Day Nine

Saturday, October 24th

After eating breakfast at a restaurant across the street from our hotel, Stephen picked us up & took us to the site of the new Christian Training Center for our last clinic. On the drive there, we passed a Buddhist center, where a festival was taking place, and a Hindu center. The Christian Center is on the edge of Chiang Mai and sits in the middle of a rice field with mountain around it in the distance.

When we arrived, Stephen showed us around the building that is being worked on now, which will be for housing.

After our tour, we held our last clinic in tents that were set up on the grounds of the Christian Center. We treated mostly older people at this clinic. One man traveled overnight on a motorcycle through the mountains to come see us. He brought x-rays of three cysts in his neck that he had taken from seeing a doctor previously. The doctor had told this man that he had cancer & that there was nothing they could do. It turned out, that he just had the same fatty cysts that we had been removing all week. So, at the end of the day, Kirk removed two of the biggest cysts that were causing him a lot of pain & numbness.


People waiting to be seen in the clinic

Kirk & Alicia removing cysts

People waiting to be seen

Halfway through the day, we took a break to have lunch...a picnic on banana leaves! Everything was delicious & we ate the whole meal with our hands!

After we saw & treated everyone, we boxed up our extra supplies to be sent to a local doctor. We then went to a large gem factory to get some souvenirs, then we all went out to eat at a Thai restaurant. There were about 25 of us all together! At the end of the meal, Mary brought out a cake for Deb's birthday, which was on a travel day, the 26th! It was delicious!


Deb surprised by her cake

Most of the group sitting at the restaurant

After we finished eating, a few of us went back to the Night Bazaar to get a few more souvenirs. We didn't have any Thai drivers with us, so we got to experience a ride in a tuk tuk on the way back to the hotel! We then finished packing & getting ready to leave the next morning.