We came into trouble on our way to Sop
Jak as the road was flooded and completely full of mud, due to road works.
After waiting for a while we drove back to the nearest village and stopped for
something to eat. I was quite surprised at the attitude of a few of the other
students when offered the noodles. Whilst I fully understand that many people
have allergies and certain beliefs I find it incredibly rude and disrespectful
when a student says “There is no way I am eating that!” and then asking for
“normal fruit” when offered local fruit as an alternative. This experience
today made me realise that we are all at different stages of understanding the
wider world in our lives. I think it will take some students longer than others
to adopt to the Laos culture and I personally believe this starts with respect
for their culture and way of life as opposed to our own selfish needs.
As the rain slowed down we made a second attempt at crossing the road. However, after two trucks became bogged we had to all walk in the pouring rain, through the ankle deep mud to the other side whilst we carried our luggage, backpacks and donations with us. It was definitely an adventure and unlucky for me I had one of the girls that was in front of me wearing thongs, which flicked all the mud up into my face as we walked through the sludge. We could not help but laugh with each other at everyone’s attempt of walking through the mud without toppling over, a fun and memorable experience.
Whilst the delay in our arrival to Sop Jak was an inconvenience as it took most of our day as opposed to a few hours, I actually found that it gave us yet another opportunity to interact with each other. After being on the bus with another different set of students we all had the opportunity to tell stories, play games, tell jokes and just get to know each other. The students from the other bus told us when we arrived that they could hear how much fun we were having from their bus whilst we were driving. This bonding came into use in our activities later in the night when we had to form discussions with the local villagers.
We went for a tour of the local high school, meeting the chief of the village and also talking to locals gave us a substantial introduction into the understanding of the Lao lifestyle. When talking to the local medical professional I asked him what he believed in his opinion would be the number one thing that could help to reduce illness/injuries. He replied and said that a record or daily report of the villages activities/tasks completed, where & who it was completed by and reporting accidents would help him diagnose the problem and further prevent it from happening in the future. With our help I feel this is something we as business students could implement and fund as it is very low cost.
After dinner the villagers and Seuang River Committee came to visit us and we began conducting discussions about daily activities and their seasonal calendars. Although we had translators we all found it extremely difficult to engage with the locals and to get them involved. Although these language barriers set us back, our group worked extremely well to make the most of the situation. We did this by getting the locals to draw pictures on butchers paper with markers. We drew pictures of our own daily activities to make them feel comfortable and share with them a piece of our own culture/lifestyle. As our team were from the same bus that we travelled to get here I feel that we connected even more so and worked together to make the best of the situation. Eventually the locals felt comfortable and most of them were contributing. This gave us a great understanding of their day to day lives and how these activities change during the seasons of the year.
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