Training in Chamcar Bei

After a week and a bit of settling in it was finally time for me to start some work. Destination Chamcar Bei! (Which is where we spent one night over the weekend) I was going to be working at "Our School" delivering first aid training to some of the locals. Blissfully unaware I prepared my presentation (in English), some exercises (in English) and general puns, when Vy and I arrived at the school I was told that I would need a translator. Damn. Oh well, I think to myself how bad can it be?

So on Wednesday I started my training, I was going to be running 2 sessions with 2 groups covering the topics of wounds and bleeds, chocking, burns and other fun things. When I started, to be honest I felt slightly out of my depth, I was faced with 7 people who spoke no English and had little knowledge of hygiene and injury treatment. I found it very challenging trying to teach the people one thing when they had probably known otherwise for such a long time. They told me stories of how someone had just choked in front of them and then died, so I hoped some bits of what I was teaching would be useful. I managed to finish the training and hoped that they would be able to pass on the information which I had taught them to the rest of the community. I think over the 2 days they learnt a lot, as did I. Despite the first session being hard I think it has helped me to better understand the local community and adapt my future training to their needs.

The healthcare coordinator from the school also asked me when I was coming back when I had finished, which was also a good sign!