugs were very enthusiastic!

Sarah coaching the donkey

Returning from Chumba was a long slow uneventful 13 hour journey by jeep and then train back to Delhi. Travelling in India is certainly a lot easier than 30 years ago with air conditioned coaches and quite reasonable food served at regular intervals. Sadly there's only one week left in India, but we've loved every minute of it.

Selakui

Our third week in India has been spent with our New Gen friends Phil, Elizabeth, Jane and Brian visiting Noth India. firstly to a school and orphanage in Selaqui near Dehradun which was started by Yip and Frieda McRae around 40 years ago. On Easter Sunday we joined the boys for a picnic and swimming in a river. Great fun and huge admiration for Kiran the cook who cooked breakfast and lunch for more than 60 people over a camp fire!

Phil has been coming to Selaqui for around 20 years and has developed some great relationships- especially with some of the boys. we heard inspiring stories about the early days of setting it up. on one occasion Yip was put in prison for trying to defend the orphans bring taken away to another home by the police. I loved his words 'human beings are designed to be heroes'

We stayed with great friends of Phil called Paulus and Bewla and their 2 daughters. Steve joined Phil and Brian to do some jobs around the farm including painting and playing with power tools.

 Jane was in her element making clay tiles from line an oven and teaching a couple of the boys how to do pottery. 

And I spent a couple of days at the school with a new student called Sharuck, a 15 year old boy  who had an accident several years before that had resulted in paraplegia.  I was somewhat daunted at the task of giving him 1:1 tuition to ascertain his ability and help prepare him for joining a class after 5 years of no schooling. But he was a great lad and tried really hard so my task was not too difficult, especially fir maths for which he showed a real aptitude. It was wonderful to see his progress but very sad to have to say goodbye.

Second week in Delhi

Hard to believe that we've been here for 2 weeks. This week has been easier with only one clinic booked. That was in a slum with no running water or toilets so there were big water containers everywhere 

Most of my clinic was people with back and knee pain from carrying heavy loads unsurprisingly. Had a really interesting session with students from the slum. The most interesting question was- what would the UK be called if Scotland voted for independence?   - I don't know!

Phil Elizabeth Brian and Jane from New Gen have joined us so it's been great to visit slums and do tourist stuff together. Jane Elizabeth and Sarah have been doing craft stuff with the women while Brian Phil and I took the boys off for a game of cricket. Guess who lost?!!...

We've also had time for being a tourist. The highlights were the Taj Majal obviously

Ghandis place

and an outdoor guitar concert at a stunning Baha'i temple in the shape of a lotus flower while we got eaten alive by mosquitos. 

We are now on the way to Sailaqui near Dehradun where we will be staying at a school/ orphanage with friends of Phils. Likely to be out of Internet range for a week. Happy Easter everyone. 

First week in Delhi

 we have just got to the end of our first week in India which has been really inspirational. 

Asha have given us a great experience visiting a different slum each day and also provided us with a translator so Steve can do a surgery and I can do an antenatal clinic. Aalthough I've learnt a smattering of Hindi (which the locals finds very amusing) the difficulties come when anyone replies to my questions, so the translator is very important! Sometimes it's hard to know how best to refer etc., but Asha are able to do simple blood tests and ultrasound and the health workers provide some really good guidance. I think Steve has a far harder job than me trying to sort out 'total body pain' and some chronic conditions that have gone in for years, but he is doing a great job.

During the week we have met amazing women from the slums that Asha have helped to empower. In one slum they described how collecting water had previously taken 2 hours to fetch and carry water, but how Asha taught them how to campaign for their rights. They described how almost every day they lobbied health ministers and after 6 months finally got the results- water in the slum lanes! Lovely to see how proud they are of their achievements.

I was particularly happy to vist Seelampur slum, home to 38,000 people. This was the slum I visited with the group from New Gen in 2009 where we mostly did painting, but I also ran a few midwifery workshops for the Comminity health volunteers. I had absolutely no expectations that they would remember me- but they did! 

Moreover 2 of the ladies- Saira and Ameena told me that they always remembered what I had taught them when they attended a home delivery and the baby needs some resus. It just shows that we don't always know when something may be having an impact.  Felt so humbled by their gifts of bangles, a necklace and a mug for Steve. They are so poor and yet so generous......

Phil, Elizabeth, Jane and Brian have now arrived from New gen so we are really enjoying spending time with them and having some fun times. We are all off for a big Asha celebration tonight! 1200 young people from the slums have now gone through University! How amazing is that! 

Inspiring

Just had 2 days at Asha doing clinics, meeting the community health volunteers and students from the slums who are going through uni. Asha is really inspiring. Here are their values:

which I think I ll adopt as my own. Asha works in 60 slums both Hindu and Muslim and teaches and works out these values in a totally non - preachy way. 

What was most impressive was meeting students who Asha have sponsored through university determined to live these values and give back to their original slum community. Those who have finished university mentor the ones now going though, who in turn mentor aspiring school students and so on. The effect on their families and communities is immense- this is transformation of people's lives in a way that is hard to describe .......suffice to say it is living and breathing Gods Kingdom without trying to convert or manipulate anyone. Truly inspiring.

The clinics are not that different to Swanley duty surgeries - lots of people wanting second opinions for problems they have had for years, interspersed with the occasional really ill patient. The main plus is that you haven't got the computer nagging you to do QOF stuff and the main downside is that there's usually no record of what drugs they've been given or investigations done. The range of possible conditions is wider and need to be vigilant for TB and HIV. But in practice these are very rare with improving sanitation , vaccination and health promotion. Their vaccination rates are better than Swanley!!

Sarah had been doing antenatal clinics which are also challenging in terms of knowing what to do if you pick up anything Abnormal although there is access to simple blood tests and also ultrasound if really necessary.

There is now water and better sanitation in the slums but still much grinding poverty. In our first slum the main occupation was cutting and trimming flip flop straps. 40p for a paper recycling sized bag of straps which would take about a day to do