A Tribute to Kinuko Omori

 

Kinuko Omori at work on a Mobile Clinic visit
once we finally arrived at Oh Loh Tha Village after
the boat motor had broken down - 1985 -09

As we first arrived in Bangkok in 1982, Kinuko Omori had already been there several months and was living at the Bangkok Christian Guest House while attending language training. From Japan and trained as a nurse, she came to Thailand through a Japanese medical mission organization and was part of our Thailand Baptist Missionary Fellowship (TBMF). Kinuko’s work was to be heading up the Mae Sariang Christian Hospital’s Mobile Clinic that took medical care out to remote villages. But before beginning her work assignment, she first had to finish Union Language School in Bangkok.

We were glad she was there. Just a few months into the program, Kinuko could already negotiate with taxi drivers to get around the city and otherwise communicate. Best of all, she was willing to help us get around and get oriented to Thailand in general and Bangkok in particular. So, our first visit to places like the Grand Palace in Bangkok were done with Kinuko’s help. She also had a mean serve in ping pong and ruled the ping pong table at the Bangkok Christian Guest House.

Probably Kinuko's shoulder in foreground,
Me-yay-sa (in GTO cap), Evangelist Shway Lah Yay
(red T-shirt), Thong Kham (health worker) and 
the boat owner before the motor broke down
1985 - 09

By the time we arrived in Mae Sariang, Kinuko was already well established and had the Mobile Clinic
team heading out on regular village trips. The lack of roads, no telephone lines, no electricity, not even mail delivery to the villages made communication and therefore, scheduling a real challenge. Usually, the only way to schedule a village visit was by someone being physically present saying they would be back on a particular day or someone hand delivering a written message saying when a visit would or would not happen.

People in the remote villages always took word of a visit with a grain of salt because way too often the promise help, some kind of project, the start of a helpful program or even a visit was never fulfilled. However, in an effort to model the love of Christ and to show the people in the villages that they mattered and were cared for, those of us from the mission and the church making village visits made extra effort to follow through with any promise or agreement. We wanted Christians and the church to be seen as reliable, honest and willing to follow through. Whether evangelists, development workers or medical workers, every possible effort was made to make good on any agreement, promise, schedule or program.

Kinuko was one of the most dedicated in following through on scheduled visits. As mentioned in previous posts, our agricultural workers, educational workers and evangelists would often accompany the Mobile Clinic team on village visits. So a couple of our project workers and I would sometimes come along on trips that Kinuko had organized.

On one memorable trip, we were going along with the medical team to visit several villages along the Mae Ngow River. Leaving Mae Sariang, we drove on a dirt road until it ended at the river. There was a small Thai village there with several long tail boats available for hire to take people upstream. We’d always make arrangements to hire a long tail boat in advance, but invariably, once we arrived at the river it seemed to be a surprise to the boat owners that we were there. But eventually, they would get a boat ready and we’d get all our gear and people jammed in the boat and off we’d go.

Kinuko getting a ride around a dangerous spot
in the river. 1985-09

The long tail boats and motors were well used but not always well maintained. On the plus side, the
owners could literally tear down and rebuild their motors with only a screwdriver, maybe a wrench and vise grips. Unfortunately, we had to wait for them to do it on too many occasions. Even more unfortunate is when a new part was needed, it might mean a long delay of several days before they could drift back downstream to their home, head to town, hunt down or order the needed part, go back home, repair the motor, then finally head back up river to pick up the stranded travelers they had left behind.

On one trip with Kinuko, sure enough, the motor broke down. Fortunately, there was a camp on the river bank and the boat owner dropped us off there so we’d have some shelter. The camp was set up for Thai surveyors making a survey of the river and surrounding country side with the idea the government might want to build a dam (which has never been built). Happily, the surveyors were willing to let us share some of their space and I think they even shared some of their food.

Unhappily though, this was one of the break downs that required a trip back down river and into town. Hiking to the villages on Kinuko’s schedule was not an option as there was too much medical equipment to carry by just our group (Usually, local village residents were recruited to help carry the medical equipment). So, the only thing Kinuko, her team and the rest of us could do was just hang out and watch the surveyors come and go.

Mae Ngow River bank motor repair - 1985 - 09

As a window into male/female relations in Thai culture, Kinuko had one of her Thai style “pasins” (wrap around skirt) spread out on a bamboo pole so it would dry out. Our Thai surveyor hosts asked her to move it and hang it out of site as women’s clothing being hung along with male clothes was not appropriate in their eyes. I suspect Kinuko did not appreciate the request but complied and never said a word.

Several days later, the boat owner finally returned with the needed part and his trusty screw driver and vise grips. The motor was dismantled then duly reassembled and installed on the boat and tested. It worked! So now, where did we want to go? On to the village and begin the trip, or go back home and try again later?

Since we’d been stranded for several days, according to the schedule it was already time to go home. But, we hadn’t done anything yet and Kinuko had promised to make visits to several villages in the area. So without hesitation, Kinuko had the boat pointed up stream where we landed at the first village, then after a night or two there, hiked to additional villages, staying a night or two at each place. We got home several days late and of course there was no way to communicate our delayed return to our wives, husbands and families, but that was life doing village work. No one back in Mae Sariang was surprised or particularly concerned if we returned several days late.

On a later trip (1989), Kinuko leading some
 of her team on the trail to a village clinic

Kinuko eventually left Thailand and wound up in the US getting a PhD in Medical Anthropology from Case Western Reserve University in Ohio. Her thesis was titled “Sociocultural Influences on Child Health and Nutritional Status in Karen Highlanders of Thailand” and is still available on Case Western’s  website. We were in the US for some of the time Kinuko worked on her thesis and had the chance to visit with her from time to time since Case Western is fairly close to our home in Ohio. After getting her doctorate, Kinuko returned to Japan to teach at the university level and married.

 

At least in the 1980s, Japan was not known to be heavily involved in international development work so, Kinuko achieved quite a lot of recognition. In fact, in the year 2000, we happened to be vacationing in Japan and were able to watch a TV documentary featuring Kinuko and her work in Mae Sariang. They even referred to her as “Japan’s Mother Teresa”.

 

Sadly, Kinuko died of lung cancer in late 2001 or early 2002. No one took care of her health more than Kinuko so dying young, and especially dying from lung cancer was a shock. But she packed a lot into her years and it was our privilege to know her.