Reflections of an Ethnographer

These stories derive from research conducted in Lao PDR in 2007 when Denise Buchner lived with two of her children in a rural village to conduct an ethnographic study about health seeking and utilization of public health facilities. During data collection, villagers shared their stories of illness and disability and what was often a long and catastrophic journey through multiple health systems. Often villagers sought help from multiple health providers in both the public and private sectors, including traditional healers, shamans, and drug peddlers. These stories offer a glimpse of the complex process of searching for health as experienced by some of the most disadvantaged and vulnerable people in the world from the perspective of an ethnographer. Woven into these stories is the author’s personal narrative about the juxtaposition of her position as researcher and village guest.