Back Volunteering In Laos Again
It was that time of the year again for Anna’s passion project, when her and a crew go to an underdeveloped country to do volunteer eye care. I’ve only accompanied her twice on these trips since I’ve been writing this blog, the first time being in the rural city of San Lorenzo in Honduras nine years ago, however, on that occasion I was stopped from traveling to the hospital after two days due to being an unnecessary safety risk, what with Honduras being being the murder capital of the world at the time and all. The other occasion was last March when we traveled to Laos to do eye screening and cataract surgery in Vientiane. Twelve months later we were back once again in Laos, but this time it would be a little bit different, because the bulk of us would be going to small villages around Vang Vieng, visiting schools and conducting eye tests on children and giving glasses to children who need them. On top of this the SNEC Global Eye Health volunteer crew would also be testing teachers, as well as donating eye charts and instructing them on how to take a person’s vision. Generally my role on these trips is to take photos and videos to use for presentations, as well as being a general runner, there to be able to take care of any errands and just being at hand if needed. It wasn’t going to be a particularly long trip, but it would be exhausting, yet rewarding at the same time. Brace yourself once more for a ton of photos.
Tuesday, March 4, 2025
Our flight was quite early in the morning, but we met up at Changi Airport with the other eight members of the team with plenty of time to check in all of the equipment we needed after some necessary redistribution and rearranging between packages and before long we were off. We were flying with a budget airline and I can never fit in the seats of those, however, I ended up in the seat behind the emergency row so I would be sitting with my legs out to the side in the aisle, periodically needing to stand up to relieve the pain in my back, but three hours or so later we were in Vientiane. It was only about 12:30pm when we arrived so while waiting for our organiser, Peter, as well as our driver, we looked around the tiny Wattay International Airport and while we were walking toward the money changer something in a store window caught my eye — Russian nesting dolls of Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump. I realise Laos is socialist, but I still wasn’t expecting to come across those in the souvenir store.
There were no plans for the day so we packed the equipment and luggage into two vans and made the drive into Vientiane. Peter is originally from Singapore so he had organised a restaurant for us en route for a Singaporean lunch, but we would have plenty of opportunities to once again sample the local fare over the coming days. When lunch was done and we had checked into our hotel the others all went for a massage while I just unwound in the bar across the road from where we were staying, getting badly stung on my right shin by some mysterious insect, a sting that would swell, turn red, and develop a head like a pimple over the course of the trip. Anna soon returned and met me at the bar while the others went to an Italian restaurant. The food at the bar looked quite interesting, mostly Vietnamese-inspired, but we wouldn’t be eating there, as we were having dinner with one of the organisers of the previous Laos trip and some of his friends before returning to the hotel and going up to the rooftop bar for a couple while watching a blood red moon rise and then try to catch an early night.
From our only free day on this trip, the photos don’t do the moon justice:
Wednesday, March 5, 2025
Today would be a particularly early start, because we needed to be on the road by 7:00am, but we had it easy compared to two of the others who had to be up significantly earlier to catch a long train ride to do their work in Luang Prabang. Although that city itself is beautiful, the rail journey there had been given far less than favourable reviews and we would definitely be hearing about that upon their return on Friday. Everyone else got up for the hotel breakfast, but I’m never hungry first thing in the morning, plus I hadn’t been able to get a whole lot of sleep that night and my back was still painful from sitting twisted in the plane so getting to lay in as long as possible was definitely welcome. I couldn’t for too long though, because I would need to pack our stuff again, but once all of that was sorted I took it all downstairs, Anna had a coffee waiting for me, and I was good to go.
Although we would be staying the following two nights in a hotel in Vang Vieng, the schools we would be visiting were around the Hinhurp district, tagged in my photos as ‘Hinherb’ and ‘Hinheub’ on some signs, an area so small that the Wikipedia page for it just says:
Hinhurp is a district of Vientiane province, Laos.
We took paved and dirt roads past roadside stalls selling dried fish that was getting dustier as each vehicle went by, through beautiful winding mountain paths, past farms and plantations, when finally not far after a cement factory that was ironically on an unsealed road, we were at our first school. The landscape in which the school was located was absolutely stunning with spectacular mountain views while cattle, chickens, and dogs roam the schoolyard. Once we were all set up the children were ushered in, coached by our local group of interpreters on what they needed to do, and then the testing began. After testing, each student was given a pair of sunglasses and a disposable magnifying glass, as well as a drink and some bread, but I think next time they should rethink handing out the magnifying glasses, because almost immediately we noticed several different groups of young boys using the glaring sunlight to start fires, although some may have just been trying to burn ants while we were taking a break for lunch.
