Edward Allen

Dear All,

This past week was good, I slept better and was in less pain than any previous week over the last 2 months. I found myself being able to walk down the street again, the pain is still almost constant, but I’m finding it much more bearable. Emotionally I’m doing much better too.

I went over to Thailand for a routine hospital visit at the weekend, to see my Rheumatologist. In a town just about an hour from the border a British grocery shop has just opened up; so I bought some Ribena, Branstons pickle, and Jelly Babies. I’ve searched for Ribena in Thailand so many times over, to finally find some was a great lift to my spirits. Branston pickle has proved hitherto illusive, the French grocers here in Vientiane don’t seem to be able to stock such a refined substance as Branston pickle, to their huge shame.

The Jelly Babies were wonderful to find, and yes I’m mean and do bite their heads off first when eating them, I ended up having them for lunch when the pastries I’d bought got ant-infested.

On the bus to Khon Kaen, where I go to hospital, a man got on wearing a black balaclava and black beret and seemed rather eager to get off the bus when it arrived; obviously someone who didn’t want a sun tan. Thailand is in an interesting phase of its history, but hopefully it is in a peaceful interesting phase.

My hospital visit was a bit disappointing, it seems my back has got more stiff but I’m on a new drug now that will help me with the pain at night and another drug was increased. The trend is that I’m getting better but it is a bit of a zig-zag recovery as you’d expect with a disease like this. I’ll work hard on getting my back loosened up in the next couple of weeks, it is so much easier now the pain is better under control.

Meanwhile life in Vientiane is good, I’m able to get plenty of rest and the warm weather is helping me a lot. I got quite a lot of work done last week too. When I was away the vaccination rate of the pigs in the villages hit 85% which is really great, our project staff have really got to grips with things well.

Vientiane is having a massive clean up, it seems everything that can be repainted is being repainted, even the trees next to the roads are getting 2m of white paint around their trunks. They recently put a lot of 3ft long concrete troughs planted with shrubs in the middle of the road going to the airport, it all looked very pretty. However they had to take them away, as people complained that they looked too much like coffins (Lao people are incredibly short when dead, and very scared of death) so they have been replaced with potted palms. The number of police on the streets has more than doubled over the past couple of weeks too. The feeling in the town is a little tense, but in a placid Lao kind of way.

I still very much hope to keep working here, I adore it still as much as ever and there is a massive amount of work for me to do here. My goal is constantly to do myself out of a job, to train up someone to take over my role as quickly as that is sensible. It is one thing for me to directly help someone, it is quite another to leave behind local people who are able to take the work further on and do it better than I could. Lao people are incredibly talented, extraordinarily gifted, all we need to do is help unlock that potential; that is the heart of my work.

Hoping for a really great week, to put this horrible disease behind me, and get back to effectively coming alongside the talented and beautiful people of Laos…

lots of love,

Ned