Laos: Day 2 - I Made It!

P. Manning is a good human! He is a Lao angel from South Carolina who just happens to be here for their very first commissioning talk and wonderfully, he has a little red Dell computer which he is temporarily entrusting to me. The local Hotel computers do not like yahoo and cost money to connect to internet and I have been unable, so far, to find a phone, so bear with me while I am learning to connect to my new umbilical cord. (This computer has a cranky relationship with yahoo as well, but I will not gripe as it seems to be on good terms with blogspot!)
I arrived Thursday afternoon and was greeted by no one, so I made my way through the visa process, then a very user-friendly customs, and while I was changing US$ into Kip (1:8500), a lovely man named 'Vote' approached me with a red-penciled my name on notebook paper. I smiled, he smiled, we loaded my luggage into his small pick-up truck and we were off. My first view of Laos through the airplane windows was, I thought, a golf course. So green, so lovely, so this is Laos! The Capital City Vientiane architecture is very diverse, the old vs. the new, the French vs. the Asian, the colonial vs. the third world emerging into the global economy. Motor scooters are everywhere, darting in and out between cars, trucks and bicycles. The locals seem unfazed. I am glad I am not driving.
It is hot; the sun is unforgiving. People keep pulling me into the shade.
My hotel has become a wonderful cocoon. My room is simple but so much more than I expected. It has a toilet and an A/C unit. I am in heaven. I unpacked and found nooks and crannies for everything. I use half of my double bed as a desk. There were five wonderful women from Malaysia who were here to participate in the commissioning and to see The Mushroom Project (more on that later). Po Vang, my host, P. Manning, my computer angel, the Malaysian girls and I dined together Thursday evening. We had delicious Lao food (soups, meat, the famous sticky rice which I very much liked as you use your fingers). Yesterday we toured Mushroom Project locations and saw the Lao Samphang Center. The people are all ages and sizes and are of uniformly good humor. It is obvious they genuinely care about each other. Every person is family.
The Malaysian girls left this morning. I miss them.
I miss you each and appreciate your thoughts and comments which constantly undergird me. For the moment, I am alive and well and learning to love Laos.