As usual I was like the Pied Piper of children, because I guess they don’t get to see a whole lot of white people in these parts, especially my size, so as soon as they saw me duck to get in or out of the room they would all begin screaming and laughing and the ones who weren’t being tested yet would just follow me around. My job of filming and taking photos was also made a little difficult, because it was hard to get images of children when all they want to do is stand behind me, awestruck at what they could see on the screen of my phone.
After a while I had filmed about as much as I could and it just seemed like I was kind of in the way so I went into the next room that was set up to test what gauge lenses a child would need, but very few actually required glasses so I could just relax in there for a little while. I decided to lay down on the floor to stretch out my aching back and I guess I must have been running on fumes from two consecutive nights of very little sleep and early mornings, because some time later I was woken by Anna coming in to use the room. I have no idea how long I was out, but that dirty tiled floor was so comfortable at the time.
Again, I was mostly there to film what was going on, but I also managed to snap a few photos at the first school we’d be visiting:
When the screening of children was finished the teachers had their vision tested as well before being taught how to conduct vision testing for future students. We then took everything down from the walls, packed up the equipment, placed everything in the vans, and were back on the road again by 3:30pm, bound for Vang Vieng. Along the way we stopped off at Pabong Secondary School, a school constructed in conjunction with Singapore’s FireFly Mission and the Jurong Rotary Club that had only opened in November. We were given a tour of the school’s clean and modern facilities, but once more I was met with screams from the teenagers and even heart gestures from some of the girls, something that NEVER happens back home. I reached up to snap a photo of the plaque commemorating Singapore’s involvement that had been placed high on an exterior wall to the amusement of the students and then posed next to a school vehicle with some more, the bulk of whom had gotten a little shy for the photo.
We were now on our way to our hotel in Vang Vieng, a tourist hotspot in Laos that got quite a bit of attention late last year for the wrong reasons so naturally as we were being driven to our accommodation near the main nightlife district Peter told us that one bar in particular, Sakura Bar, was “out of bounds”. We checked in and the view from the pool was stunning with people pulled by boats paragliding by the mountains in the background. All of the volunteers were having a meeting so I went to the Irish bar directly opposite Sakura until Anna was ready and then she joined me for a bit before looking for something for dinner. There were some great options along the Mekong River so we picked one and ate while watching fish swim upstream as red lanterns were released into the night, one of the dishes we ate being listed as minced ostrich meat, but I have a feeling that must’ve been a mistranslation, because it doesn’t make a lot of sense to fly ingredients in from Africa and serve it cheaply in South-East Asia. Once done we wandered around the streets, looking at street food stalls that had come up with some ingenious ideas such as tying inflated plastic bags to rotating fans to keep flies away from the food, then stopped off for a couple of nightcaps before hitting the hay in preparation for another early start.
Looking around the school constructed in conjunction with Singaporean organisations, the cement factory nearby, and some spots around our hotel in Vang Vieng:
Thursday, March 6, 2025
Up bright and early again we were back in the van to another school for more testing and teaching. The students and teachers at this particular school seemed to be dealing with poverty more than the ones yesterday as many students lacked shoes and were dressed in unwashed uniforms, but they were still happy, cheeky, and extremely excited to see us. Again we walked past cattle, dogs, and chickens to enter a classroom, set up up all of the stations and hung the eye charts and were once more testing children and teachers as well as training the teachers to test vision in much the same way as the previous day, while children constantly looked in through the windows, rehearsing for their own turn on the seat.
