Shoes and Sweeping

Even moreso than in Hawaii with all its Japanese influence, the Lao folk feel shoes are for protection (and perhaps a bit of fashion!) and definitely for outside. As soon as one goes over a threshold to the indoors, even if it doesn't seem like the indoors, lose those shoes. Maybe that's why girls of all ages ride sidesaddle on the backs of motorscooters; that's about the only place they can show off their fancy footwear. Otherwise, all those heels with rhinestones and sandals of every imaginable design and color of the rainbow are strewn about at the front door and no one but the wearer knows whose Manolo Blahniks are whose.

If you want to make yourself useful in Laos, sweep. You can't go wrong if you pick up a broom and propel whatever seems like dust or debris towards the nearest trash basket, which may be away off as there aren't many of them. I counted when I went to a home for Sunday dinner. The mistress of the manor swept the patio where we were eating five times in a thirty minute period. Shopkeepers are out as soon as the rain stops, sweeping up. A clean front stoop is, at the very least, a sign of good breeding and upright moral standing. And we're not just talking the store front, we're talking to the curb, the gutter and beyond. It is impressive.