September - October 2019
Laos - Mission Trip Pt1
Follow our experience on 'The Elbournes' page on facebook and in this blog for those who are not on the social media platform. We will update you as much as posible throughout the trip. Keep us in your prayers and thank you to all our friends and family who have supported us through the journey so far of raising $25,000!
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For more trip information visit our fundraising page.
5 months to fundraise over $24,000 was never going to be a walk in the park. Despite the huge challenge, we knuckled down early with volunteering at the Sanitarium Weet-Bix TRYathalon, bake sales, sausage sizzles, youth socials, events and more! All the fundraising wouldn't have been possible without our family, friends and church community, you know who you are! Thank you for supporting us in through the journey! After 5 quick and exciting months of meeting together monthly and getting to know each, we SMASHED the $24,000 goal and raised over $26,000! I can't wait to see how all this money is going to help this Laotian community.
Mark Elbourne - Team leader
The day is finally here! It was an early start this morning, I was so so excited that the 4am wake up didn't even bother me. We got to Adelaide airport, checked our bags in, said our goodbyes and were off! The flight seemed to go really fast and in no time we were in Melbourne airport, eating food in a cafe waiting for our long flight to Singapore. this is my first overseas flight and mission trip so I cannot wait for what is to come! - Hannah Carrick
2 Flights down, 2 to go! We've got 15hrs in Singapore and this is what we got up to! Tired, hot and hungry we ventured out to Satay on the Bay for dinner. On the way we checked out Marina Bay and Gardens by the Bay. It's crazy how big these buildings are especially coming from tiny little Adelaide! Despite the skyscrapers, the hustle and the bustle, Singapore city still had a calm, clean and peaceful nature about it! We trekked a few km past Marina Bay and through the Gardens in the hot and humid weather. This was our first ever real team-building challenge, get to dinner before HANGRY set upon some of us (Mikaela). We made it and boy was the walk worth it! Satay on the Bay was amazing! Fresh fruit, smoothies, mango sticky rice, satay sticks, dumplings, stiry frys, you name it, it was all there! We're back at the airport now all in food coma, except for Malik who's running around the airport looking for Balenciga, Lacoste and Tommy Hilfiger, whoever those people are.... It's midnight and we've got 8 more hours till our flight, time to head to the free movies, entertainment room and free massage chairs! - Mark Elbourne
For me, the day really started on Friday morning, as I didn't get much sleep on my flight to Singapore (10pm to 4am) where I met the rest of the team who were already in Singapore, fast asleep. So much so that I couldn't even get a hold of them! I walked around the terminal for 45 minutes, until Mark woke and I found them at the one place I didn't look! We had some food, did some currency exchange and continued the journey at 9am to Luang Prabang. We had a very short layover of about 10 minutes before boarding the next flight to Vientiane, which was thankfully only 20 minutes and now the flying was finally over!
We got through customs and were greeted by the ADRA Laos team, who took us to our first night's accommodation. Despite our tiredness, our taste buds and curiosity got the better of us to have some good local food and to explore the city and night markets. We first came across a dessert cafe, so we started our feast a little backwards, but it was worth it! An ice cream stall was just outside it and some of us got sucked in, including Tim who decided to treat himself, as it was his birthday! It was there where we sang and enjoyed our taro ice cream. Tim and Mark were enticed by all the things, so they ended up with about 15 different street food purchases just between the two of them! We split into smaller groups around the markets and explored what they had to offer after enjoying our meals, and ended the night with massages, a great way to end the day. I felt quite spoilt! - Paul Tomczyk
After our cooked eggs on toast, Porm a local employee from ADRA picked us up and the 12 disciples headed out from the hostel where we spent our first night in Laos. Quickly we stopped by Vientiens SDA church before heading to ADRA LAOS HQ. Fondly greeted by Jill and Suraj, a married couple in charge of ADRA LAOS we began the run down of local customs and history. As we began discussions for what we are in for the next week and what the over all project has been looking like, we soon discovered the government influence on this communist country and how difficult the red tape to get our team is from the inside. We learned the ‘secret war’ here qualifies Laos as the most bombed country per capita. Before we are able to begin digging our 1000 meters of pipeline tomorrow the UXO (unexploited ordinances) must clear the area to ensure that no explosions will happen. Apparently by class it is better for the locals to dig than us foreigners, an insight into class of life here.
Packed into our buses we headed out on our 7 hour bus journey to the destination we had been anticipating for months. Finally the chance arose to ask the burning questions regarding why the Laos communities are unable to build their own labour force and why the government doesn’t invest the time, energy and manpower that ADRA Laos does into creating sustainable growth. Suraj politely educated me that the government system ensures that the people in the villages have no say, the system has been set in place that the mindset of the local people would not even ask these questions. Part of the work that this overall project is doing is to educate the locals discreetly as they move through the villages on how to better themselves. Once the questions were answered my mind at peace I was able to get down off my soap box and enjoy the locally grown sweet and tangy bananas the friendliness of the locals is moving, very honest and happy in the sun, even more highlighting how special this place is. As we checked into our hotel overlooking the rice fields we are excited about the days to come. Hopefully I will still be singing the praises after we put in the real elbow grease tomorrow. May God continue to strengthen, provide wisdom and bless us. - Luana Sioasi
The whole team is now together in Vientiane, we had breakfast and prepared to board the 2 minivans to head to the village we are to work in. After our briefing at the ADRA office and seeing the new church building in Vientiane we were off. The 7+ hours on the road took us through the countryside which was dense with vines and trees, banana plants etc. The journey was long but I was really great to spend time with the 3 ADRA staff who informed us of the context of Laos, the village and what ADRA is doing here. We followed the river as we wound our way through the mountains. We passed through so many villages, where the people work really hard. The roads were busy with shops, markets and motorbikes with families on board. Care needed to be taken to avoid the cows, dos, bikes, kids, goats and other vehicles like multi-use farm machinery that were moving rather slowly. We stopped to see and taste the local produce and have some lunch. - Vicki Woolfe
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