The journey continues for Notre Dame nursing students

COUNTRY: Vietnam
PROGRAM: UniBreak Groups
PROJECT: Notre Dame Nursing Placement
WRITTEN BY: Isabel Cullen, Notre Dame University

So the journey continues on...

Step one: leaving the city! First Stop: Mai Chau! We had a 4 hour bus ride to get there and I think we were all very excited to get out and see the countryside. Stopping at a scenic view of the surrounding mountains I took it upon myself to buy one of every type of food being sold at the side of the road. So I ended up thoroughly enjoying a corn on the cob, sticky rice cooked in bamboo and my new favourite snack food- sugar cane, all for just $2 or $3!! The sugar cane was lots of fun as it is literally lumps of sugar cane you chew on and out comes juicy sugary goodness and then you spit out the cane part! Lots of fun! Arriving in Mai Chau I found it really
peaceful and it was a nice change from the chaos of Hanoi! We were staying in this amazing homestay which was a bamboo house on stilts and we all slept upstairs on the floor under a big communal mozzie net, the fun was just starting! Arriving there we had some time to get sorted and then we headed to Mai Chau Hospital to meet the director.

He was very friendly and welcoming and we were all looking forward to the next day. Walking to the hospital we got a great view of the local surroundings. Mai Chau is this lovely little town surrounded by farmland and all these adorable bamboo stilt houses, and lots of
markets selling traditional items, I finally felt like I was in Vietnam!
 
The next day we got up bright and early and headed to the hospitalagain. The day was mostly about starting to get used to working with our interpreters as well as practicing our health assessment skills.Splitting up into a few groups we visited different wards and began toput our skills into practice. My favourite thing about the day was beginning to chat with the people. I really enjoy getting to know people and beginning to understand their culture. I also learnt a few sentences from our amazing interpreters. Let me introduce them.firstly we have Thung: our head guide and the mechanics of the trip.Then we have Lan, Tang and Tuan. They taught me how to say "Ten toi laIsabel" (My name is Isabel. *Obviously spelt wrong, I have no idea how to spell in Vietnamese!) and "Ban ten la zii?" (What is your name?)And so I just started practicing it on all the Vietnamese people I met, so about 20 poor people had me come up to them and attempt to introduce myself.

But everyone was very friendly and smiled and laughed :) We also all got the amazing honour of observing the director perform surgery. Having never seen surgery at all I was in absolute awe. A few students had done their surgical rotations already and they had this great opportunity to compare the two systems. We finished off the day with the notorious 1200 steps! This is a rickety stone staircase in the side of the mountain with 1200 steps leading to a cave at the top. So we all attempted it (except our teachers... and Adam...) singing along to The Sound of Music as we climbed! Oh it was tiring, but the view made it so worth it! Stunning mountains and looking down into the valley of Mai Chau. The next day was pretty similar and we were all attempting to use ISOBAR under Kylie's instruction, we definitely got better as the day progressed. To finish off we had a farewell chat with the director and passed on some gifts we had purchased in Australia. And again to finish the day a few brave souls did the stairs, this time more for the exercise, and a few crazy members of our group decided to do situps at each level!

And onto the next place! Hang Kia here we come! An hour and a half later we arrived in a tiny remote village surrounded by misty
mountains! It was just breathtaking. First thing we did was go to the Primary School for our first education session on handwashing and teethbrushing! We were all really excited about seeing the kids and it was so much fun! Setting up bowls in the courtyard we split up into 4 groups, each having about 15 kids to teach. We explained how important it was and then gave a demonstration and then the kids had a turn. All these little grubby kids jumping for joy to wash their hands and show us they could do it was just amazing! And they were so happy to get their free soap, brush, paste and cup it was wonderful.

I really felt that maybe we had begun to make a difference. After all, every year a Notre Dame group comes and teaches the kids the same thing, it's got to stick eventually! the people of Hang Kia are very poor and belong to the H'mong minority in Vietnam and speak H'mong, no Vietnamese.The H'mong people all wear their traditional skirts and it really brings a little bit of extra colour to what is a very cold little village. We spent the next 2 days doing free health clinics for these beautiful people with the assistance of our interpreters and H'mong translators as well! Working with 2 interpreters is like playing a game of Chinese Whispers, where you don't really know if the full message has gotten
through, but we persevered all the same. The clinic days were where everything really started. This was the main purpose of our trip and all the medications we had with us were thanks to all the fundraising we did back in Perth! All together I think we saw about 200 patients over the two days, which was very pleasing. It was definately a learning experience to do health assessments in such a different environment. It's a balancing act between not having the equipment to be as thorough as we would at home and that understanding that even if we can diagnose them, we may not be able to help with everything, but we can help with the little things. As Kylie said before we left: "We're not going to save the world, but we can make someone's day a little bit better." And at the end of the that's what counts. The message I really took away from our Hang Kia experience was
'From little things; big things grow" :) Hang Kia is so tranquil, there's pretty much nothing to do except enjoy nature and each other's company! Whilst in Hang Kia we got the news of the typhoon that had hit the Phillipines and was heading to Vietnam. Although, we knew we were out of harm's way, we were concerned for the family's of our guides back in Hanoi and we also received the backlash of some of the weather. Thankfully everyone's family's were ok as the typhoon downgraded to a tropical storm as it went through Hanoi, however we were to expect a week of heavy rain. With the weather forecast we had to cancel our trek to Van! Oh no! We all understood that safety came first, but I was still so disappointed!! And onto our final destination: Van!

