Last Friday my wife told me that her mother had been sick for several days and that she wanted to go home to check on her. My in-laws are standard issue, uneducated, simple farmers, much like many living in the provinces. Both my mother-in-law and father-in-law are right into praying to the spirits, and consulting monks regarding health issues, etc., with my father-in-law being the local village witch-doctor. I've witnessed him applying homemade poultices and chanting while treating others when they are sick, and also witnessed him doing a couple of 'exorcisms'.

Anyhow, my wife went to the village on Friday to check on her mother. She returned on Saturday and told me that her mother is really sick, and despite visiting the monks and trying various things she just can't shake whatever it is that ails her. So, it has been decided that next week during Water Festival they will go to visit a very famous monk (or maybe a Kru Khmer traditional healer) to get this checked out. [Interesting that she's really sick, yet they can wait 10 more days to go to see the guru].

Silly me with my western logical thinking asked why she doesn't just go to a regular doctor and get some medicine.
Answer: doctors don't understand these things, and often prescribe the wrong medicine!

I like to keep an open mind regarding their animist beliefs. Who knows, they may be right.
When they said that the "doctors don't understand, and often prescribe the wrong medicine", I wonder if they actually hit the nail right on the head and meant that 'Khmer doctors are unqualified and don't have a clue'.

Anyway, end of story. Just one of the many things that rural folks have to contend with on a day to day basis.