The sense of relief that comes when...

the fear of a new adventure drops away and you find yourself settling in for what looks to be an amazing ride.

I ended my second Monday at work with that brilliant feeling.

 Our program coordinator returned from Holiday today and went to straight to the task of getting me oriented and put to work. I have to say that I'm quite excited about this new position I have and the general work prospect in Laos. The organization I'm working with is pretty amazing, has some great funding sources and smart philosophies about working in a developing country. I enjoyed getting a better understanding of how the organization works and my place in all of that.

Apparently, Laos culture has some very specific aspects when it comes to work and prosthetics and orthotics. First of all, we work 8:30 to 4:30 with an hour and a half lunch break....not bad :). Secondly, things go very slow. Every item of business takes multiple people and lots of bureaucratic stamps of approval. In fact, since our director passed away last week....everything is on hold until we get someone from the ministry of health to sign off on everything we're doing. I guess it's a lot like the university setting in that way...

I'm looking forward to spending some quality time with the prosthetic and orthotic team tomorrow and seeing how they do things. So far, it's mostly been lots of paperwork, planning trainings, etc. With the idea of sustainability and being locally run, I won't actually have much patient contact over the next year, except for consults now and then. I play the role of mentor, evaluator, and development. I will be spending most of my time developing methods for things to run more efficiently, introducing new materials, methods and technologies, and reporting back to the funding sources about what I'm up to. I look forward to the experience and while I'm sure there will be lots of frustrations, have high hopes for the next year.

Also, just a disclaimer that almost every expat I've met in Laos only intended to stay a year.....and is still around. As one person said "people seem to get stuck here.....in the best possible way."