In Asia-Pacific language the word "hospital" is "Rumah Sakit" which literally means 'sick house'.
Well, we were able to experience the sick house first hand today. Today is a public holiday due to Chinese New Year, so we were taking the opportunity to sleep in and Gideon was actually cooperating with this. At 8:00 am he was still sleeping and Raquel was in our office watching a movie while sitting in the office chair. We were awoken by a crashing noise and screaming from Raquel. She had pushed her feet against the desk to roll the chair back, but a wheel got caught on a play mat and the chair flipped over. She was holding her arm and wouldn't stop crying. When we looked at it, it was already bruising and starting to swell. After talking to a friend who is a nurse and consulting with a family here with 6 kids (5 of them boys:) we decided to take her in for an X-ray. We went to the public hospital in town. Ken and BJ came with us (some of the staff at the hospital know them by name due to their frequent trips there:) to show us the ropes. They did an X-ray and everything was fine, Praise the Lord! Raquel did a great job and is feeling better now. She has a couple bruises and her arm is a little tender, but we're so thankful it wasn't fractured.
We only went to this hospital for an X-ray. If she had required treatment we would not have her treated there, but would have gone to a better hospital in a city about an hour away. I took the picture below on the way to get the X-ray. These disposable (but apparently reusable) surgical gloves were were hanging in the sun to dry.
Since we started out in triage we saw a couple people come in to be treated. It was very sobering to see the suffering of these people who don't have the resources to seek better medical care. While our visit ended well, my heart was heavy for those we left behind.
