Griffith University in Surin

Having a blast! (And doing some work...)



Foods great, love the prices and still loosing weight as walking and
biking to night market and around the place. Had two days of
placements and they have been awesome. Nat went to maternity and
pediatrics. Ped's was great but it was like a conga line of infants
and bubs getting canulas put in. Compared to aus only saw gloves used
for this once when the nurse checked the child with a bottom swab
because she had diarrohea and vomiting. Maternity was great
yesterday. Saw a birth assisted by vaccum suction. Liz being a
midwife was able to explain heaps and the thai nurse new some english
so she was great too. also was able to do dressing and remove
catheters in the post natal gynocology ward under thai nurse
assistance. both of these nurses were awesome.

Leith went to the clinics and also had a great time. Amazed at the
poverty and conditions that they manage to survive in yet at the same
time they are so happy. Thailand really is the land of smiles.
Brings new aspect to western possetions and makes us think about how
much we don't need.

Some funny events. We took a tuk tuk and he got lost. He left us
stranded in the middle of a busy road while he left the motor running
and got out to ask directions. Men in thailand as willing to ask
directions a little more then oz men. Nat went to Big c and forgot to
take enough money and had to give some back at the register and go
home and get more money and then came back and bought the rest of the
items. Enjoying the thai food, visited the night markets heaps and
only had western food once (KFC last night, our tummys needed familar
food). None of us have been sick except Liz some diarrhoea but not
major and paula migraines a couple of day to recover but it is a
hereitary thing. Overall everyone having time of their lives. This
weekend two to chaing mai (buddist monanstry) and some to Ko Somet.
Rest to Elephant overnight stay some one day trip.

The staff are absolutely brilliant, could not have asked for
better people and they have been so great. Not enough words to
describe how great they have been.

Julie in Hanoi - UniBreak adventures

Good Morning Vietnam


My first few days with the children have been good. They like all kids are smiley, happy and seem pleased to see me. We are so lucky in Australia to have facilities  and resources to cater for special needs children .The staff are freindly and the odd vietnamese word works well. Its not as cold as first thought. Ive booked a tour to Halong Bay this weekend so that will be great. The hotel is basic and very clean. My guide has been great and very supportive.

UniBreak Julie in Hanoi

Quick update from Hanoi



Thought id write a fwe lines before i go to the guest house tommorrow. Im ok. a little daunting trying to find your way around a busy crazy city. The hotel in Hanoi is basic but ok as i get breakfast!
Food is cheap but when you fork out 65,00 dong its shit how much is that!!! I try to work it in to Ausssie dollars but i dont do it very well.
 
Im of to learn vietnamese so thats my next challenge. half day lesson. Its winter but not too cold. Its overcast in the mornings and i manage to get a sweat up as i walk every where good exercise
 Ive done some sight seeing and went to the old vietnamese uni. I had to pat a turtles head that was carved in stone to make me knowledgeable and for goodluck when i study and god knows i need all the help i can get studying!! Also had a photo with confuscios so thats a bonus!!!
I have a bit of a giggle when every body who's driving toots there horn as you have to walk on the road. I dont go too far at night in case i get lost. Not sure when i'll get a chance to say hi but will at some point. Did some shopping DVD's but see if they work when i get home, but no shoes yet.
Its a four time difference so its 7.45 pm and home its midnight.

UniBreak Nursing Group Griffith University in Thailand!

Sawadeeka from Thailand!



Hello everyone,

Oh my goodness i am having THE best time over here, i think i could easily fall in love with this place. The people and the culture is absolutely amazing and very humbling.

