Scotch Reports Issue 174 (April 2019)

TORRENS PARK CAMPUS
Rustic Pathways: Laos
Late last year, 15 recent graduates travelled
to Laos in Southeast Asia to take part in
a service trip through Rustic Pathways.
Upon arrival we were greeted by our local
leaders with flower necklaces before we
headed to base camp. Here we caught our
first glimpse of the Laos culture, with the
historic wooden buildings and simple living
styles that reflect the caring and communal
Laotian culture.
While in Laos we undertook two service
projects; constructing a boat ramp in
Sop Wan village and helping to build a
community centre in Panoor. These service
projects enabled us to bond as a team and
importantly, to work with the people of
each village and learn about their families
and lives. We worked alongside kids who
were carrying buckets of cement and rocks
along tricky pathways, often lugging more
than they weighed. Doing service work in
these villages developed our manual skills
in areas such as laying bricks, cladding,
rendering, mixing cement, but most of all,
helped us to develop a desire to do the
hard work required.
There were many other amazing
experiences we had in Laos, for example
the elephant conservation park or giving
alms to the monks. Looking back on our
journey though, the two things that stood
out to us all were the local children’s
willingness to learn and the generosity of
the families that took us in. The children
would take any opportunity to interact
with us and learn, whether this was playing
UNO, dancing the Nutbush or quietly sitting
down to study English with Ms Davey and
Ms Kidman. In both villages, families gave
up their living areas for us to sleep in, while
they all moved into a smaller room. Both
Maddy and I experienced great generosity
from our host family, giving us oranges each
night after attempting to communicate
family stories and memories with us.
While this trip was a lot of fun, we also had
a deep insight into their culture – some
had elements of which proved shockingly
different to our norm. Death is just a
normal part of their day, which we quickly
realised after being woken up to the
slaughtering of many pigs at 5am. Each
village was just like a big family; they helped
each other, looked after each other and
most the time we didn’t know who actually
lived in which house. This unity was clear
when it came our time to leave. Each village
provided us with a blessing ceremony,
where animals were sacrificed, and we
were blessed by each elder tying a bracelet
on our wrist.
Everyone in our group had something to
take away from the trip. Whether that
was getting through a hard day of work
and cooling down in the Mekong River or
attempting to play cricket with the kids, it
was a rewarding journey that we will always
remember. We can be people of impact
and we know we will definitely look for ways
to support others who are less fortunate
into the future.
LUCY HAMMOND &
MADDY ANDREWARTHA ('18)
Feature Assisting the local community with
building projects in Laos
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