Report for Ministry of Health

Every month the Ministry of Health in Kampong Cham province has a meeting of medical NGOs in the area and also Health center personnel. Rick has attended several of these meetings and comes back saying he really doesn’t care to return. The majority of the meeting is in Khmer. But, I encourage him to represent the ship and how good it is to support the local health people. I have changed my mine. I went with him this past week because he was going to present a report about the ship and I was going to work the power point show. Rick did a great job and his dental assistant, Daven, translated. It was also a relief for the computer and projector to work properly! After his 15 minute presentation, another Khmer man from USAid gave his report. It was in Khmer, but didn’t last too long. Just when I thought, “ok, this isn’t so bad”, the Director of the Ministry, who we give our monthly reports to and get our village schedule from, proceeded to talk for another 50 minutes. It is amazing how phones go off and people just answer them and talk during all of this. People got up and walked to the toilet or outside to talk, or get a bottle of water. I decided the Director just liked to hear himself talk because not many of the people seemed to listen! So, I will not push Rick to attend anymore unless he wants to! gail