Arriving to Myanmar Reflection

I was recently involved in a CCH Myanmar Medical Voluntary Team.
A major motivating factor for joining this mission was to experience medicine and culture in a developing nation. It had been 21 years since I last visited Myanmar and I was too young to retain any memories of that experience. In that time， I had familiarized myself with the Australian lifestyle and the Australian medical system.
When I arrived In Myanmar， the experiences of the airport set the tone for the rest of the medical mission. The disabled toilets of the airport were labelled Invalid， which was representative of the lack of medical education of the nation. While waiting to collect our luggage， a power outage occurred at the airport， showing that on the surface everything seems however it was masking the lack of resources undermining the nation. Health education was the biggest area of concern as many of the patients were not aware of chronic conditions that they had. Patients would present with acute conditions such as headache or chest pain， however looking at their vital statistics， they were unaware that they had hypertension or hyperglycaemia. They didn’t know that eating too many sweets could negatively impact their health since it tasted so good. Blood sugars of 800 would normally warrant hospitalization， however they would say this hasn’t been causing them any issues. Medication education became another problematic concern with non-compliance and misuse as the main issues. When asked， patients would say they are taking medication however it’s not on a regular basis. They would represent to medical assistance asking why their condition isn’t healed and they don’t understand that their condition is a chronic condition which requires long term use of medication. A patient would take their medication for 3 days for hypertension， feel better and stop taking the medication， only to represent asking why the symptoms reoccurred. It became my role to educate them on what their chronic condition means and why it is important to be compliant with their medication.
The Director of medical missionary team Dr. Kao， Hsiao- Ling showed us around a Christian orphanage in which they have been assisting. CCH has been able to fund to build a water filtration system so that they have easy access to drinkable water. The photos of the orphanage prior to the assistance showed buildings made of sticks with minimal roofing， beds that are just a thin mattress and no comfortable location to study. CCH have donated unused beds， desks and cabinets so that the children will have better amenities to live in.
Thank you to CCH and Director for allowing me to join on the Myanmar Medical Voluntary team. Hope to see you again.