People Watching

For those who don’t know, I managed to bang up my arm pretty good … I was a passenger on a motorbike and we tippedover when we hit a crack in the road. There were no major injuries, except for the pieces of gravel that decided they wanted a ride in my arm into town. Thankfully the hospital changed my bandage daily for several days, and now I’m able to change it at home. It will take several more weeks to fully heal, but it’s healing up nicely and I’ve thankfully had lots of time to rest and recoup… although I’m really looking forward to getting back to my normal routine and the day my arm is completely healed!

I wanted to share with you a little from my time at the local government hospital here in Mae Sot. The majority of my time was spent just hanging out in the waiting area. It was surprising to me that the busiest times were during normal work hours… the exact opposite of the hospitals in the States. Evenings and weekends almost made the place look empty. Being a boarder town with a variety of cultures, languages, and religions makes ‘people watching’ at the hospital even more interesting. . .

Some people would be brought by ambulance, car, motorcycle, taxi, or even the back of a pickup. There were those who had to go straight to the e.r. and many who just needed to see a doctor. The hospital had a very organized system in order to see as many people as possible, yet with so many people coming from outside of the city limits and speaking different languages it really requires an advocate to help people properly maneuver through the system without getting lost in the shuffle.

The thing that surprised me the most was watching those who were waiting their turn to see a doctor or a nurse. I watched as a Burmese father held his infant child, obviously worn out and concerned for his baby, have a Muslim woman come to his aid and lovingly make a bottle for him so that he didn’t have to do it while holding his child. I watched an entire cycling team bring a woman to the e.r., pay for her bills, and saw the concern and worry for her on their faces (I don’t know the rest of the story only that the woman was released after being treated). Buddhist monks waited their turn just like everyone else. There were those who could probably pay their medical bills, those who were scrapping together whatever their family had to cover the cost, an probably people there who couldn’t pay the full amount.

I watched as people waited their turn to find out ‘how bad is it?’. I watched as each new person who arrived had all eyes on them, everyone wondering ‘I wonder what’s wrong with them’. I learned that you can’t judge a wound by the size of a bandage, you don’t know what it really looks like underneath the gauze and tape. I watched people who normally wouldn’t interact, have smiles of compassion for one another. I was reminded that everyone wants to feel valued, understood, and listened to. I was surprised at the number of people who were injured due to different types of accidents. And more than anything I wanted desperately for God’s healing power to flow through that place. I wanted everyone from the little babies to the wrinkly old people to have a touch from heaven and to be able to walk out of the hospital whole and healed.

Even though I spent hours at the hospital, my prayers remained silent. I never had the urge or the courage to ask to pray for someone. Yet I feel like something inside me changed, I can’t really describe it in words. But I know that even in the midst of Mae Sot Hospital, God is there, just waiting for people to call on His name. And I know that even though my prayers might have been silent, God heard every word I prayed over that place and the people that were there.