Update

11/23/09
Well I'm not quite sure just exactly what to say, but I figured I should put an update on here.:) Might be a bit dry though.
The jist of it is: Arrived in Bangkok. All is well. As I stepped out of the airport I think the first thing that really hit me was the heat. I was decked out in my jacket, of course, straight from the frigid airs of MT!:)
So we're finally back on the border. It's been rather crazy the last few days. Guess they expected me to come back as a doctor or something... Which they're slowly, but surely learning I'm not...
Sabbath was anything but restful! We ended up taking an interesting trip to the hospital with several sick kids. We had a young girl who was lying in the bed of the truck going between unresponsiveness or hyperventilating and in agony with spasms in her legs. We were driving at quite exciting speeds. Altogether there were seven of us back there. I was perched at the edge of one of the benches trying to keep my balance as another sick child was lying on the other part of the bench behind me and Thai driving always manages to add some pizzazz to anything!:) Let's just say that it was pretty exciting. She ended up having severe pf malaria.
The porch here at the house is having an almost steady stream of villagers and students especially in the mornings and evenings. This morning our nurse was gone at the hospital with patients, so it was just me and mama there. To sum it up, I spent most of it wielding wicked looking poking devices and jabbing them without mercy into innocent little fingers. No, actually we had people with all types and sorts of various maladies. But I had to do testing on several for pf malaria. I was at my wit's end. The test isn't one bit like our handy-dandy glucometers back home. Instead it has this hole you've got to somehow deposit the blood into and it's the frustration of my life. I was so tired of it and the next in line was a squirming, wailing little kid who quite obviously already had a well developed fear of needles. All I wanted to do was run and hide. Couldn't stand the idea of having to poke this one over and over. But I gave it a shot and that was the first (and last, so far!) one where the blood came out in a perfect drop and ventured into the hole in like manner. Felt like that was God's gift to me this morning when He knew I couldn't take much more.:)