Last Clinic Day

Today was a pretty exciting day in many ways. The crew was happy that they would all be leaving the ship for a week to celebrate Water Festival. A former Doctor for the ship, Dr. Dona, brought a prominent man in the government to the ship along with his entourage. Dr. Dona had gained permission from the “higher ups” to allow the ship to dock where we normally do in Phnom Penh, but since this week is Water Festival, we had to get special permission. So in return, we allowed “His Excellency” to tour the ship. Rick had to play host with the coffee, water, and tea around the table, but then we were invited to attend the Festival and sit in the “special platform” for high government officials. I’m sure we will do a blog on it if we do accept the invitation. Dr. Dona ended up working and seeing patients. So with two doctors there were 134 people helped today. Rick ended up helping over 60. Along with all this activity, a young reporter from the Phnom Penh Post came aboard to observe and then submit an article for the paper. Camile is from Denmark and interning here in Cambodia for six months. She stayed most of afternoon and was fun to talk to and even passed some “news” on to us. It was great of her to think of the Ship as a worthy article. So now we are on a ghost ship. Hai is stuck here as our engineer for four days and then Sokha will replace him. Sokun is here doing his night guard duties and has chosen to work the holiday and take some days off for his sister’s wedding next month. Since the ship is in a good position to view the boat races, I think we will have some visitors. We are going to try to avoid going into the city as much as possible since there is an estimated 4 million additional people who are suppose to come to town for the festival. Ugh! gail