COUNTRY: Vietnam
PROGRAM: UniBreak Groups
PROJECT: Community Healthcare
WRITTEN BY: Notre Dame University
We arrived at the airport on Friday night, everybody eager to get going after months of fundraising and preparation and even as we boarded our flight the group was a buzz with the kind of excitement that shouldn't be allowed at the ungodly hour of 0230. After a 7 hour flight and 2 hour stop-over in Singapore we were landing in Hanoi and the full realization that we were embarking on our nursing trip to Vietnam had finally set in.
From the airport we visited the Hanoi Museum of Ethnology where we had the opportunity to learn about the 56 ethnic minorities that make up 13% of the Vietnamese population, some of whom we would be working with during our 2 week placement, before heading to the hotel where we would be staying in Hanoi's old quarter. During our short stay in Hanoi of just a couple of days we have visited an orphanage, a temple and the largest hospital in northern Vietnam, Bach Mai, where we were able to experience the Vietnamese health care system in contrast with knowledge and experiences in Australia. Now we are set to leave Hanoi in the morning, departing for Mai Chau where we will begin our placement.
After leaving Hanoi behind what feels like months ago we have spent our two short weeks in Vietnam travelling to the villages of Mai Chau, Hang Kia and Van in the mountains to the west of the city. It was when we first left the old capital, on the 4 hour bus ride that would take us to our first homestay in Mai Chau, where we got our first glimpse of the incredible natural beauty this amazing country has to offer.
While in Mai Chau we spent 2 days observing and assessing patients in the district hospital and what struck me most was the dedication and ingenuity of its staff and how well they managed to do with such limited resources, as well as the diversity of the surgeries being performed by the same surgeons under an array of different specialties.
Not wanting to leave Mai Chau but eager to continue our journey we travelled to the smaller and more remote village of Hang Kia where we met some interesting characters and began our first 2 days of clinics where we would perform health assessment on locals presenting with a range of conditions, from aches and pain to coughs and fever, and dispense some of the medications we had fundraised for.
During our last day in Hang Kia, before we left for Van, we went to the local primary school where we did some health education and disease prevention with the children by teaching them to wash their hands and brush their teeth and also provided them with soaps, toothbrushes and toothpastes which we had had donated to us. The walk to Van wound along a narrow path through the hills which separated the two towns in neighbouring valleys and provided us with spectacular scenery and an idea of the kind of roads the local people used to move around in their day to day lives.
In Van we did much of what we did in Hang Kia, providing primary care and handing out medications at the local clinic and health education for children in the local primary school. By the end of our 3 days in Van there was a general consensus amongst us of longing to return to Hanoi for the last few days of our trip. And, after a visit to the local kindergarten in the morning and nearly half a day’s travel, we were back at our hotel in the old quarter late in the afternoon. But there was one amazing experience left for us, something we had chosen to do on our last day in the country we had all fallen in love with during our stay.
The next day and it was up at 6:00 for the 5 hour bus ride east to Halong Bay, one of the most breathtaking landscapes I have ever laid eyes on and a true natural wonder of the world where we spent a few hours on a boat sightseeing around just a handful of its 1 969 islands, stopping to explore the famous Sung Sot or “Surprising” Cave.
Back in Hanoi for our final night in Vietnam I think we all tried to appreciate and make the most of this fascinating and colourful city we wished we had more time to get to know.
On the morning of our departing day, on our way to the airport, we made our final stop to visit Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum to see the leader’s embalmed body. This was certainly one of the most interesting and perhaps even a little intimidating experiences of the trip for me as we were ushered by armed guards through the tiny viewing room which on a busy day can see 25 000 people pass through it but definitely a must see for the full Hanoi experience. Afterward we got back on the bus, to the airport, where we would board a flight back home to Australia.
We would all miss Vietnam and leaving the country behind we were all sad to see the trip pass us by so quickly but what we took away was invaluable experiences which will continue to have an impact on us the kind of nurses we will become.
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