I have moved to the country, so to speak. I am out of Vientiane proper where it is still plenty busy but a bit more rural. (Translation: less pavement; no less cars, trucks and motorcycles) At least I am now out of my dark cocoon at the hotel and into a brighter room with a table and chair so the bed doesn't have to be the desk as well. I wrestle with my affluence in comparison to most of those around me and am ever grateful for gifts I was given through no effort on my part. There is also constantly with me the need to be sensitive and communicative with those nice folks whom I meet each day.
Noy, the Ed. Center secretary, my translator and confidante, is helping me adjust to the new area and giving me some good teaching ideas. I wish my Lao was as competent as her English. Thank goodness for sign language--that and good will.
My host, Po Vang, is ill and that has slowed progress toward ESL classes for the moment. I am busying myself learning the new area and writing an article for the Lao Samphang Newsletter. I am also trying hard not to be an Ugly American.
Thursday, September 10, 2009
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
Laos; Week 2
The internet liked taking Labor Day Monday off so much it decided to take Tuesday and Wednesday off, too. Imagine getting up and sitting down at your computer to find: No Internet Today. So, catch up time. Fortunately, that will not be difficult.
Monday Po Vang helped me purchase a little red cellphone. I like to call it The Little Dictator. That said, with the internet sometimes iffy, it is wonderful to have a more reliable back-up (that and the hotel staff was getting tired of playing 7/24 valet for me). We also went to the village where I will be teaching at the Ed. Center and perhaps a local middle school. I will be working with local folks at the Ed. Center in English and with both a small group of students and the teachers at the school, primarily on improving their pronunciation. We'll see if they learn more English or I learn more Lao. We visited with the village chief to get permission to do this. Interesting system and chain of command.
Tuesday I went with Po Vang to visit the principal at the school to assure him of the propriety of our intentions and to ask him to let us know how and when I can be most helpful. Then we looked at apartments, guesthouses (motels) and an actual house. A visiting family is coming in January and they may have the Ed. Center secretary, Noy, and I make a home ready for them. Noy speaks some English and there is an available house close to the Ed. Center, so that would be ideal. Po Vang and I also went to his doctor's office so I could see where I might get medical care and prescriptions if I need them. The doctor is French and lovely as is his multilingual office staff. There is also a French clinic for emergencies. Knock on wood.
Yesterday, Wednesday, Noy took me for a motor scooter ride to make sure I don't freak out when the van is not available. I think I passed, but then it was not NASCAR and she's a good driver (no drag racing or playing chicken). Oh, and it was not rush hour--that's a really special time when sane people do not want to be on the road. We went to the bank for more kip so I could pay the hotel bill today and she helped me buy a helmet so I can conform to Lao regulations when I am on the scooter (she calls it a motorcycle, so I probably will, too) with her. It was fun.
Today, I am supposed to go--at least for the interim--to a guesthouse which is much closer to the Ed. Center and the school than I am now. I would be glad to walk to both if they will let me. I have to keep reminding myself that I am a decade over the Lao life expectancy; age has its perks!?! I think some keep fearing I will simply drop over dead. That is not my plan.
Did you know "Tom and Jerry" speak Lao? I know they don't speak much, but each morning one of my favorite hotel employees turns on that rascally canine and rodent and laughs uproariously at their antics. It is so reassuring to know there are things which communicate beyond language.
I will miss my morning noodles.
Monday Po Vang helped me purchase a little red cellphone. I like to call it The Little Dictator. That said, with the internet sometimes iffy, it is wonderful to have a more reliable back-up (that and the hotel staff was getting tired of playing 7/24 valet for me). We also went to the village where I will be teaching at the Ed. Center and perhaps a local middle school. I will be working with local folks at the Ed. Center in English and with both a small group of students and the teachers at the school, primarily on improving their pronunciation. We'll see if they learn more English or I learn more Lao. We visited with the village chief to get permission to do this. Interesting system and chain of command.