We had to drive back through Mai Chau to get there as we couldn't do the trek and so it was another day of traveling. Arriving in Van I really liked it. It was very farmy and reminded me of a farm back home with lots of pigs and chickens oh and buffalos too.. We were back in another stilt house and it was finally warm enough to shower! Oh I
forgot to mention that nobody showered for 3 days in Hang Kia as it was freezing cold and there was no hot water!

We did 3 days of clinics in Van and they were soo busy! People came from here, there and everywhere to receive health care and medication from us! It was really astounding and people knew who we were as a group as Notre Dame visits every year and everyone gets so excited! The health assessments got more complex in Van and we were pushed to
the next level of problem solving and critical thinking as we had to figure out our diagnoses. It was the kind of challenge that really pushes you to learn and I really feel we've all come out of this as better students and one day soon we will be better nurses because of it. This is not the kind of challenge and experience you can get at home, you need to get out there and push yourself to the limits, as we all did time and time again! In Van the days got quite draining, but that's part of the challenge, of course the rooster and dogs waking us up at 2am didn't help with energy levels, but at least we were all thoroughly well fed by our wonderful cooks (we often got pancakes for breakfast!). The thing I really noticed in Van, and hang Kia as well, was the amount of lifestyle related injuries/health conditions. Nearly everyone we've seen has been a farmer and always will be a farmer. But the amount of nerve injuries and back pain that we've seen really brings that into reality. At home we have the luxury of being able to
change professions, but for most people here they don't have that luxury. It really makes you realise how lucky we are and being in that place of priviledge we can hopefully help others. My favourie part of Van and probably the trip was going to visit a young girl at home to bring her a year's supple of a nutrition/protein supplement. She had some form of muscle degeneration and her and her family were so appreciative of our support, it really made me feel like we had made a
difference to someone's life!

After our 3 days of clinics we prepared for our farewell festivities. Firstly we enjoyed a dinner with the homestay family where people (not me, I'm vegetarian) tried crickets and pig on a spit as well as intestines and blood and bone. And Thung organised a suprise birthday cake for Darren (Happy 39th!) which we all greedily dug into. Kylie had told us a few days earlier that we had to prepare a performance for the local people! Ahhh! So we put our heads together and came up with jumbled versions of "We are Australian" "Happy Little Vegemites" "I still call Australia home" and for the grand finale "Give me a home among the gumtrees" all with actions included!!! A few members of our group could sing, but most of us could sqwawk and tried to make up for it with our kangaroo imitations! But everyone had a jolly old time and had a great laugh! We also had the honour of watching some local traditional dances and songs before singing together "Vietnam, Hoh Chi Minh!" After that we joined in with the locals in what I'm going to call the "Bamboo Dance." A dangerous dance where you jump over bamboo poles and try to dodge getting hit in the ankles! Lots of fun!

And then back to Hanoi. We got back last night and enjoyed a farewell dinner with our tour guides. After that a few of us thought we'd have one last Fanny's Icecream and got lost again!!! After another hour long search we finally found it and indulged! Mmmmm :) Today was a beautiful way to finish off the trip. We went to Halong
Bay! It is amazing, absolutely stunning and one of the modern 7 natural wonders of the world. We spent the day well driving for most
of it (4hours each way!) and then lying on the top deck of a Junk Boat enjoying the view! What a way to spend the day!

Tomorrow morning we fly home. I think most people are ready to go home and we've really got the most out of this trip. I'd just like to thank all the people who made this
possible, but especially our Vietnam team including Phuong, Thung, Lan, Tang, Tuan and our cooks. Without them we could not have provided the health care that we did and they had such amazing patience with us they deserve a round of applause. Of course there's everyone at home including Fiona and Antipodeans as well as Kylie, Darren and the Notre Dame crew. But for now we're concentrating on getting home safely and
then I'll update you all on the end of our journey!