We arrived in Bangkok on Saturday morning about 6am and pretty much as soon as you get off the plane, the smell that is instinctively Thailand hits you, a beautiful concoction of car fumes, beautiful food and lots of polution, but at the same time still bareable! Customs over here is a joke, very much a numbers game, our bags didnt even get as much as a scan, we all just got herded through these gates and anyone who looked sus had to put their bags through the xray machines.
We took a bus to the guesthouse, which was an eye opener as the slummy areas are on the sides of the road and if your going to get culture shock this is where we would have gotten it. We then spent the day in bangkok, we rode up the river in these long skinny boats that fly, to the floating markets which was up a sort of canal network that looked like a very poor area, houses with no windows and barely standing but all the locals sitting on the side of the river were all so happy, waving etc at us all. The floating markets were amazing, not so much floating though and the food... WOW!!! We grazed till the cows came home picking things from most stalls and tasting their delicasies, sipping on coconut milk straight from the coconut etc, oh what a life!!

Saturday night we caught the night train from bangkok to eastern thailand where we are based in a province called Surin. The train was an eye opener to alot of the girls, very basic with two bunks on either side of the train with a curtain that you pull across. I was on the top bunk and all that was holding me in were two small straps that you hung around a bar on the roof. If any of you know how i sleep, i was petrified that i was going to end up on the floor so needless to say i didnt get much sleep on the train!!!

We arrived in Surin at 4:30 am, got taken to our houses then enjoyed the morning adventuring around town. We rode the bikes around town and soon found out that the only road rules are that there are no rules!! Quiet daunting but you soon get over it!! We had breaky at a little road side stall, we dont know what we were eating but alot of locals were eating there so we figured it was safe!! We then spent the day getting shown around by the guides, all the important things like the good night spots etc!!

Monday and today we spent at a nursery out of town, its very much like a preschool but it is for very poor families. Monday we spent stripping all the paint off the building and giving it an undercoat and then today we painted it in bright colours and painted animals all over the walls. We did it all while the kids were inside having lessons and then sleeping so it was a fantastic suprise for them when they woke up and came outside. The look on their faces was just adorable, they were over the moon!! The kids are so well mannered and loved having us there, as we were leaving this afternoon one of the little boys yelled out in thai what we soon found out was "please come back". It was really emotional leaving cause we played ball with them all and taught them how to tickle each other, we couldnt believe that they didnt know what tickling was, it must not be something they do over here.

Last night my room mate Rachel and i went to do our washingso we could re use our dirty painting clothes. In our street there is a tiny little store and outside is a washign machine bolted to the wall, it costs 20 baht which is about $1 per load. When we got there, there were a group of young guys sitting outside the store drinking out of a bottle. So we thought we would talk to them, or at least try!! We ended up getting a beer each (cause they sell alcohol in the general stores and 7 elevens here!!) and sitting down with them. They offered us some of what they were drinking, about the size of a nip of alohol, in the plastic cup they were passing around. We had some and soon found out it was thai whiskey, which has to be the most disgusting form of alcohol i have ever had!! We had a great time trying to communicate with them, a few could speak a little english but one of the guys, who happened to be quite drunk only knew the words "i love you" and repeated it for about an hour, funny at first but got old pretty quickly!!

The next couple of days we are actually doing nursing things believe it or not!! So i will fill you all in on that in a couple of days!!


Love to all and i will see you all in a couple more weeks unless i fall head over heels in love with this place and dont come home!! hehe joking, i will at least come home and get my stuff!!!

UniBreaker Alex Brennan in Argentina

6kg of meat for 6 men!


Although having actually finished now, the placement went fantastically. Upon arrival I had brushed up on a bit of Spanish but was hopeing for a fmaily which spoke at least some English - not at all haha!! This actually turned out to be great as it really forced to embrace the language and made the language barrier at the volunteer work much easier. My homestay family´s apartment is absolutly beautiful and in the perfect location of the city. Although it´s a very daunting experience, after my stay I would definetly reccommend the homestay to anyone travelling to BA. Every night I sampled a new taste of Argentina at the dinner table whilst attempting to make very slow but interesting conversation (my Spanish is still at the survival Spanish stage which makes it´s difficult, but that´s all part of the experience). I also feel like I have built a very close relationship wit the family. I am doing some independant travel for 2 weeks outside of BA now but when I return, they invited me back to stay before my departure!! Although I think that I may have been very lucky with the family I was placed with, I definetly has been the most memorabel part of the experience.