We took a lunch break, giving one of the volunteers, Raphael, the chance to try out his skills on a cow while children in the distance were playing what seemed like a 40-a-side football game that got pretty intense in the scorching heat while inexplicably wearing sweaters and hoodies, something that had struck me as a little odd the previous day while we were all sweating through our clothes. The kids have a very long lunch break here, but when they were back the testing resumed and as I was taking some photos and videos around the campus something caught my; a girl wouldn’t really mix with the other kids, but was absolutely fixated on the glasses and magnifying glass she had received, as well as hanging around the back of the building and periodically looking in through one of the rear windows by herself. I got Anna and another volunteer to come out and say hello to her and with a little bit of coaching and effort we managed to get the frightened look off her face and swap it for a smile for the camera:
From the second day:
Before we went back to the hotel we scoped out appropriate places around another school for tomorrow’s testing, found the perfect location, and after another 40-minute drive we were back at the hotel. Besides the free lunch at the schools, Anna and myself hadn’t eaten with the rest of the volunteers, but Singaporeans are experts when it comes to tracking down good places to eat. They found a restaurant operating out of a family’s house a 15-minute walk from the hotel so we set off down roads devoid of footpaths and crossed several precarious, structurally unsound footbridges as hot air balloons and more lanterns floated around in the night sky, and eventually we were there. This restaurant appeared to be one of the family’s main sources of income, because the woman serving us was still in her school uniform and the girl getting drinks was probably only six or seven years old, but they were also may be the two in the family with the best command of English as well.
We ate a really good home cooked dinner and crossed the rickety bridges and walked down the dark streets back in the general direction of our hotel, stopping off in some stores along the way and then a night market so some from the group could buy souvenirs. The night market was long, but was also very similar after a while so Anna and I told the others that we were going back to the Irish bar if they wanted to join us, but when they were finally done it was almost time for bed for all of us again.
Another beautiful night in Vang Vieng and more fantastic views:
Friday, March 7, 2025
Today would be the last day of taking schoolchildren’s vision, which wasn’t a bad thing for us, because I don’t think I was the only one that was rather knackered by this point. It was also significantly cooler so it would be a lot more comfortable for all of us, plus there would be less chance of kids trying to start fires with their free magnifying glasses. The other group of volunteers that had traveled to Luang Prabang would be making their return by rail today so once our testing was done, they would’ve arrived back in Vientiane and we were to drive back to the same hotel from our first night, then Anna and company would be required to sign an official Memorandum of Understanding, followed by attending an Ambassador’s Dinner so it was going to be a packed final day.
We checked out of our hotel, went to the new school and the testing was the same as usual in a much better space, children lining up while dogs and cattle wandered around, some kids sneakily trying to practice again in line before their actual try, and then heading off with their food. It was a moment caused by that last part that was one of the more amusing points of the trip for me; a group of boys had been tested, given their bread and a drink, and were now headed back to class. One of them was talking to his friends when all of a sudden his legs came flying out from beneath him in the exact same manor as someone slipping on a banana peel in an old-school cartoon, his food flying in the air as he came down, only it wasn’t a banana peel he had stepped on, but rather an extremely fresh cow turd. He was completely fine from his fall and the food and drink were all sealed, however, it was a little difficult to contain myself, but his friends put in a lot less effort than me, just pointing as they cracked up laughing at him.
When all was done we cleaned up and packed down the equipment for the last time before posing out the front of the school with a banner from the main supporters of the cause, and then it was back to the hotel in Vientiane. The others all managed to sleep on the drive back, but that’s something I’ve always struggled to do so once we were checked in at the hotel I could barely keep my eyes open. Anna said she felt fine and was going to have lunch so I just showered, went back to bed, and I was out for at least two hours.
When I finally woke up, Anna was still at the signing and there wasn’t a whole lot in this part of town besides restaurants so I went back down to the same bar across the road as the first day here, spraying myself very liberally with bug spray so I wouldn’t get another one of those nasty stings that was still red and inflamed on my leg. I was only there for a little bit when I received a message from Anna saying that there was no space at the Ambassador’s dinner for me, which came as a bit of a relief as I’m not a fan of those kinds of events. Anna knows this too so I think she gave my ticket to one of the other volunteers, someone that would at least be able to hold a conversation with the others in attendance. Instead I had some of the food I had wanted to sample at the bar and when their dinner was over I met up with everyone at the hotel’s rooftop bar for drinks, me rugged up on this colder night in a jacket as I chatted to some of the other dinner attendees in a more casual environment, as well as being regaled with tales of just how truly awful that train to and from Luang Prabang was, from the smell on the platform to the people smoking inside to the awful squat toilet at one end.
All in all it was a great final day even though I was asleep during or absent from some of the more important parts, but unfortunately I didn’t manage to capture that boy slipping over:
We got to have a bit of a sleep in before flying out the following day after another successful volunteer trip. Congratulations on a fantastic job by everyone involved, from the organisers and sponsors to the volunteers, interpreters, drivers, and all of the other feet on the ground and everyone else in between.
In fact it was a job so well done it even made the Laos news!:
See you all again in the near future
Any Questions or Comments? Leave Them Here!