IB Cohorts Exemplify CLASS in Thailand and Laos Pt. 1 - Land of Smiles

The trip this summer with the 2019 I.B. cohort to Thailand and Laos was incredible. Our great Southeast Asia adventure allowed us to dive into some of the deeper issues that the nations of Laos and Thailand are currently dealing with but also gain a beautiful understanding of the kindness and compassion that rest as the clear foundation of both the Laos, "Land of a Million Elephants, and Thailand, the "Land of Smiles".

 

In Udon Thani, Thailand, a northern city of just over 300, 000, dirt roads curve and sprawl through dusty back roads but then almost immediately turn into crowded high ways alongside vast rice fields and swampland. The beauty of the Udon Thani is in its diversity and ability to hold on its history and culture, at the same time as stretch respectfully toward the future.

 

The first leg of our trip in Udon Thani was meant to prepare us for our service work. We spent roughly 6 days at their Ricefields Base, a beautiful location set on a working rice field, across the street from a Buddhist temple and right outside a small, but busy residential town. Aside from team-building activities at night and a couple nights out on the town, and an incredible conversation about enlightenment and overcoming personal adversity with a monk, our main priority was to prepare us to assist nearby villages with their healthcare needs.

 

 

Many families in Udon Thani and its outskirts don't have access to the health care they need, and medical professionals who work in the cities rarely make it out to the villages where their help is mostly needed. Families will travel days for medical care in the event of an emergency and then wait in long lines, sometimes 24 hours, to be seen. To help eliminate crowded lines and clear clinic waiting rooms, the doctors rely on health care and volunteer-based organizations such as Rustic Pathways to go to these villages, The volunteers will visit both children and elderly, and recording medical information for the doctors. Afterwards, the doctors will go through the records and determine which patients and villages are most in need of care and require immediate attention.

Being a part of this team and knowing the worth we have to these villages and these doctors was a respectable endeavor; but being able to actually go to the temple and provide care to 60 elderly people and then a school of over 100 was an unforgettable experience. 

 As one might expect, our awesome team of Kaiser students were well-prepared after training and enthusiastic (though perhaps a little anxious at first) about the chance to serve this community. Our first session took place early morning at a nearby temple. We set up our medical station on the temple grounds and waited for patients. At 8 o'clock, they began to arrive and our make-shift medical clinic began to bustle. As each patient went through each station, they laughed with each other and us, happy to be with us and to be receiving care. We tried out our fresh vocab, trying to making them feel comfortable and calm, though it mainly just brought giggles and smiles. Sawatdee! (Hello) Sabaaidi mai? (How are you?) Sabaiidi (I'm good!) Kon Chun Arai? (What is your name?) Pom chu Paul. (My name is Paul.) Each person's check-up took about 5 minutes and ended with a bowl of soup, and a Khop Kun (Thank you!)! 

 

 

The second session of the day was at a nearby school. The students were so happy to see us and their curious faces were filled with wonder and excitement as they came in, 1, 2, 3 at a time and got checked for lice, sores and any other concerns that we could spot at a glance. We used a checklist for this session and made markings for severity or frequency of certain issues, like cuts on their hands (maybe from playing in the yard) or sores on their arms (possibly minor untreated infections or mysterious lesions or bumps.) We were saddened to see how many students had lice, and we suspect the school was sent proper medical care shortly thereafter. 

 

 

Towards the end of our Udon Thani trip, we had the rare opportunity to meet with two villagers that Rustic has a special relationship with. The first was a mother and her daughter who has been disabled from birth. They were abandoned by the father, who left with the other healthy daughter. In an area where survival and healthcare is such a complex issue, a mother and daughter in this state suddenly abandoned by the only adult able to work full-time would ordinarily be a serious matter. The elder son had also left and went to college at a university in Bangkok. The family and the community are still hoping and praying he returns to the village to use his education and help their situation. In the meantime, Rustic has chosen this family as one of the many they provide specialized care for. Hearing this story and understanding the already dire situation much of this area is in anyhow in regards to health care was heartbreaking.

While we sat with her on her living room straw-woven mat and talked for a while, it was easy to understand that there are large parts of life and living on this planet that are just too far outside our grasp, that if we don't at least try to get there, and be there, mind, body and spirit, we'll never see them and never allow for those parts of ourselves to grow.