At the hospital that we are working at the wives and sisters are usually considered the caretakers for the patients because they don’t have enough money to hire on-call nurses. Our time at the hospital got switched to the mornings, and in the mornings, no one is allowed into the wards because all of the patients’ wounds get undressed and checked by the doctors. One morning when we were playing board games with the caretakers, a couple of the women started pointing at our nails because they were painted and motioning like they really liked them (I assume that’s what they were saying but again I don’t understand Khmer). So, with that Nattalie and Clare had the fun idea to bring nail polish to the hospital the next day to paint the caretakers’ nails for them. This turned out to be one of my favorite days on the race thus far. When we first approached them with the nail polish they were extremely hesitant and all waved their hands no, but with a little bit of nudging they agreed to let us. We got all of the girls on the squad to donate their nail polish for the day so we had a variety of colors to choose from. Once the women picked their color we started painting. Each woman reacted a little different either giggling, making ooos and ahhs, or smiling really big as we painted them. There is this one woman that has the sweetest laugh and she plays either pick-up sticks or Jenga with me every morning. She picked the brightest color out of all the ones we had and it perfectly described her. I got to paint her nails a shiny silver, and once I was done she posed for Emily to take a picture of her with her new fancy look. This was an incredible moment to help the woman feel beautiful and just take a break from constantly caring for their hurt loved one. It was crazy to experience how such a small occurrence could create a smile so large.
