Slice of my Lovely Lao Life

Let me tell you about yesterday.....

It was a beautiful rainy, cool morning but it didn't begin well. First, at 8 AM, I taught one of my 3rd-year classes-----Well, I went to school and stood in front of my 3rd year students and spoke for over an hour, but any teaching was pretty well imperceptible. They are some of the brightest and the best and they love my jokes, ask good questions, many of them seem to understand what I'm saying, and some actually make an effort to speak and demonstrate that they have picked up some crumb of knowledge.

But yesterday, nothing.

Just blank looks and yawns. OK, the monks get up at 3:45 AM so that's understandable. And some students work late. But there was no reason for it. You teachers out there will understand. Just one of THOSE days, when one thinks, "Allright-maybe I could get a job running a restaurant....or become a nun for a year, or ANYTHING, as I am clearly incapable of this.. ...

I moaned a bit to my fellow teachers at break time, but they just grinned and said..."Some students are very lazy." Small comfort.

So I trudged back up the filthy stairs to tackle the second years, usually an even motlier bunch, but while they didn't exactly sit up and hold an erudite discussion on the state of the world today, they were asking questions, answering questions, listening, trying to understand, speaking and showing real animation and enthusiasm. What a treat! Wow, I said to myself, What a great class....I'm obviously born to teach!

I had a quiet coffee at the Canadian bakery and reflected on how quickly one's reality can change. Then it was Game on! again.

After lunch, I helped Joy with a few questions, and then my tutees for the afternoon began arriving. First were two smart young almost-graduates from the University for another coaching session in how to be the MC's of a seminar they are organising about the challenges facing Luang Prabang in the areas of Investment, Human Resources and Tourism. It's a school assignment, but it involves a lot of speakers from the Uni and from Government Departments and will be attended by several hundred people.

In the midst of that, my boss, the Wily Ping, showed up with my invitation to the big opening ceremony of our new school building on Saturday, with the whole schmeer----speeches, a baci ceremony, monks chanting and a big piss-up lunch afterwards at the new school. I'll have to dust off my Lao lady outfit for that.

The emcees had no sooner left when the four musicians from Puang Champa House Cultural Centre arrived for their session. They are beginners but quite adorable. I do a lot of pantomiming and leaping about and so on to explain things to them, so it's fairly tiring, but a lot of fun. (Tomorrow is their last class so I'll take them out for a meal.)

Then after a break for a G&T and a bath and it was time to prepare another lesson, this time for Jauck, who came at seven, desperate to be able to improve his pronunciation so he can keep his new job at a posh hotel here and be able to take room service orders. He's really a maths teacher, but there's no money in it and he has a young family to support. The menus he has to try to work from are in French and badly translated English---some of it quite unfathomable, so the poor kid is up against it, but I'm having a go.

Afterwards he dropped me in town to meet my lovely friends Gabriel and Britney, two young travellers who are so taken with this place that they're staying as long as possible. I have found Britney a job and counselled her about whether she should take that one or another one which sounded fabulous but on closer examination was a worry, so we celebrated her accepting the one I found her.

Then they told me all about their trip to Cambodia and Vietnam. Great stories about how their tuktuk driver fell in love with Britney and sat outside her hotel room all night playing love songs at full volume on his phone and weeping. And how Gabriel had to almost fight off the physicaland emotional blandishments of his female guide on a trek to Hmong hill villages in Northern Vietnam! Hilarious evening.

Afterwards I dropped into the wine bar and saw some dear friends there for a glass or two of cold white, a bit of gossiping and planning for our various farewells and returns, and then a council of war over the Dog Problem, which has flared up again, this time with the heartbreaking disappearance of the beautiful Bounma, Nith's dog that we all look after and love.

So that's a picture of a day in my life. There were other things---we've discovered the origin of the awful smell at the back of the house, I've confirmed my ticket home in April, and started lining up farewell dinners and drinks, been out to the hospital for my latest ear infection, but I can't really tell you write any more now because they've just phoned to say that one of the speakers for the seminar has dropped out and would I give a talk and lead a discussion on Cultural Communication at the seminar tomorrow?! Another outing for the Lao lady costume.....

One of my emcees is picking me up at 7:30 tomorrow AM, ( !!!!!) so I'd better get busy writing my speech....Let's see now. How to begin..........Um, Gidday everyone!.....