Tuesday I went with Po Vang to visit the principal at the school to assure him of the propriety of our intentions and to ask him to let us know how and when I can be most helpful. Then we looked at apartments, guesthouses (motels) and an actual house. A visiting family is coming in January and they may have the Ed. Center secretary, Noy, and I make a home ready for them. Noy speaks some English and there is an available house close to the Ed. Center, so that would be ideal. Po Vang and I also went to his doctor's office so I could see where I might get medical care and prescriptions if I need them. The doctor is French and lovely as is his multilingual office staff. There is also a French clinic for emergencies. Knock on wood.
Yesterday, Wednesday, Noy took me for a motor scooter ride to make sure I don't freak out when the van is not available. I think I passed, but then it was not NASCAR and she's a good driver (no drag racing or playing chicken). Oh, and it was not rush hour--that's a really special time when sane people do not want to be on the road. We went to the bank for more kip so I could pay the hotel bill today and she helped me buy a helmet so I can conform to Lao regulations when I am on the scooter (she calls it a motorcycle, so I probably will, too) with her. It was fun.
Today, I am supposed to go--at least for the interim--to a guesthouse which is much closer to the Ed. Center and the school than I am now. I would be glad to walk to both if they will let me. I have to keep reminding myself that I am a decade over the Lao life expectancy; age has its perks!?! I think some keep fearing I will simply drop over dead. That is not my plan.
Did you know "Tom and Jerry" speak Lao? I know they don't speak much, but each morning one of my favorite hotel employees turns on that rascally canine and rodent and laughs uproariously at their antics. It is so reassuring to know there are things which communicate beyond language.
I will miss my morning noodles.
Sunday, September 6, 2009
Laos: Day 4 - Worship and Farewell
I sat in the lobby of my nice Hotel having noodles, little butter sandwiches and tea this morning before getting together with some local folks and savored the experience. Wednesday I leave this nice place for a guest house or apartment closer to where I will teach and I fear no one will make noodles and cut the crusts off my sandwiches there.
Po Vang and P. Manning (aforementioned Computer Angel) picked me up at 7:15 and we were off for worship in the outer province. We picked up a student and some local leaders on the way. Everything in Vientiane is very far, it seems to me; we spend a lot of time in the lorry or the van traveling from here to there. Everyone is very patient with this. I am learning to be patient, too.
Gatherings are small, so Po Vang is in charge of several small groups. This small group seemed pretty typical. Nineteen families with children too numerous to count (when I mentioned Planned Parenthood, Po Vang laughed). The talk lasted an hour-and-a-half or so and the children were remarkably attentive, singing the songs with gusto.
After dropping some people off, we had light lunch and sodas on the bank of the Mekong River, then dropped P. Manning at the airport. I will miss his comraderie and comprehension of English nuance. Now the Lao immersion begins in earnest--glub, glub.
Just a word about the Mushroom Project of my last posting. Local folks are always looking for projects which will help employ and feed the people, hopefully eventually getting them out of a subsistence situation. The Mushroom Project is perfect here. The climate, the available hard workers, and the minimal expenditure for supplies suit it well to Laos. Plastic tube-like bags are filled with a mixture of mulched wood, rice, hulls, and plaster, then they are compacted, covered and steamed (using an ingenious arrangement of empty oil drums as steamers). After steaming, they are stacked for a period of time (one to four weeks) in thatched bamboo huts, during which time they gestate mushrooms, which can then be harvested for 3-4 months. Each individual pod of the project requires $345 and pays enough to employ several families. The mushrooms have been so successful that they have all been purchased by a Thai company before they have even made it to market. It was great fun to see several pods at work, from the compacting through the steaming through the nursery tubing and finally the mushrooms thrusting their jaunty beige coolie caps through the burst tubing tops.
American Embassy visit, orientation and maybe some teaching tomorrow
Po Vang and P. Manning (aforementioned Computer Angel) picked me up at 7:15 and we were off for worship in the outer province. We picked up a student and some local leaders on the way. Everything in Vientiane is very far, it seems to me; we spend a lot of time in the lorry or the van traveling from here to there. Everyone is very patient with this. I am learning to be patient, too.
