to all visitors of this homepage! What you will find here are various reports, pictures and short video clips which I uploaded in order to provide information for everyone who is interested in my work and life. Furthermore, there is some general information available about the countries where I am working and where I have worked before, and also some background knowledge about childhood malnutrition.
During my nearly 2,5 years in Kumi District in Uganda from 2005 to 2007, I realized that I want to work long term in developing countries. Especially the area of childhood malnutrition is one of my major interests, and I want to help people who are suffering just because they are lacking the most basic things needed for life, such as food and basic health care. I believe that it is possible to improve health sustainable by relatively simple measures, as for example, specific training of local people.
Enjoy reading the following pages and feel free to contact me in case of any question!
A warm welcome...
© 2011 www.esther-
News
06th January 2011
I wish everyone a happy new year 2012!
My time in Germany is already nearly over. I had a very nice time with a lot of opportunities to meet friends and revive old relationships.
I would like to thank everyone for your interest, for all the presents I received and also for the time you spent with me. I really enjoyed and appreciated it!
In Laos the dry season has now started and the work is already waiting for my return. During the coming weeks and months we will be very busy, but I am looking forward to go back. I am missing the people, the work and my home.
25th November 2011
I arrived safe and (nearly) without problems back in Germany and am now enjoying
the first days here together with my family. During the coming weeks, I will be available
under the following mobile phone number: 0176 -
The planning for the coming weeks is as follows:
23rd November -
2nd -
8th -
14th -
21st December -
12th November 2011
Holiday in Germany: from 23rd November until 10th January I will be in Germany!
Otherwise the rainy season finally ended. We have now again lots of sun but relatively cool temperatures (around 25°C). I think, it is now the best and most comfortable time of the year in Laos. The Project ist still doing fine, but since October we are forced to work without a medical doctor in the team. This makes a number of things a bit difficult. Since 4 months we are already looking intensively for a new staff but up to now no suitable applicant. Therefore it will be a bit difficult when I come to Germany for nearly 2 months, but after nearly 2 years here in Laos, it is really time for a visit at home!
11th September 2011
It is still rainy season in Laos. Instead of calming down it rather feels that it rains more and more in the moment.
Many roads are alredy completely destroyed because of the heavy rains. We can still reach 3 of our villages in the moment, but sometimes only with major efforts. Nevertheless we try to realise inspite of the bad weather our reduced rainy season program. But on the other side we are enjoing a lot to have time together with the team, playing UNO or petanque, eating together and learning Engilsh.
7th August 2011
28thJuly 2011
Rainy season... it is raining a lot, but most of the time not as heavy as during the first weeks. Nevertheless, the humidity is very high. Clothes are only drying under the ventilator and in the garden you can literally watch the grass growing.
Regarding work it is now much more quiet. All the staff are taking part of their hoildays during this period and also my french colleages are on home leave for 2 months. So, we are using the time to catch up with some desk work and planning for the coming months while aiting for the road to dry up again.
12th June 2011
Last week we officially handed over our first health center to the people from Saydonkong village and the government. The construction process took 4 months and a lot of efforts. But the result is really convincing!
Otherwise, the rainy season started very early this year. Therefore we had a lot of problems during the last weeks while going to the villages. Most of the roads have now turned in small (or big) rivers and huge mud puddles. But fortunately up to now the problems were all not very serious. We only have still 2 weeks to go, before we will take a rest (work in the offince instead of going to the villages) for a bit more than a month. The team and myself are really looking forward to this time of rest which we really need after this very busy last half year.
1st May 2011
New pictures are online (sorry, not yet translated!)
18th April 2011
A happy new year to all readers of this page! Why again? Because last week we were
celebrating here in Laos the Lao new year. According to Lao tradition people are
pouring water over each other. The whole week long and then there is a lot of beer
and dance. The Lao really know how to celebrate!! :-
10th February 2011
The Lao winter is about to end. It is getting hotter and already now the soil is drying up. In the moment we are nearly every week in the villlages, because the dry season is only 6 months and we have to make the best possible use of it.
This week we are beginning with the construction of our first dispensary. It is quite a big thing, especially when considering the poor conditions and long distances of the roads. It will be not easy to bring all the building material there. We will see if and how it works... Encouriging is that the local population is highly motivated and promised us to help as much as possible with the construction.
At the same time the health education in all the other villages needs to continue and I started looking for one new employee. Someone who knows about agriculture and can help in the construction work at the same time. I will start doing interview in March. I hope we will find someone suiteable soon...
15th January 2011
A happy new year to the readers of this website!!
12th December 2010
Is it true that there will be christmas in 2 weeks time?? If there wasn’t this advent
calendar from a good friend here on my table, I might have not noticed it yet :-
In Laos it is now also the cold season, but still temperatures are going up to 25-
But the work is going on well. After the health survey we dewormed all 5 villages
with mass treatment. It was not so easy to organise everything but we think that
it will have a clear positive effect on the health of the population. And finally
I was very happy to have my first 2 visitors from Germany! It was so nice to speak
German again and to talk about things and life at home :-
13th November 2010
26th September 2010
Since 2 days I am now back in Attapeu. Finally! It was a good time in Vientiane and the language school helped me a lot, but now I am very much looking forward to stay again in my own home and concentrate fully on the work. After the language school I took one week holidays in the north of Laos. I spent some nice days there with a number of interesting encounters.
Tomorrow I will start working again. The to-
The nutrition situation here in Attapeu Province remains critical. It is raining, but not enough. The harvest will be not only very late, but also less than usual. Around 18% of all children here are currently suffering from acute malnutrition. And most probably it will become rather worse then better. Until now we are not yet sure what effect this will have for our project.
