2/19 - And the Chinese Hospital Fell Out of the Sky

I just ate some sweet fried water buffalo. I feel guilty about it, since I tend to feel a bond with the water buffalo living here, but I wanted to give it a try. Aubrie and I have taken to regularly talking to the many chickens wandering the streets in Laos. The locals must think we're out of our minds.

Aubrie's foot is not broken, according to the doctor who we saw today. We went first to the international clinic right in town, on rented bikes (Aubrie is much faster on these than when walking) and it was typically run-down and dusty, with the odd young Lao girl walking by connected to an IV. Not sure what makes it international, but the doctor (who showed up on his motorbike half an hour after we got there, having supposedly finished a surgery) suggested we x-ray the foot, though that meant going to a different hospital, 4 kilometers away. So we followed him on our bikes, he trying to maintain our slower pace, along dusty roads under the midday sun. The ride, though hot, was actually great. It was our first time away from the tourist hordes since getting here (more on that later) and we were left with mountains and fields. It was a similar feeling to when the bus broke down on top of a mountain yesterday while getting here (but more on that later too). The hospital 4km away ended up being the Lao-Chinese Friendship Hospital, newly completed last Autumn. It was really impressive after what we've seen elsewhere. The very odd thing about it was that all the equipment in the hospital, right down to the power outlets with the slanted prong inlets, were Chinese. Even the phone had Chinese characters all over it. It would seem that the Chinese simply lifted a hospital out of China (we are quite close to it at the moment) and placed it in Laos. As Aubrie said, "the Chinese hospital fell out of the sky."

In fact the X-Ray machine was probably the only piece of non-Chinese equipment, appearing more like some Soviet relic from a bygone era. Odds are that's exactly what it was (the Hammer and Sickle is everywhere here--have I mentioned that?) In any case, there was no being shielded from the Rays for Aubrie. They just placed her foot on a table and the nurse ran back behind an iron barricade in the middle of the room, about the size and shape of a door.

The doctor was a great guy, although his English wasn't great. He was a little off-put by me showing an interest in staring at Aubrie's foot bones up on the light-box, but otherwise things went smoothly. The whole thing, with a pair of basic wooden crutches, x-rays, exam, and some pills for swelling, cost her $60. Official label for the injury is a sprain. But I swear, you would've thought it was a break too if you'd seen it. Photos are on the way, but they never really did justice to it.

On the way soon is a post which has many complaints in it, so brace yourselves all you optimists! Among the topics for complaint will be: littering, animal cruelty (to marsupuials, even), backpacker and retiree hordes, the Mekong Guesthouse (aka Guesthouse of Death (we're out of there now)), and Lao roads.