COUNTRY: Laos
PROGRAM: UniBreak Groups
PROJECT: Nursing
WRITTEN BY: Edith Cowan
It’s been an eventful week for the volunteer group in the communities in Laos. The start of our real adventure began when we left the comfort of our hotel for our homestay village (Sop Chaek). We were all excited and nervous about what awaited us, we had an idea about what was coming and nothing could have prepared us.
The drive started out fine, we cruised along a tar road laughing and chatting about our experiences so far and intrigued by what was coming. We then arrived at the dirt road. We were informed by one of our guides that the drive should only be one and a half hours as there had been significant improvements to the road since last year. Well I don’t know what the road was like last year but I’m unsure as to what the improvements could have been?! After about an hour of bumping along we came to quite a large hill. About half way up the hill the truck we were riding in decided it couldn’t go any further and began rolling backwards. We piled out into the hot afternoon sun and began to walk up the hill as we believed it was due to our weight.
At the top of the hill in the sweltering sun we found out that no, it wasn’t our weight, the truck’s clutch was broken. So back down the hill we came, all the while in the sweltering sun. By this stage we were feeling pretty hot and bothered and decided it would be a good idea to walk to the closest village for shade and cold drinks. But to our amazement the truck started driving up the hill. Miraculously it had fixed itself! So back up the hill we walked. Suffice to say we were not overly thrilled by the whole situation. Three hours later we arrived in our village (so much for one and a half hours)! The volunteers were warmly welcomed by the village mothers with beautiful flowers and we began to take in our new surroundings.
The toilets and showers were the first things to be checked out. Let’s just say that they are definitely not five star facilities. Squat toilets were our first obstacle. A few of the girls had already used them but most of us hadn’t. It’s an interesting concept and takes a bit of getting used to but once you have your aim right and your feet in the right positions you only sometimes wee on your feet (lucky for us urine is sterile right?). We were then introduced to our host families and taken to our homestay house (I’m using the term house very loosely).
A few of the volunteering girls got lucky and snagged a house made out of bricks but most of us ended up in wooden shacks (one of the houses even came with its own wasps nest in the bedroom ceiling). Our host families were absolutely lovely though and were sure they were so happy to have us there, even though they didn’t speak one word of English!!
With our use of the Laos language limited to mainly “hello” and “thankyou” conversation was raging. Our meals were all prepared for us by cooks in the village and were absolutely delicious. But after 5 days of the same thing I’ll safely say that if I ever see another grain of rice again it might be too soon. Nutella on our toast in the morning was great though! On our first night in the village all the children sang songs for us and showed us their traditional dances. Then without any prior warning we had to perform a “traditional” song and play some games with the children.
Only song we could think of at short notice was waltzing Matilda and unfortunately we could only remember the first verse and chorus! The villagers are probably going to get very bored of that very quickly. Duck duck goose was the game we decided to play and we thought it would be good if we found out the words for duck and goose in Lao. What we thought we heard was “pet” for duck and “han” for goose. The children thought it was hilarious and we were so proud we had used the Lao words. Later on though we would find out that “pet” is not actually the word for duck but that “bet” is, “pet” means spicy! No wonder the little boy at my homestay laughed hysterically when i pointed at a duck and said “pet”.
The river was our saving grace. It is not only our washing machine, bath and relaxation but also sometimes (in Lesley’s case) our toilet. We all know if she floats out to the middle of the river to avoid that area for a while. Lucky the river has a strong current. Not only do we enjoy the river but the village children also enjoy watching us. Once we stroll down to the river lo and behold all the children miraculously appear. Apparently its hilarious to watch 11 western women bathing fully clothed and screaming at everything we step on.
Our actual health clinics are the best part of the volunteer work placement. All of us enjoy them so much and feel as though we are making a huge difference in these communities that have next to nothing. It’s also amazing to see how happy all the people are. Always smiling and welcoming and the children are always laughing. We work so well alongside the health care workers and the translators and have all become a really good team. Not only are we passing on our knowledge but we have also learnt so much. Our clinics have all run very smoothly and we have an excellent system of getting the villagers through. We have many different stations the first being reception.
Doing reception really helps develop your Lao terms. And by the end of the day I was feeling almost fluent (yeah right). We then have a waiting area which is run by our team leader. The two most important terms for the team leader are “nyup pi” move down and “nuang ni” sit here. After a while “nyup pi” turns into “pi,pi,pi,pi” which is move, move, move, move. The villagers think its hilarious hearing us speak Laos. We then have three assessment stations and then a pharmacy. Thank goodness for the translators because without them none of this would be possible. They are absolutely amazing. So patient, kind and hard working. They must be exhausted at the end of everyday. With every village we visit we get further away from the city. We have noticed that the healthcare of the people becomes poorer and poorer. The next week should be very interesting! We shall keep you posted!!
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