Healthcare In Cambodia

04/20/09  Print This Post Print This Post    11 Comments   Popular   Written by Luisa Sperry
    Share

A Where There Be Dragons student researches healthcare in Cambodia and finds more questions than answers.

Here in Cambodia, the guesthouse owner, a recent acquaintance, will openly ask if you have diarrhea. Women receive routine injections in their buttocks with family members, friends, and neighbors looking on.

Village medicine.

In America, the hospital is a space entirely dedicated to improving health, almost sacred in its sterilized simplicity.

In Cambodia, IVs are set up under stilted houses with cows in the background and babies are delivered on straw mats in the family home. Personal health is deeply integrated into daily life.

From what I have been able to observe, medicine here is a matter-of-fact business that appears, in my Western eyes, devoid of emotion.

New Questions

More than anything, my research on health care in Cambodia just opened up more questions for me.

I set out with a list of questions I wanted answered. Some of them I found answers to; some of them I didn’t.

Newborn and mother.

Originally, I wanted to find out the average number of births per Cambodian woman, the cost and availability of pre-natal care and the ratio of female to male healthcare workers in Cambodia.

What I found out was so much more valuable. I envisioned my research taking one path, but it took another and I am glad it did.

My entire experience with the American health care system has been documented, sanitized and monitored. We surround our personal health with such privacy, almost as if it were sacred.

In America, personal health carries a host of emotions: fear, dread, sadness, relief, joy. Not so in Cambodia.

It was not acceptable for a six-year-old girl to cry as her wound was cleaned no matter how much pain she may have been in. A new mother did not smile upon seeing her child for the first time.

Privileged Emotions

The author in Cambodia.

My research led me to consider emotions in a new way, less as natural impulses and more as privileges. By allowing ourselves to feel emotions, we are indulging ourselves. It is a luxury not everyone can afford.

Americans can afford to be egocentric. We expect a certain level of comfort in our hospitals. People here, I imagine, do not. It’s a cultural necessity.

COMMUNITY CONNECTION:

Are you a student interested in traveling to Cambodia? Check out the Where There Be Dragons summer program Cambodia: Studies in Development and Peace.


    Share

About the Author

Matador ID: les

Luisa Sperry is an alumna of the Where There Be Dragons 6-week Cambodia summer program. She lives in Manhattan and will attend Dartmouth College in the fall.

11 Comments... join the discussion!

  • Alex replied on April 21, 2009

    Thank you for sharing this!

    (Report comment)

    ↵ Reply
  • Hal replied on April 21, 2009

    Very interesting, Luisa! I’ve never thought to associate emotions with the healthcare experience. It’s very unfortunate that many of the world’s people can’t expect comfort from their medical facilities.

    On a related note, when I was in Siem Reap 2 and a half years ago, I gave blood at that clinic that’s advertised in all the guidebooks. It was actually a more pleasant experience than giving blood in the US!

    (Report comment)

    ↵ Reply
  • Julie replied on April 21, 2009

    Luisa-

    Thanks for sharing your research and travel experiences with us. The opening of the article was really strong and drew me in. The more one travels–it doesn’t matter where, really– the more questions one has. You’d think that wouldn’t be the case– that you’d have more answers! But I’ve always found that new questions arise as the questions we thought we were asking get refined. And that’s a good thing.

    (Report comment)

    ↵ Reply
  • marina villatoro replied on April 21, 2009

    sometimes I wonder how people in countries such as cambodia survive at all. it’s as though the gov’t is trying to do all they can to not help their citizens. I was complaining to a friend here in costa rica about their public healthcare and she’s like, this is heaven. she lived in china for years and she says they don’t even have any sort of healthcare at all for their people.
    The Travel Expert(a) – Living and Traveling Central America

    (Report comment)

    ↵ Reply
  • ojh replied on April 21, 2009

    I love you so much! You are awesome and I will miss you so much next year my college bound beauty!

    (Report comment)

    ↵ Reply
  • Travellohr replied on April 21, 2009

    Very, very interesting. And that photo of the mother who looks so detached from her newborn is strikingly haunting.

    (Report comment)

    ↵ Reply
  • Carlo replied on April 21, 2009

    I love this: “By allowing ourselves to feel emotions, we are indulging ourselves.”

    (Report comment)

    ↵ Reply
  • TULULU replied on April 21, 2009

    YIPPEEE.

    (Report comment)

    ↵ Reply
  • Megan E. Fettig replied on April 22, 2009

    Luisa – you’re amazing! Thanks for sharing your insights with us.

    (Report comment)

    ↵ Reply
  • Daniela Papi replied on April 22, 2009

    Thank you, Luisa. I remember meeting you when you came through the PEPY office in Phnom Penh. I am impressed with your reflections and was at the time meeting all of you – you all had such great questions. As always, impressed with the programs Dragons offers and the students it attracts. Great work, Luisa.

    (Report comment)

    ↵ Reply
  • HMB replied on April 22, 2009

    Luisa,

    This is an amazing article!

    (Report comment)

    ↵ Reply

Leave a Comment

Get Matador in your inbox and around the web.

Sign up for our FREE weekly newsletter.


View full list of RSS feeds

Jump To Category:



Explore the Community



Popular Stories on Matador

John Lennon: The Lost 1969 Interview On Peace

38 years after it was recorded, an impromptu interview ... 

Impossible Music Is Not Quite Impossible

The Impossible Music Project gets artists censored by t... 

Playing Laundry Badminton, For Art's Sake

The Institute of Aesthletics mixes art and sport to dru... 

The Best Taco in Madrid

There were only three filling choices as far as I was c... 

New Dating Website Helps Decide If You're Beautiful

Want to be beautiful and fall in love with other beauti... 

A Meditation On Washing Dishes

Dirty dishes: the ultimate symbol of household drudgery... 

Friday Fun: The One Hit Wonder Down Under

The snow’s long gone in the northern hemisphere, but ... 

10 Tips For Managing Your Online Life While Traveling

... 

10 Tattoo Clichés To Avoid At Any Cost

If you have tattoos (like me) then you know people are ... 

The Educational Value of Long Term Travel with Kids

Extended travel is possible with a family in tow, and i... 



Focus





Editor Blogs