29. August 2010
8. August 2010
It is now exactly half a year that I am in Laos. Time flies so fast, but I think, that I settled in quite well. Since 3 weeks I am now in Vientaine, visiting a language school. During the 5 months in Attapeu I learnt already a lot, but it is good to have now 2 month only for the language. The grammar of the Lao language is not so difficult but the tones make it rather complicated. Most words consist of only one syllable, but this syllable exist usually in 3 or 4 different tones with completly different meanings. A simple „ma“ e.g. can mean „horse, dog, come or soak“ or a „sao“ can mean „morning, rent, post, out of breath or sad. To recognise all this and to speak it during a normal conversation correctly is really not so easy!
13th July 2010
Instead of raining cats and dogs as it is supposed to be for this season, the last
weeks here were very dry and hot. The water is by far not enough to start with the
rice cultivation but nearly all the reserves are already used up. The price for rice
at the market has nearly doubled. If it doesn’t start raining soon, we are soon going
to face huge problems. But there are also good news: the government finally signed
our 3-
25th June 2010
This week we did for the time being our last trip to the region of Sanamxay. The outward journey was not too bad, but while we were there, we had a heavy monsoon rain and this made a real adventure out of our trip back to Attpeu: twice we got stucked in the mud and could get out only by help of our winch. Lots of trees on the way and water up to the chest during one river crossing. It took us more than 2 hours for 30 km and then again 1 hour for another 50 km. This was clear enough: until December we will not be able to go again to the 5 villages in this region. For nearly half a year they will be cut of from the world. Hard to imagine how life will be for them during this time...
8th June 2010
There are new pictures and one first video online! Unfortunately there are some mistakes
in the linking of the pages that I can’t manage to solve in the moment. So, please
be patient when the pages don’t appear sometimes in the right way! :-
30th April 2010
Once again back from one week in the Field. Tired and dirty, but healthy. This time we stayed several days in one village and started there with some activities to get a better understanding of the problems in their problems and to make a priority list. It was very interesting, but it remains with the problems that are obvious: insufficient water, no dispensary and no latrines are the 3 most important points for the popluation. But now the rain has started so that we have only some few weeks left to start working on the problems. This means that we can do only some health education now , while the bigger projects have to waint until next year.
5th April 2010
20th February 2010
Since 2 weeks I am now here in Attapeu. I got so many new impressions that I am not sure what to write first. I have made already several trips into the villages. It is very interesting. Many things are a bit similar to Africa, but there are also a lot of differences. In the moment I am just observing and trying to get an overview. But I think the project is going to be really interesting. Only that I need to learn Lao as fast as possible. There is nearly no one who speaks English or French. Even to find a relatively well paid translator is not so easy...
There are some first pictures from Laos!
5th February 2010
Yesterday around 1 p.m. (Lao time, in Germany it was 6 a.m.) I reached safe and tired in Vientiane. Everything went well with the flight and I even recieved already all my luggage. Now I will stay for one more day in Vientiane before I take the night bus to Attapeu tomorrow evening. It is really hot and humid here, but I am nevertheless glad to have escaped the german winter. Once I reached in Attapeu I will write some more details about my „first impressions“.
My new mobile phone number is: +856 20 4387947
29th December 2009
I wish you all a happy new year 2010!
After a really good time in France, I had now a wonderful Christmas celebration with my family in Hamburg. It was nice to see them all once more before my departure to Laos in about one month’s time.
In the moment I am packing my bags and there are some final things that need to be organised. I am a bit nervous, but also curious and I am really looking forward to get to know everything there.
22th November 2009
My time here in Montbéliard is now nearly over. My French has improved a lot which
will be quite helpful for the work in the frenchspeaking team in Laos. Therefore
I think that it was really worth it. The only problem is that I start mixing up English
with French in the moment...
My time table for the next months is as follows:
18. December -
4.-
10. Januar -
17. Januar -
18-
31. Januar -
3. Februar -
4. Februar -
Most welcome for the conference in Stuttgart and also for the farewell services in Herzberg and Paderborn! Please contact me for further details.
16. October 2009
It is now already 2 weeks that I am attending the French course in Montbéliard in France. We are only 2 people in this course so that the class is quite intense and therefore possible to learn a lot within a short period of time.
Last Sunday we (my classmate and I) visited a Mennonite church here in Montbéliard. It was a lively service and the people were very hospitable. We also joined the church choir for the practice last Wednesday, which was also nice. I will attend this language school until the 17. December and be back in Germany for christmas and new year. A problem is only that I still didn`t have my colloquium for the master thesis, because a report from Sweden is missing. I hope that it will work out soon.
12. September 2009
My departure was moved to the beginning of February instead of March as it was planned
before. This means that time flies by now and a lot of things still need to be organised
before I can finally leave Germany. From 15-
Learning Lao language will have to wait until I am in the country. But I wonder if it is possible for a European to learn a language with 28 vocals and 5 different tones?!
16th August 2009
The decision has been made: I will go to Laos!!! Last week I went once again to Stuttgart for discussing more details and the next steps. The new project is called „primary health community based project“. It aimes at improving the basic health care for people in a specific region in southern Laos. Everything seems to be quite interesting, but before I can depart, I will have to do some more preparation courses: French is essential, also at least an introduction to the Lao language as well as the governmental preparation courses for development aid workers. Therefore the final departure is planned to take place in March next year, but I will be employed by CFI already from October this year on.
My latest newletter is now available with more detailed information (but only in German)