Wedding Bells

No, darlings, I have not run off to deepest Luang Nam Tha with a water buffalo herdsman, it's just that life has got even more interesting--- I'm going to be the mother of the groom!

(Semi-retirement? Ha!! OK, one thing at a time.....)

I guess my biggest news is actually the culmination of the past three years of coming here, talking to people, thinking up ideas, wild times in the wine bar with the gay ex-pat gang, (Networking, Sweetie, networking....) and gradually working my way through the various bureaucratic and other hurdles. I am about to start legal, paid employment with a real visa tonight at 6 PM.

Happy Birthday, Molls! Yer momma is following in your footsteps and turning an honest buck!

Well, it's a pretty small buck, but I also have been teaching a lot of private clients and learning SO MUCH about this business. It has been brilliant. I spent a month teaching the staff of a posh hotel/restaurant, and am currently teaching the manager of a restaurant who speaks only German and Lao, a young girl who speaks only French and Lao, a young architecture student who speaks only Lao and a lovely mob of ten new employees at a restaurant which is about to open.

Every day I dream up lesson plans that concentrate on the phrases they need to do their jobs, sell stuff, serve drinks, wait on tables and chat a bit with customers. Each class is quite different from the next, but I swing from the chandeliers, repeat myself incessantly, think of new ways to teach different things and basically talk myself hoarse.

It is fabulous when they cotton on and deeply challenging when they look at me blankly. But it is pure joy to work with these kids. A great moment came over the weekend when my new employer, the wily Ping---he of the sparkling smile-----asked me to accompany a school excursion of two busloads of 18-25 year old students to our rather wonderful local attraction, Kwang Xi waterfall, about 25 k out of town.

The blank looks that greeted me to start with turned to beaming smiles and cheeky grins as the day progressed. I was thinking of it as a chore to start with but soon I was thinking that I didn't want the day to end. We wandered through the beautifully improved park land around the base of the falls and I acted as a walking dictionary----answering questions, explaining words and usage and then we climbed up the nearly vertical track to the middle of the falls where there was no actual path so we scrambled across the face of the falls through the water. They--including one teacher in neat tweed jacket and tie---skipping nimbly over the rocks and through the mud and icy water on its way 50feet downwards and me groping and creeping and staggering along after them, getting quite soaked in the process.

I was helped by the tiny hands of elfin but steel-strong students who were always more concerned for my well-being than their own to the edge of the large pool at the mid point.

Here we found half a dozen novice monks stripped down to orange loincloths over their undies, enjoying the forbidden pleasure of a freezing frolic in the deep pool there. They were doing triple spin cannonballs and leaping from trees above the water and having a whale of a time. What a sight!....as was the view out over the countryside to the north, mountains and fields bathed in sunshine and still green and gorgeous.

Then we slithered our way wetly back to the track and continued puffing our way up to the very top of the falls, where a wide pool of clear cool water flows along peacfully through the trees before the sudden drop of maybe 120 feet,----no, it's got to be more than that---over the edge. Safety considerations are almost non-existent, but no one seems to mind. Then down the other side of the falls we went, scrambling like goats, to the assembled students and a vast picnic of rice, grilled fish, papaya salad, pickled fish, spring rolls and fruit and of course, lots of beer.

Afterwards the kids all sang and played games and did a bit of Lao dancing and all joined in heartily as each teacher led an activity---no one thought anything was too corny, bless ém and finally we piled back into the buses and drove home to Luang Prabang through the golden afternoon.

This time of year is the perfect temperature---balmy but not hot, cool, but not really cold, a perfect climate. I couldn't have had a better day.

But the day wasn't over. Next, having washed off the mud and dressed in my serious Lao Lady gear, I went off to the little shack where my other 'son'' Sunlay lives and where I was to meet his prospective inlaws. I am, of course, his parent, as he has not spoken to his father since dad said "No more education for you, kiddo. Into the rice paddy with you." and his mum is dead.

So there were long speeches---luckily, the girl's uncle, who is her chief guardian---spoke fairly good English, and I had to reply and make speeches back and everything had to be discussed and hashed over until they arrived at a price. This includes the cost of the wedding---food and beer, and the bride price which is paid in gold. This was all worked out in fine detail and recorded in an exercise book and presented to me as a fait accompli.

It was another of those can-this-really-be-happening moments, sitting on the hard concrete floor of a dimly-lit cinder-block one-room house listening to lilting Lao patter while the family sat solemnly and watched me, minor members hopping up occasionally to tend to dinner, have a bath.

My legs are not built for the Lao lady style of sitting; men can sit crosslegged, but women must sit like the litle mermaid with both legs demurely together and folded to one side. Feet must never be pointed at anyone. The Lao skirt makes this operation easy, but after twenty minutes or so, one needs to shift over to the other side, which is not as easy for me what with the aftermath of my broken femur, so after forty-five mnutes, I was happy to get up and bow and nop my farewells to the family, now smiling warmly and treating me like family.

The wedding will be lovely, not least because of the sweetness and joy of the young couple, but it will take place upcountry in a village on the Nam Ou, one of the loveliest rivers around, according to my latest visitors, the intrepid Jena and Stan Lubin who've recently descended same and declared it magical. It's north of Nong Khiaw, and near Muang Ngoi, for those of you with a Lonely Planet guide to Lao.

This will be in early January, around the 6th or so. I am having a new Lao blouse made for the occasion, to go with my blue sinh, which is faintly iridescent and newly altered to fit my no-longer-so-plump shape. I can get into skirts made for Lao ladies, but the tops are all incredibly short in the body for Gargantua here.

Sunlay has saved up a few hundred bucks to buy his bride, but it will of course be up to me to buy the beer and the food, but this kid is the most determined young man I have ever met and will be an asset to this country, so I am happy to help him out. (Anyone who wishes to contribute will not be refused!!)

I rounded out the evening with a delightful dinner with my ex-monk friend Ken from Arizona and his cousin Priscilla from Little Rock Arkansas, who is here for a visit. Ken has a peaceful little place overlooking a rice paddy on the edge of town where he makes little wooden spirit houses to sell abroad. he has added a huge farang-style deck to his house which is great for star-gazing and dancing and watching the rice harvest.

So that's my life, a little of this, a little of that and all a delightful mix. And I haven't even told you about the wonderful sleep-over rice harvest and the little temple on the hill and, oh, so much more...

Meanwhile, today the weather has turned chilly and I have to put on some socks and get my lesson plans in order for my private students and my Big First Class tonight! And also track down the smooth-talking Ping to see if he has finally got my contract ready, not to mention my actual visa. Just a soupcon of reality to leaven the mix...