Trip Itinerary

Brisbane, Australia
Luang Prabang, Laos

Pak Xeng, Laos

Travel Log

Week 1

Fifteen Griffith University students stepped off a plane onto the Laos airport tarmac, greeted by an intense dry heat and Lao officials ushering us into the airport. After fifteen hours of travel and attempting to sleep on airport seating, we were finally ready to embark on our trip! English was no longer the dominant language and fumbling through ‘Hello’s’ and ‘Thank you’s’ was giving the locals a good laugh. Our bags were put onto the top of a Tuk Tuk, strapped down by the trusty rope, and we were off to our hotel in the middle of Luang Prabang.

The stark contrast between the French inspired architecture and the instant poverty that seemed to follow was confronting, houses were missing segments of roofing and children were playing with broken toys. I was staring into a completely different world that I had never seen and there was a sudden realisation that warmth, a comfortable bed and running water were not a given for all, and this fuelled the anticipation for the week to start. Our weekend was spent getting to know each other and our facilitators Liz and Elizabeth, who soon became known as ‘Mum and Aunty’. We were shown the beauty of Luang Prabang by our translators as we hiked up Mt Phousi, where they explained the deep cultural significance of Buddhism in Laos history. Shrines adorned the hillside with gifts placed at the bottom of each statue, and we got to admire the sun setting over the river at the top of the hill.

While the weekend was all fun, the week was all business. In our first week as a mobile clinic, we saw over 280 people pass through our doors in need of healthcare. The main health concern we were faced with was muscle pain, caused by excessive weight-bearing, often caused by their jobs as farmers. Girls as young as 13 were coming in with back pain from carrying rice, and we often paired muscle cream with stretching to avoid further injury. Our team worked so hard and did an amazing job at using the skills we’ve learnt to assess and implement plans of care.

We had two interesting patients:

• One of which came in suffering from right-sided numbness, oedema and had experienced slight facial dropping for three months. So, the team did a full Neurological Assessment and they deduced that the woman was suffering from a stroke and was referred to the hospital for further treatment.

• The assessment team had another patient who had urine that tasted sweet for two years and numb feet for over a year, and figured out the lady may have diabetes, and referred her to Pak Xeng Hospital for further treatment.

  Sometimes it’s different jaunt to remember that what we do is helping long-term, there is a restriction on the amount of antibiotics we can give and it feels like we only help for a certain amount of weeks, but seeing the impact earlier groups have had on the communities is amazing. We spotted groups of children from the villages visited last year brushing their teeth outside of their homes, people washing their hands before they had eaten, and a look of recognition would cross men’s faces of stretches they’d learnt and performed before, and I think we all realise that healthcare isn’t necessarily always through medicine, it’s through the education we implement now that will help people in the villages long-term.

  Looking forward to the next two weeks!

Week 2

Week 2 was a blur consisting of high altitude and chilly mornings as we geared up for our longest week - 4 clinics in four villages that were situated above the clouds (approximately 4000 ft above sea level). Instead of staying in a traditional village home stay as we did the week before, we were placed in homestays residing in the town of Pak Xeng. The night we arrived we were welcomed with traditional Laotian dances from the local high schoolers. The students all had the patience to teach us the moves, yet we seem to lack the grace that they naturally inherited, and this was showcased as we performed the Macarena for the crowd of kids who cheered us on.

Every time we arrive at a village, we receive the same warm welcome, starting with school children lining up and clapping, holding onto sweet gifts of flowers wrapped in pieces of paper with Laotian writing scrawled across it. We later found out they wrapped the flowers in their homework, which was hopefully marked prior! After the greetings with the school children, we meet in the middle of the village and exchange greetings with the chief, and hand over the donations accumulated over the months beforehand.

The further we travelled, the easier it was to see the difference between villages at the base of the mountain, with easy access to the river and crops, and where there was a slight reprieve from the cold that seemed to hang around until the afternoon in the villages above the clouds. The higher we went, the more the clinic was exposed to respiratory infections and muscle pain due to the hour walk many would do daily just to have water.

Within the four communities visited, we came across two boys:

• Aged 7 and 18, suffering from hernias, which if left untreated can grow to become more painful and cause issues regarding intestinal mobility, and our group made the decision to fund their hospital trips to ensure they are able to go and receive surgery without impeding on the family’s finances. 

As we go from village to village, we find people living with conditions that have worsened due to the inability to access healthcare that in the Western world would be fixed with a minor surgery and a restful few days. Often in these villages taking the time off isn’t an option with the family’s livelihood at stake. When a family member goes to hospital, it can impact the ability to provide food for the winter months, as the family dynamic shifts to care for the injured/sick member of the family in hospital whilst another member of the family must care for the children.

It feels unjust to see people struggling and know how easy healthcare is to access at home, but at the end of the day, the fifteen of us and our facilitators do our best to provide healthcare for these villages and know that these differences we are making that mean trivial to us, could mean a difference for those in need.