Amelie Katczynski is a PhD candidate at the Alfred Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation, conducting anthropological research on the training of public health workers in Lao PDR.

I arrive at the office of Ajan Mala, a teacher at a Public Health School in southern Laos. We grab brooms, buckets, sponges and floor cleaner and she walks ahead of me towards the student dorm. As we ...