Day Two of Medical; Sewing Room Renovation, Too

The second day of medical training was a lot more organized than the first. Rick Astone and Dr. Bjorn Nilson had had time last evening to restructure the teaching sessions so a good, solid foundation could be laid for the students to build upon. The day was spent introducing them to the Barefoot Doctors manual, Where There is No Doctor, and teaching them the systems of the human body.
Dr. Nilson started the day with the field manual our Barefoot Doctors use and laid down the basic principles for the Barefoot Doctors' approach to medicine.
Then Rick Astone followed with the first of several lessons on the various systems of the human body. Rick taught on the skeletal and muscle systems or bones and muscles, for short. As a licensed physical therapist, he is well-qualified for this.
This afternoon Dr. Mark Royer, a third-year resident from the IU Med Center, taught several more systems of the body. These included the circulatory system, the respiratory system, the digestive system, and the urinary system. It was obvious the students were excited and intrigued with learning all of these in much greater detail than ever before. We are looking forward to having several more residents come from IU to teach their topics, as well. We regret that Dr. Jonathan McCrae who was scheduled to teach on Monday could not do so because he got a bad case of the flu. Still, Dr. Royer was able to use the excellent PowerPoint slides Dr. McCrae had created for his lectures.
At the end of the day, Dr. Nilson was so impressed with the eagerness of our students to learn that he told them, "I have taught and participated in classes like this all over the world, and never have I seen a class where absolutely no one was falling asleep in the middle of the afternoon!"
Dr. John Paul and Dr. Cindy Goldameir were also there again today and were valuable resources to the teachers as people very experienced in the practical aspects of the subjects being taught today. The students asked many questions of their teachers throughout the day, and this is a very good sign of their interest and the progress they are making.

On Clark's side of things, the inside of the sewing room is finished after four coats of paint today, a major clean-up, and the relocation of the sewing machines to their new home. Thanks to the support and help from Brian Zeider from Indiana (a friend traveling with one of the doctors), Chairot, Sin See, Pong and the ladies at the church who make us wonderful, authentic Thai lunches. Tomorrow, we'll begin work on the outside of the building but regardless, Chaing Bay can begin working in her new "digs" right away. This actually took the efforts of the mission teams of two different churches. The first team installed the roof, ceiling, lights and electric. Then we finished the job.