Future Doctors of Laos

On another front, I am supposed to implement a digital learning program for the medical college. It might work, but I’m not sure. It’s best if a student can study from their own laptop because as you can see, the people in the back can hardly see me. If they can’t see, I’m not sure how much they’re learning and I’m not so sure you can get good medical care here. I know they’re trying, but when it comes to my 5^th and last rabies shot, I want it done right. Otherwise, the first 4 shots, after all that effort, were in vain. You can imagine how I felt when I was told, “This drug won’t work, but you can get it injected if you like. - Maybe with Lao style, 4 shots are enough. - Anyway, if the dog didn’t have rabies, you don’t have a problem.” I ran across town in search of an expert. I ran to the other side of town to find the right drug, packed it in ice and then watched the ice melt as I wanted for the doctor to come. She told me she’s seen people come in for their 3^rd shot and then die because the first shots weren’t done right. Oh, that’s nice.

Children's Day

Our best teachers are the children. They’re the final test. If they don’t like it, we’ll have to revise the lesson. We sent out word to neighborhood kids and they came running as if it were a birthday party with free cake. Here, the boy is signing vegetable. They they stayed until closing hours learning signs from the videos on the laptops. A good sign.

SHINE team

Shine stands for “Sanitation, Hygiene, Identity, Nutrition and Environment” This is the program we’re starting with and to make it teacher/student user friendly, we’re incorporating sign language, songs and storytelling. So we’re back on the floor again, putting our heads together to design something new.

On my mettle

This is the team I’m working with. My job is to train the trainers of local teachers. This is for PoP (Pencils of Promise) and they’re on board for things like sign language and digital content delivered through TVs or mini projectors. Some schools are remote and tough. Many students don’t use Lao as their first language. The plan is to train this group, which will in turn train a larger group in July, which will in turn support local teachers in rural schools in September.