Griffith Nursing Group in Laos

A successful first week!


Laos is amazing but what a challenge. We have been running clinics out of the local school house at each village, no electricity or hot water and dirt floors. We are seeing up to 180 people per day, including mothers and babies, children and elderly. We travel 20 to 40 minutes in the back of a truck each day along windy, dirt roads to get there with all our supplies and are greeted by an "honour guard" of village elders and children with flowers and feel like "royalty". Sadly there is not a lot we can do, but the students are getting very good at assessing and "prescribing" from our limited pharmacy. Talk about improving their clinical decision making skills. I syringed a young boys ears yesterday who had not been able to hear for about 6 months, and he ran around the playground crying because he could hear the other kids!!! I nearly cried too. Food is great, beds (sleeping mats on the floor) are hard, "showering" in the river with the students (fully clothed) is a real laugh, the nights are quite cold, a few have been sick with colds or Laos belly but we are all loving it. Graham and Chep Seng are great as are the rest of our guides and are doing their best to meet our requests. Still trying to organise a hospital visit - got to love the protocols here. The bamboo rafting was just superb after a very exhausting but satisfying week, most of the group did a half day at the elephants, but 5 of us (including Rachel and I) did the full Mahout for a day, and actually rode on their necks and "steered" them to the river where we got totally drenched. I'm sure there'll be lots of pics and finished off the day with tubing downriver for 40 minutes and then a long walk back to the truck through the jungle. What a day - loved it and now off for a BeerLao and the night markets!!