Project Phongsali: As word spreads, more handicapped villagers seek help.

This elderly villager has never had a proper prosthesis. He carved his own wooden leg.

Day 38

I knew it would happen.  As word spread that there was a humanitarian aid group in the village, people with a variety of problems started traveling to Sop Houn from even more remote areas to see what kind of help might be available.  Yai and I always tell people that we do bombs — not legs, not eyes, not burns, not babies. But the truth is, we find it hard to turn people away when we just might be their last best hope.

This week we’ve met a blind girl, a boy with a club foot, two men missing legs, a woman with a deformed foot, a teen who seems to have had a stroke, a deaf toddler, and today, a young woman missing an arm.  I’ve been on the phone to my contacts around the country investigating programs that might help.  Yai’s been on his phone tentatively arranging for various evaluations and treatments.

The difficult part will be to get people with bad health and mobility problems to distant cities with services.  Vientiane might as well be on the moon as far as some of these villagers are concerned.  Even given bus money to get there, many would have no idea how to organize the trip or to find their way in a city as intimidating as Vientiane or Luangprabang  (or even Oudomxai, which is really more town than city).  To further complicate their journey, many of the people we’ve met are ethnic minorities who don’t speak Lao much better than I do.  As much as guidance and financial assistance, they need an interpreter to speak on their behalf.