Congratulations Van Dee

Van Dee, Ashley and I  

A celebratory dinner at Cafe Ban Vat Sen

Van Dee is an amazing young man.  He is a nurse working at 
the Lao Friends Hospital for Children.  Since last year he has been studying through an American University for a qualification which will enable him to be in charge of the Sterilising Department at the hospital (Sterilising  instruments not people).  This is a complicated text which uses lots of jargon.  As well as learning the intricacies of cleaning, disinfecting, packaging and sterilising all types of  instruments, he has had to study various United States Acts of Parliament and OH&S laws.

All alone in the library at the hospital, Van Dee has consistently studied the incredibly complex language of the Central Services Technical Manual.  (the library is now referred to as his office)   For some time we were meeting to go through different chapters of the book.  If you want to know the benefits of steam sterilisation versus EtO or Hydrogen Peroxide, just ask us. Knowing the steps for cleaning and disinfecting powered surgical instruments is sure to come in handy for me over the next few years.  

Translating many chapters of the manual into plain English has confirmed my sense that English is a needlessly wordy and difficult language.   Why use a 4 syllable word when a 1 syllable word would do?  After every few chapters, Van Dee had to sit an exam.  His average score was about 98%.  This week he sat a final 3 hour exam which covered THE WHOLE BOOK.  And he passed, scoring something like 89%.  Congratulations Mr Xiong.

Van Dee and his steak

Last night, Van Dee, Ashley, the lovely ESL teacher from the Hospital and I went out to celebrate.  Van Dee's only request for a venue was  “not Lao food”,  so we went to my favourite, Cafe Ban Vat Sen.  I go here every few weeks for a treat as it is more expensive than most places I eat.  He had the first steak of his life and great enjoyed it. 

I should also mention that  I am now a “published author”.  I deciphered many of the chapters of the manual into plain English.  Ashley has printed and bound them and they now sit on the shelves of the Children’s hospital library