The one week of Spanish lessons were also ideal to get me on my feet in terms of the language and was also a great opportunity to meet other travellers and share tips. The school was very conviently located to Hayley and my homestays. I had a fantastic time there. My teacher and class in general were incredibly funny, with moments when all of us would litterally be speachless with laughter for minutes.

My placement saw me doing some home construction volunteer work through a company called Plan Techos (traslates to "project roof"). They basically set up teams of 5 families and provide them with micro-credit and materials for them to construct very basic homes for themselves. The areas are essentially semi-shanty towns with the families living in a lot of poverty. Things like electricity or a shower and working toilet are real luxuries. Most of the construction takes place in the area of San Miguel, in the "provinces" of BA city. The first few days were very interesting although not much work was done. Instead we met the organisers of the project and went around with them visiting fmailies who they work with and who we were going to be working with. A lot of maté was consumed (the national drink here which seems to transend class and is shared in a circle of friends) and it was great to meet everyone and practice my Castellano (the variant of Spanish which they speak here). The people were incredibly friendly and also very patient with my language skills - it was a absolute pleasure meeting some of them. Unfortunatly I have no photos of this!!! Altogether it was very interesting to see this other side of society after living in a upper-middle class area of Recoleta in the centre of Buenos Aires.

We didn´t actually end up doing any construction of the past 3 weeks as none is currently taking place which was a great shame. I got the impression that the global financial crisis had made it a lot more difficult to obtian credit loans which the construction relies upon. Compounding this was that it´s January here and everyone, literally halff the population of BA goes on holiday for the month haha. Bizarre but true. So instead we worked 3 days a week in their small factory (fabrica) assisting with making bricks to be used in the construction. We also did a few things to improve the efficiency and output of the fabrica. I really enjoyed it, despite the 2 hour commute each morning lol. An American called Nick was also voluntering and we became good friends with the guys at the factory, joking around, practicing our castellano as they practiced their english and also having the odd traditional argentian asado (6 kg of meat for 5 guys - afterwards I didn´t need to eat for a week!!).

Miss Saigon!

Tears and Goodbyes


This email sees me sitting in my little Internet cafe for the last time, writing my final tales from Vietnam! Today is hot, as always, but perhaps that's because Ben and I have been running between home and Ben Thanh markets, dropping off souvenirs at our rooms and checking customs websites for regulations on what we can bring home. You know me, I do love a good shop :)

My final week in Saigon has been amazing, as have all my weeks here. No more sickness to speak of, except for the occasional upset tummy from some dodgy ice cube or what not, but something I have become used to as a traveller now. Julia left for Thailand this morning, so it is just Ben and I for the next few days. I will go into the orphanage tomorrow to say goodbye to my children, though I think I will be very upset. When Julia was saying her goodbyes on Friday, I was nearly tearing up, so I can only imagine what it will be like tomorrow! Then I am spending the afternoon at my "local" beauty parlour, a place Julia and I have haunted so frequently that the staff actually run at us and take our hands when we walk in. It's quite funny, we have been here in Saigon for so long now, that we are well known in Bui Vien and around - every time we walk past our local, Go2, Thong, the barman, runs out to tell us that it's Happy Hour AGAIN - it's always Happy Hour here! And the staff in the local businesses - our corner store, my favourite souvenir shop - know us too. We still keep seeing "Nourists" of course - new tourists - but we consider ourselves to be "Lourists" now - like locals but tourists.

During the week at the orphanage we met a lady called Le My and her husband - he is a doctor and they have two young sons. She was so impressed with our volunteer work that she invited us to her house for dinner on Friday night - her house was amazing, designed by her architect friend, and we had a traditional Vietnamese meal - chicken, thick rice cakes etc. Afterwards she invited us to go to karaoke with her and her family - and we went there on motorbikes through the city! It was so much fun, I wish I'd ridden a motorbike sooner - it was safe, really!

