HUMANITARIAN TRIP TO RANONG

Last Saturday/Sunday we flew to Ranong in Southern Thailand with Elder and Sister Ure.  They are the Humanitarian Couple here in Bangkok.  The church had donated several machines to Princess Mother's Foundation to help with cataract surgery for those who cannot afford it.  The Ure's needed to go to see how the machines were being used.  Princess Mother's Foundation travels to out of the way places, to those in need.  There are 6 - 7 eye surgeons that volunteer their time, countless nurses and others who come to the 2 day event.  Five of the doctors were from Bangkok alone.  They did 138 surgeries on Saturday.



We flew in on Saturday morning and were met by our hosts Thong Chai and his wife, Moo.  They took us to an outdoor restaurant before we went to the hospital.  The food was real Thai, and Elder Grange loved it.  I liked the rice and some sort of steamed vegetable that looked like spinach, but wasn't.  We could see across the river to Myanmar.

We watched a few surgeries, I did not get too close.

 The church donated one of these machines.  They call it a Phaco and it is an $80,000 machine.

Elder GrangejE

The barefoot surgeon. The foot pedal controls certain parts of the Phaco.

The church donated these fast autoclaves and they were being well used.

The patients were lined up out side the operating room.

This is where they stayed the night if they did not live close enough to go home.

Cute little girls!

 The next day the families lined the outside of the room waiting to take their parents, grandparents home.

The doctors checked.

 Then checked a little further with this machine that LDS charities donated.

 We got to go through the room and place sunglasses on them.  Very sweet, as they thanked us and grabbed our hands.  We were so honored to be there and be a part of such an amazing effort.

A happy reunion with Grandma!

Elder Grange talking and getting the stories of some of the patients.

This sweet lady wanted lots of pictures with us.

Love what this picture says.

Elder Grange chatted it up with the men also.  These men were waiting for their final discharge.

 

We were so impressed with so many skilled volunteers who made this happen.  The people there treated us like we were visiting dignitaries.  We were so humbled by the fact that we just showed up and received so much love.

Oh, and it was good to get out of Bangkok and see a different side of Thailand.