Gatherings are small, so Po Vang is in charge of several small groups. This small group seemed pretty typical. Nineteen families with children too numerous to count (when I mentioned Planned Parenthood, Po Vang laughed). The talk lasted an hour-and-a-half or so and the children were remarkably attentive, singing the songs with gusto.
After dropping some people off, we had light lunch and sodas on the bank of the Mekong River, then dropped P. Manning at the airport. I will miss his comraderie and comprehension of English nuance. Now the Lao immersion begins in earnest--glub, glub.
Just a word about the Mushroom Project of my last posting. Local folks are always looking for projects which will help employ and feed the people, hopefully eventually getting them out of a subsistence situation. The Mushroom Project is perfect here. The climate, the available hard workers, and the minimal expenditure for supplies suit it well to Laos. Plastic tube-like bags are filled with a mixture of mulched wood, rice, hulls, and plaster, then they are compacted, covered and steamed (using an ingenious arrangement of empty oil drums as steamers). After steaming, they are stacked for a period of time (one to four weeks) in thatched bamboo huts, during which time they gestate mushrooms, which can then be harvested for 3-4 months. Each individual pod of the project requires $345 and pays enough to employ several families. The mushrooms have been so successful that they have all been purchased by a Thai company before they have even made it to market. It was great fun to see several pods at work, from the compacting through the steaming through the nursery tubing and finally the mushrooms thrusting their jaunty beige coolie caps through the burst tubing tops.
American Embassy visit, orientation and maybe some teaching tomorrow
Friday, September 4, 2009
Laos: Day 2 - I Made It!
P. Manning is a good human! He is a Lao angel from South Carolina who just happens to be here for their very first commissioning talk and wonderfully, he has a little red Dell computer which he is temporarily entrusting to me. The local Hotel computers do not like yahoo and cost money to connect to internet and I have been unable, so far, to find a phone, so bear with me while I am learning to connect to my new umbilical cord. (This computer has a cranky relationship with yahoo as well, but I will not gripe as it seems to be on good terms with blogspot!)
I arrived Thursday afternoon and was greeted by no one, so I made my way through the visa process, then a very user-friendly customs, and while I was changing US$ 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.
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.
Monday, August 31, 2009
Saturday, August 29, 2009
Countdown: 3 Days
It is all taking shape now. Suitcases are pretty much packed (hopefully I won't get any flak about the weight limits!) and loved ones have been informed about the blog. Taking anti-malaria pills begins tomorrow. I'm trying to look at it all as a wide-ranging conversation with family and friends, old and new, on both sides of the seas. I'm hoping I will be equal to the tasks at hand. I feel undergirded by each of you and very much led by One so much greater than myself. Thank Goodness. Po Vang, my host, assures me I will be met at the Vientiane airport Thursday afternoon by two trusted women from his village. Let the intensive Lao learning adventure begin!
It is all taking shape now. Suitcases are pretty much packed (hopefully I won't get any flak about the weight limits!) and loved ones have been informed about the blog. Taking anti-malaria pills begins tomorrow. I'm trying to look at it all as a wide-ranging conversation with family and friends, old and new, on both sides of the seas. I'm hoping I will be equal to the tasks at hand. I feel undergirded by each of you and very much led by One so much greater than myself. Thank Goodness. Po Vang, my host, assures me I will be met at the Vientiane airport Thursday afternoon by two trusted women from his village. Let the intensive Lao learning adventure begin!
Saturday, August 22, 2009
Countdown: 10 Days
It is impossible to stop the brain from clickety-clacking away at this point. It has its own agenda and even when it seems like other things are being attended to, Laos is on my mind. Copying, filing, what to keep, what to throw, packing, essentials, optionals, survival gear, what will I wish I had that I will forget that I will hopefully be able to live without. Is it possible to pretend I'm leaving a week before I go so I can get the craziness over early? I think maybe getting on the airplane and taking flight will be a relief. Hopefully the people of Laos are a compassionate, forgiving lot!
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