Saturday, January 31, 2009

Burchams are Back



Russ and Rosemary Burcham are back on the ship for another extended stay. They will be with us for about five weeks. They have been teaching English for the last couple of months in Phnom Penh. Russ is a dentist and Rosemary will assist him while they are here. The crew loves the Burchams very much especially Rosemary. She is a real “hoot” as they say and keeps everyone in stitches with her quick plus she makes some great pickles!

Friday, January 30, 2009

My Cup Runneth Over

Every parent feels special and blessed when their children are doing well. Whether in school, or sports, or when they find their mate for life, a sense of peace comes (and maybe a prayerful thanks) when good things happen to their kids. We have felt so blessed to have our kids succeed in school and have great experiences in college and now we couldn't ask for better mates than Zac and Janice. But still good things happen. Zac's practice is going well, Brit is working in a practice, Janice has a great teaching postition in Fayetteville and Greg is back in school. Then yesterday we recieve an email from Greg who finally got his class ranking from law school. After getting some good grades back from his finals he felt pretty good about things, and he was right. Greg was listed in the top 10% of his class. I'll let you ask him his exact postition, but it was a moment of pride for us. We believe God has some great things planned for our kids. Zac and Brit are young professionals involved in church and community who can be a great influence. Greg and Janice are involved now and have great possibilities opening up for them. We are proud of them all and especially at this moment for Greg. Love you mom and dad

Wednesday, January 28, 2009




We have completed a great week with the team from Colorado. They are in Siem Reap now visiting the temples and doing the tourist thing. We will hook back up with them in Phnom Penh tomorrow and tour them around town for a few days before they depart for the states on Friday.
The week was exciting as always but when you add the optical team to it things are always hopping! It seems that everyone wants glasses! I am not sure if it is just a status symbol partly or not but we helping over 340 this week and must have turned away at least 1000 for optical care.
We had three medical docs also and they saw around 700 for the week. The lowly dental clinic saw close to 200 patients with the majority having extractions. The dental patient has to be a little more committed to the visit than the medical or optical ones. The dental patient has to leave something behind!
All in all we had a great week. These guys were great working super hard all week without the least complaints….at least that I heard! We hope they will come and visit us again in the future.

Friday, January 23, 2009

Team Colorado


Yea! I got some pictures on! The week is over and I have some catching up to do! Here is the team from Ft. Collins. Roger Northen, dentist, Perry Creede, hygenist, Jerry Smith, doctor, Steve Tippin, doctor. Then the eye team included Harry and Rosemary Black and Justin and Lindsey Morales. It was great getting to know them and I think they had a good time, too! gail
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Thursday, January 22, 2009

Can't Think

Well, I just sat here waiting about 6 minutes for my pictures to upload and nothing happened. Not sure of problem only that it seems to fall in line with this whole week. This is first trip back from states that it seems hard to get back into groove of things. I guess being sick doesn't help. At least the work and the team that has been here has been going great. Just today over 150 people saw the the medical doctors and I think around 89 saw the optical teams. That is a great number since they are testing eyes and making the lenses. Not sure of dental. Rick and Roger get to talking and never know how busy they stay! ha! As I was waiting for the pictures to upload, that didn't upload, I couldn't think of a title for this blog, so that is the title. As you can tell my mind is still "stuffed up" and hopefully we will have pictures and better blogs soon! gail

Monday, January 19, 2009

Back to Business

Well, I should say we are trying to get back to business but the ship evidently has enjoyed its holiday and is putting up a fuss about getting back to work! We have a team from Colorado here which I will put pics on later, but the ship is giving us a fit! The cooler decided to stop after filling it with yummy fruits and vegetables. Then my favorite machine of all, the ice machine, went kapoots! Ha! There are several other problems, but I don't want to be too negative. The ship looks great and it is good to be back. Unfortunately, I decided to greet our team as their first patient. Instead of going with Rick to the airport, I was in bed with 104 temp, shakes and chills. Both docs checked me out, but say is just a virus or flu. I have to rest alot because I tire easy and still have chest and throat pain. The positive side to this is I don't talk much and I think the crew likes that! Will post some pictures soon! gail

Thursday, January 15, 2009

Back Safely

We arrived safely in Phnom Penh yesterday morning and after taking a quick tour of the newly refurbished ship we went to sleep and slept for 13 hours! We are ready to go. We have a medical team arriving on Saturday so there is no time to relax. The ship looks great and we are so thankful to those who have worked so hard the last 2 months while we have been away. Rick

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

San Diego



Our flight leaves tonight back to Cambodia, but we stopped off on the East Coast to sightsee and visit some family. We drove down to San Diego and spent the day at the zoo. It was a beautiful balmy day and we enjoyed walking through the animal park. For dinner we met up with my aunt Jan (one of my dad's younger sisters) and her daughter Cathy and had an awesome meal. The food not only tasted great, it was beautifully displayed! Darith , the ship's cook, would have been amazed! ha! Jan had moved to San Diego in the 70's when her husband was in the Navy and ended up making this her home. After enjoying this weather, and seeing 33 degrees on our yahoo page for Arkansas, I can understand why she stayed! Rick was also able to talk with his aunt Jean whose husband was his father's brother via telephone. They relived memories of younger days. We will fly out late, so the next blog should be from Phnom Penh.
gail

Thursday, January 08, 2009

Back in the Water!

We recieved an email today from Bill stating that the ship was in the water! He goes on to tell us that the crew moved back onto the ship and were glad to return. Personally, I was worried that they may get use to being back among family and friends and not want to come back to ship! Bill said they were happy and felt good about painting and making improvements of the ship. So our bags are packed although we have a couple of stops on our way to the east coast we will fly out midnight next tuesday. Hopefully, our blogs will be more interesting upon our return!! gail

Sunday, January 04, 2009

Back to Arkansas


We left Colorado's single digit degree weather to an unbelieveable 79 degree in Texas! After enjoying a week in the snow, it was time to get back and prepare to leave for Cambodia. We leave Arkansas on Friday the 9th but have a couple stops before our midnight flight on the 12th. We are blessed to have friends and family who uplift us while in the states and give us encouragement for the work overseas. Hope you all had a great New Year! gail