Yesterday we went to the Mekong Delta for the day - an early start saw us floating down the river at 10:30am and then going to have lunch, with bicycle riding through the country and traditional river "rafting" in the afternoon. It was a fantastic day and the perfect end to our touring. Ben is staying on for another two weeks at the orphanage and he will be visiting Cambodia next weekend, which will be fantastic for him.

I have had the most amazing time on this trip. I feel like I have been here for a really long time, and I feel so comfortable living in Saigon and making this place my "home". Of course, I can't wait to come back to my "HOME" and see all of you. It will be hard to leave, but I have had the time of my life...

Much much to you all and see you soon,
Signing off,
Miss Saigon xoxoxo

The latest from UniBreak Julia in Kenya

In Love with her Kenyan village



Hope this finds you all well and enjoying the summer sun. It has been two weeks since I last had internet access so there is plenty to tell you. Firstly, today being my birthday has been extra special. My friends here have spoiled me with cards and gifts and all the staff have been wishing me a ‘Happy new year’ and ‘Happy party day’. Today being Sunday we are all chilling at the beach and then going back to the camp to celebrate tonight. Thank you for all the lovely facebook/email messages and especially to everyone who called (or tried to call – I’m sorry the reception is so dodgy). So, here is a summary of weeks 2 and 3 of my Kenyan adventure…

Week 2 was off to a rough start with intense sun burn after a day at the beach and a wild, hilarious Saturday night at the club Shakatak. I spent one morning handing out medication at the Muhaka Dispensary, a clinic funded by the government. I stood behind a counter counting tablets and filling bottles of drugs for TB, malaria and bronchitis patients. The conditions there are appalling compared to our standards and the management is horrific. A wealthy donor built a baby delivery room there but because the electricity cuts out unexpectedly, they cannot make any use of it and most babies are delivered at home in unsanitary conditions. The rest of the week involved pumping water from a well, watering the tree nursery, more hoeing and hacking, a farewell to two volunteers, celebrations for Obama’s inauguration and three of the girls being admitted to hospital for stomach infections! On Saturday we did a tour of Mombasa, the second largest city in Kenya. To be honest, there was nothing to see besides a Hindu temple, a wildlife park, a sculpture of elephant tusks and life-threatening traffic – life in our tiny village is far more interesting.

In week 3, half of us left the camp at Muhaka to go to on safari and spend time at an elephant sanctuary. For two days we did game drives in Tsavo East National Park. The highlight was a lion, old and emaciated, creeping up beside our truck and staring us in the eyes. For me, having been lucky enough to do safari before, I enjoyed seeing the excitement of the others when they saw zebra, giraffe, elephant, ostrich etc in the wild for the first time. After safari, we went to another camp (which this time was literally a camp – tents and all) in the Mwalingange Elephant Sanctuary. Our tents were on a mountain top looking over a forest. The panorama was breathtaking. There was electricity only between 6.30pm and 9pm. There were no mirrors or sinks and only outdoor showers. Due to the scarcity of the water, our motto was ‘If it’s yellow let it mellow, if it’s brown flush it down’. During the day, we helped the locals make elephant dung paper, which is exactly what its name describes and toiled the soil at the local school tree nursery. In the evenings we went on game drives around the sanctuary, learning all about the nature and habitat of the elephants from our super keen guide, Steve. At Mwalingange we all felt very at one with nature, having encounters with millions of millipedes, a green mamba snake, parasite getting under the skin (literally), poisonous scorpions in our tents, spiders galore and hyenas roaming our camp site during the night.

Today we drove back to Muhaka, reunited with the other volunteers, gave a massive bear hug to our Muhaka leader, Eustice and honestly, it felt like coming home after a holiday. I have settled in to Kenyan village life and I love it. I love the way the Kenyan kids from school scream my name when I see them in the street, I love the diversity of the volunteers but that we all feel like brothers and sisters, I love my mosquito net, I love queuing at meal time, I love the fact that I laugh so much with my friends my stomach muscles are getting strong and I love not wearing any make-up at all!