COUNTRY: Laos
PROGRAM: UniBreak Groups
PROJECT: Nursing & Midwifery
WRITTEN BY: Honnie Bilston-Norup, Griffith University
You may want to go to the toilet, get a snack and a drink, this blog is a long one...This week has seen us much further up into the mountains so it is much colder at night, but is hot in the middle of the day, it's not unbearable though. Even though we are way up in the mountains, we are STILL dwarfed by even higher peaks. Awesome view to wake up to every day. We had the luck to stay in a village which has a type of meeting hall which is like a massive stand alone verandah and the locals cover the floor in mats for us to sit on. This facility also has 4 English toilets very close by! I am sure our homestay families wonder why we are up and out soooooo early in the morning...it's for the toilets of course!
This place offers us a perfect environment to sit for our meals and gives us a chance to stay together and talk. We have been able to really reflect on our practice this week as individuals and as a group. It is easy for the talk to flow when you are surrounded by mountains and a bubbling stream nearby. We have become even closer as a group this week.
We have done some massive clinics, it was nearly overwhelming to be greeted by over 600 students at one of the high schools. It is astounding that the majority of these young people have to live "on campus" in order to gain an education. They live without parental guidance; cooking and cleaning for themselves and are most certainly self-directed learners...I not only take my hat off to them, I should take a page out of their books as well! How I would love to show some of the teenagers I know this school. We did run clinics for people who were identified as having some sort of ailment at the schools, but the focus was on health promotion. The sheer number of young people living in grass type huts with a couple of toilets between them obviously has hygiene and infection control issues. We covered cough/sneezing etiquette, hand washing, teeth brushing, spitting where people do not walk and of course, everybody's favourite health promotion to teach...SEX ED!
We bought the town out of condoms again and had students write their questions on paper to avoid personal embarrassment. The questions were very interesting, some we had to defer to a facilitator or mentor to get the right info out! We sincerely hope that our health promotions will result in better health for the community. I wish I had lots and lots of money to finish their clean water projects and complete school buildings for them. I feel so humbled by what they make do with and how I take for granted the relative excess that I have at home. Hmmmmmm.
It is always funny to watch everybody's reactions to the mature age students! I am 42 and have a husband and 5 children, this is always considered bizarre as you are only a student here when you are young and before you are married. The disbelief increases 10 fold when they find out our husbands are caring for the children back at home! Much much much laughter from the women...and sometimes very loud "Oh's" of concern...sorry fellas.
We love it when some children and youth come up to us and want to practice their English, we give them as much time as we can and are amazed at how much they want to learn! They do their best to help us with our dismal Lao pronunciation...we really are trying to get the difference between husband and father right...it's a biggie to get wrong!
INTERMISSION
Long truck rides between villages have resulted in some old fashioned fun being resurrected...those of us my age and older will remember making "Mintie Snakes" at parties as a game and the longest "snake" got a prize. Katrin had a kilo bag of Minties with her that she shared out and it reminded me...next minute we have all the interpreters and health workers competing during the ride for the longest snake. Val, one of the facilitators made it very interesting and very competitive by offering a toy kangaroo as a prize. I am ashamed to say, my fellow Australians...that I lost by 10mm to Kon Keow an interpreter and he had even torn his snake... Aaaaarrrggghhhh! This is NOT the end, I assure you, I will keep trying, although it turns out that my greatest adversary does paper craft as a hobbie. Lets face it, the kangaroo will be staying in Laos.
Our work in the clinics this week has seen our clinical assessment skills further consolidated and our Lao greatly improved, we are even picking up what is wrong with the client before the interpreter tells us. Go us! We have been able to send another 3 people down to Luang Prabang for surgery, two hydroceles and one hernia, so satisfying. We have heard some very crackly and wheezy chests and detected a number of high temps with no obvious cause which has given us the chance to really think systematically to get to the root of the issue. Sadly, like our own GP's and Nurses at home, sometimes you just have to put it down to a virus. Goitres were very common this week so we packed a lot of little bags of iodised salt, they are something you don't see every day in Oz.
A large proportion of complaints though is "Jep El" which is lower back pain as they don't know about safe lifting techniques, so we cover it now in our health promotion and get to clown around again, faking "Jep El" with our bad lifting examples. We get the laughs and they get the message...win/win. We saw a cyst on a gentleman's back during the week that is the size of a cantaloupe, it is so heavy for him to carry around, but he couldn't take time away from his farming or family in order to go to hospital for it to be removed. These are moments that make us all very sad as it would be fixed so easily in our country. We have to be content with the knowledge that we are doing the best we can and working within their means and culture.
Our homestay villagers trust the "Griffith" team so much now that we have people turning up at breakfast, lunch and dinner for assessment and treatment. It is an honour to have that kind of place in their hearts.
We were treated to cultural treats yesterday, we got to have a go at weaving in Sop Chek (my poor lady wouldn't have been able to sell the scarf I made a mess of so I bought one off her...I will never be a weaver). It was so special to buy scarves that were made right there. We then were farmed out in groups of 3 to learn Lao cooking that would be had for our lunch. The language barrier was a bit of a problem for me as I thought she wanted me to bash the chicken meat into submission (in my defense, there was chicken mince in a bowl nearby so I thought that was what I was supposed to end up with) unfortunately, it also ended in me bashing her cutting board into submission which resulted in wood chips in the chicken. She discretely removed my disaster and we learned to cook a yummy chicken and tomato sauce for rice...yum yum yum!
Then onto bamboo rafting down the river back to our village. Some of us nearly capsized in the rapids...now I know my roomie Emma is a true friend, she grabbed my lifejacket to stop me falling off and I don't mind saying I did the same for her when she was headed off the other side! Pats on the back for all as everyone else looked after each other as well...just wanted to blow my own trumpet.
We packed our weekend backpacks and trekked off to Luang Prabang where we are right now having a good rest...so tired from such a big week. We are enjoying hot showers, even though a lot of us shower and wash our clothes in the river every day, it is a decent walk over rocks and fences to get there and back. It's Chinese New Year so tonight should be pretty colourful at the night markets. Most of us are finalising our souvenirs for our loved ones and enjoying some of the western food that the restaurants here have to offer. I finally went to the Phousi Markets today which is the locals shopping area...what an assault to the senses; the noise, the smells, the sights and colours. I am in danger of experiencing everything from behind a camera lens as I want to show everybody what I have seen and don't ever want to forget anything. Live fish, meat chopped up on counters, thongs, thongs, thongs and more thongs! It was amazing and I am so glad I ventured out of my comfort zone to go there.
I am really missing my family as is everyone else and I cannot speak more highly of this bunch of people I have had the joy to be with on this prac. There is always a hug and some high quality counseling on hand whenever it is needed!
Love from everyone and me.
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