For my work as a Community Health Education Extension Agent, I am based out of this Health Center. It is conveniently located about 50 yards from my house. As you can see, there are several buildings on site. A typical Cambodian health center is often only one or two buildings. This health center is a little different from most in Cambodia and certainly different from any that I saw in training. This health center is larger and provides a higher level of care. In time, I’ll post in detail about all that goes on here later. For now, I just wanted to introduce you to where I am spending most of my time.

Not shown in the first photo, behind the trees out of frame to the left, is this building, which constitutes the typical Cambodian Health Center. This is the entry point for most of the patients and where I spend a lot of my time. It is for outpatient care only, where as the other buildings are for inpatient care. Since I cannot really say a whole lot in the Khmer language yet, I spend most of my days observing operations, getting to know the staff, being uncomfortable, and looking for areas in which I at some point hopefully will bring my knowledge in to help. 

I also spend a lot of my time here at the coffee shop, which sits in the center of the facility at the end of the driveway seen in the first photo. The staff here is very eager to learn English from me. In fact, on my very first morning at this village the health center director sent a messenger to find me and bring me to the health center; so much for getting a little break after training.

I had a hard time explaining to the staff that my primary role here is not as an English teacher. Most of the staff speaks no English. The Health Center Director, Dr. Sera (seen on the right), often calls me to sit and chat with him here. He speaks just a little more English than I do Khmer. He calls this our “round table”(meetings). It has actually been a great way for me to get to know him and the others, and I get to practice my Khmer too.