Mobile Clinic

On 15 May this year, I received a SMS: “Penang chapter will be conducting a mobile clinic on 21 May 2006 at Kg. Kuala Segantang Garam, Mukim Bujang, Kedah. The clinic starts at 9am and ends at 1pm. Please confirm your attendance.” The SMS was sent to me by Major Anuar, who is in control of Penang chapter of Mercy Malaysia. Coincidentally, my family would go back to Alor Setar (my hometown) from Penang that day. So, they would drop me off in Sungai Petani to meet up with Major Anuar and other volunteers.

On 21 May morning, Ling, my sister was driving at great speed heading towards Sungai Petani and then she turned around and said something like this: “Don’t worry, you will arrive on time.” This is how my family shows their love to me. They normally are very supportive in whatever I do in my life. So, I arrived in Sungai Petani on time. Actually, I was very excited about this despite the fact that I had caught a cold and had been tired.

O.K, let’s get back to the story, the night before, I had visualized ourselves (the volunteers) setting up an outdoor mobile clinic under a luxuriant tree in a village, where abashed children hiding behind their mothers’ bums. I had even visualized myself giving medicines to the children. Seriously speaking, I really believed that I was coming close to becoming like the saintly Mother Teresa.

So, I met up with Major Anuar at a restaurant. Chang, the medical graduate and Dr. Halim were also there. (I met them during the 3 days 2 nights basic mission training organized by Mercy Malaysia.) There, we were having breakfast, talking and laughing away. After a while, other volunteers namely 2 female doctors and 5 community nurses from Penang General Hospital led by sister Mahiran arrived and joined us. Go, go, girl power. In fact, sister Mahiran just came back from Pakistan.

After breakfast, we started our journey to Kampung Segantang Garam, a supposedly riverside village, where its inhabitants work as farmers and fishermen. Along the journey, Major Anuar told us inspiring yet nerve-breaking stories about his many mission trips to countries like Pakistan, Sudan, Jordan, Aceh in Indonesia. According to him, the security forces in Aceh were so corrupted and brutal that they demanded money from him when he asked them to escort him to transport the medical supplies and goods to tsunami-hit areas.

Our car was moving along a road flanked by strikingly green paddy fields in the middle of nowhere. Then, what came into sight were these brand new concrete houses. This is the community centre of the village. There were many people there who were mainly the villagers. In the compound, women were busy with food preparation while the men were busy stirring the dish cooked in a massive wok. It seemed that there would be a feast later. Actually, it was a community-bonding programme organized by the district government. There was an exhibition of local handicrafts and products as well as an exhibition by the fire brigade department. Wait a minute, this was not what I visualized the night before. Actually, I was a bit disappointed though. Hehehe.

So, we carried boxes of medical supplies from the cars to the nursery. We turned the nursery into a temporary clinic. The walls were embellished with children’s drawings and posters of alphabets. Two girls were in charge of the registration desks outside the nursery while two guys were willingly being the patients controllers. I joined sister Mahiran and three other sweet looking community nurses to be the medicine dispensers. There were also two medical officers from the district health clinic joining us, not to mention the very charming husband and wife doctors from Putra Medical Centre, Alor Setar.

Every patient was given a blood pressure test. Many elderly had old-folk-sicknesses such as hypertension. Some of the patients were suffering from skin fungal infections. So, we gave them anti-fungal cream. Those who were proved to be free from all sicknesses were given vitamin C. I looked cluelessly at the neatly arranged medicine on the table and realized that the reason I was invited to join the mobile clinic was to learn how to serve the people. I totally appreciated it.

I mostly helped to pack the pills into small packets. After all, I wasn’t experienced enough to read the doctors hand writing. Those pills are normally with 8 or more alphabets and end with `ton’ such as Pharmaton, Triniton?!! and so-and-so ton. It was indeed a learning experience of the whole new medical world.

Time past by without notice, it was time to wrap things up. We were invited to have lunch there. All of us were seated on a mat and eating authentic Malay cuisine such as pucuk nangka ikan bilis masak gulai, ikan kering goreng and sambal belacan with rice.

Before we headed off, each of us was given a goodie bag consist of a packet of fish crackers, a packet of dried shrimps, a box of shrimp paste and a packet of salted fish. Oh, so sweet. I cherished the token of appreciation and was almost moved to tears. The charming husband and wife doctors (so sorry that I forgot their names) gave Chang and I a lift back to Alor Setar. Believe it or not, by the time I went home, the cold had left me.

For more info about Mercy Malaysia, kindly check www.mercy.org.my.