submitted photo Maxine Brinkman (top) and Pat Shultz (bottom)
MASON CITY — What began as an offhand remark led to a serious plan by four North Iowa friends to explore Cambodia.
Pat
Schultz of Nora Springs, a Lifelong Learning instructor at North Iowa
Area Community College, told a class that she had always wanted to see
Cambodia.
Class member Susan Urbatsch, a Mason City physician,
said, “Let’s go!” and Maxine Brinkman of Mason City agreed, Schultz
recalled.
Brinkman invited a fourth friend, Stacie Lancaster, Kailo coordinator at Mercy Medical Center-North Iowa.
“Over
the years, I’ve had students in classes from both Laos and Cambodia and
developed a strong interest in their cultures,” said Schultz, a retired
Clear Lake teacher who has spent time in China and Japan.
“And of course, the U.S. military involvement with the region was, for a time, a big part of our history.”
The group, which will also spend time in Laos and Thailand, departs Jan. 17 and returns Feb. 1.
Schultz
made the travel arrangements through a Southeast Asia tour company and
Brinkman made it her mission to find a purpose for the trip, aside from
the tourist aspect.
“We were just going to go to see Cambodia from
a historic standpoint,” said Brinkman, retired nurse and former
diversity and inclusion officer at Mercy-North Iowa.
“We knew there was a need for medical supplies.”
Brinkman
arranged for the group to bring 350 pounds of much-needed medical
supplies to Handa Emergency Hospital in Battambang, a hospital in
northwest Cambodia that specializes in landmine injuries.
She
wrote to the hospital, which sent a spreadsheet of needed instruments
and medications. The supplies she has procured were donated by
Mercy-North Iowa, Mason City Clinic and North Iowa Eye Clinic.
“The donations have been very generous,” she said.
The
four friends will visit the Battambang hospital briefly during their
stay. A hospital representative will meet them at the airport to receive
the supplies as soon as they arrive.
Brinkman will also take 100
heart necklaces made by her grandchildren to share with Cambodian
children and foam ornament kits for the children to make decorative
ornaments.
While in Cambodia, the friends will spend time at an
elephant sanctuary and a Laotian cooking school. The tour agent planned
visits to historical and cultural sites as well.
A very poor, very dangerous country, Cambodia has thousands of land mines, the women said.
“Clean
water and sanitation facilities are almost non-existent,” Urbatsch
said. “Many adults are illiterate since they came of age when schooling
was outlawed” under the reign of Pol Pot, a Maoist dictator who came to
power in 1975.
“The country is turning around,” Urbatsch said. “It
has a growing tourist industry because of magnificent temples and
beautiful scenery.”
Brinkman, Schultz, Urbatsch and Lancaster will
travel with a driver arranged through the travel agency in areas where
they will be safe. They will sleep in western-style hotels.
Their
itinerary will take them to Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia;
Vientiane, the capital of Laos; and Bangkok, the capital of Thailand.
They plan to see the Mekong River; a floating market; and hope to also
experience a ride on a Cambodian “bamboo train,” a steel frame overlaid
with bamboo slats resting on wheels that runs along rail tracks.
They chose to travel in January, when temperatures are more moderate: 70s during the day and 50s at night, Brinkman said.
“We have been planning this for months,” she said. “We’re looking forward to it.”
