(This is one of Jack's pix from that wonderful visit, just so you know I can actually do this. Els and I are standing at the gate of Our Land and hope that now that I can do this that you will see more....)
I am getting complaints about my non-blogging, so I guess that means that some one does read these things. Only Anna will understand the title, but there you are....So MUCH has happened that I don't know where to begin....
It's now the last gasping, stifling, sweating month of the wet season and it's already raining less, getting dark earlier but still just as hot. The Mekhong is still high so it must be raining somewhere, but we are all hanging out for the cool crisp days of our short winter---November through January.
Work is hot and heavy as well, now that I am, in a sense, working at three different places.
OUR SCHOOL
This is the big event I suppose, as we now have a building, have paid our rent for five years and have had the place renovated and painted---well, we've knocked out some walls, added others and painted the inside. We all specified carefully the colours we wanted; dark blue for Marcel, peach for Claus and lime green for me. And we got light blue, pink and aqua, but we are delighted with our classrooms nonetheless. Well, Claus spent a sweltering day repainting....
Then we had to dig even deeper and find the money for a new airconditioner as the ones there were not designed for the larger size of the rooms. We are on the edge of one of the many pools that dot the western side of town, like wetlands that have been contained and once used for settling ponds to clean the ground water. Now they are just green ponds and ours is to be stocked with fish.
We have a maid to clean and two students who live there and look after the place and Claus and Marcel are already teaching several classes a day. Mine will start in November when I get back from Oz. We are planning to rename the school to fit our expanded outreach and plans for regional branches so we are now the Mekhong International Language Centre.
I am getting complaints about my non-blogging, so I guess that means that some one does read these things. Only Anna will understand the title, but there you are....So MUCH has happened that I don't know where to begin....
It's now the last gasping, stifling, sweating month of the wet season and it's already raining less, getting dark earlier but still just as hot. The Mekhong is still high so it must be raining somewhere, but we are all hanging out for the cool crisp days of our short winter---November through January.
Work is hot and heavy as well, now that I am, in a sense, working at three different places.
OUR SCHOOL
This is the big event I suppose, as we now have a building, have paid our rent for five years and have had the place renovated and painted---well, we've knocked out some walls, added others and painted the inside. We all specified carefully the colours we wanted; dark blue for Marcel, peach for Claus and lime green for me. And we got light blue, pink and aqua, but we are delighted with our classrooms nonetheless. Well, Claus spent a sweltering day repainting....
Then we had to dig even deeper and find the money for a new airconditioner as the ones there were not designed for the larger size of the rooms. We are on the edge of one of the many pools that dot the western side of town, like wetlands that have been contained and once used for settling ponds to clean the ground water. Now they are just green ponds and ours is to be stocked with fish.
We have a maid to clean and two students who live there and look after the place and Claus and Marcel are already teaching several classes a day. Mine will start in November when I get back from Oz. We are planning to rename the school to fit our expanded outreach and plans for regional branches so we are now the Mekhong International Language Centre.
THE HOTEL
The hotel is finally about to open officially with a gala party next weekend, complete with motorcade for the governor of the province and all the dignitaries. We are still deep in workers scurrying to polish off the last of the finishing touches and a list of 'rectifications'----sounds very uncomfortable--- but I have at last a classroom there, too. And that's where a spend my days frantically devising the learning materials that cannot be had any other way---no, don't send CDs--- these are all custom designed for the hotel and our staff. I have figured out that since we can't get at the students during high season because the hotel is too busy, we will hold proper classes from May t0 September and the rest of the time do a lot of passive learning by making the training room materials---flash cards, games, reference books available and having a teacher there around start of shift to answer questions. Already seeing some success with this.
PASABANDITH COLLEGE And I still have to do two nights a week at poor old Pasabandith until my visa finishes, but that will be early December, so I won't have to do that for long. Yes, the wily Ping still owes me money, but this time he PROMISES to pay. Ha! Wait till he finds out that one of his former and one of his present teachers have decided to come and work with us!!! Claus is starting a full-time teacher training course soon so we are really moving into high gear.
MY SOCIAL LIFE Social life is still lots of fun, especially now when the fly-away expats start coming back. Tonight my dear friends Chris and Anthony are back so we're toddling off to one of our favourite haunts. And I have only just had time to recover from a flying visit from Charles and Thep.
The opening party at Amantaka will kind of kick off The Season. Mind you, some grumbles are being heard as the popularity of this place grows and costs go up, mitigated only by The Downturn, and Luang Prabang is no longer the home of the extraordinary cheap life for us expats. Poor us---can't go out for a sumptuous French meal every night!!
But the life is still wonderful. Now that I really am getting to know the place it has opened up even more and become even more interesting. Traffic is a pain in the arse, petty bureaucratic procedures are irritating, the lack of good cheese is tragic, but most of us thanks our lucky stars often that we are here. A few long-timers are muttering about having reached bliss-out and threatening to move home, but that's after nine and ten years here....
The ceremonies are sometimes quite wonderful. Next weekend is Ok Phan Saa, the end of Buddhist Lent, and it is wonderful. Everyone makes beautiful paper lanterns to hang outside their houses and then converges in the evening at the end of the peninsula by Wat Xieng Thong (our oldest and loveliest temple) for the blessing and launching of hundreds of little boats made of banana leaves and flowers and stuck with candles and incense. Absolutely beautiful.......
MY FOOTIE TEAM I seem to be getting more entrenched as my garden grows and my 'family' gets bigger and now I even have a football team. As in soccer. Amantaka declined to sponsor an employee team, but I went along to watch the boys play, joined the two teams and supporters afterwards for "one quick drink" that turned into hours of wonderful, beer-fuelled fun, dancing and laughing and eating until far into the night---there were still six of us at a night club at 1 AM----and the upshot was that I took on the sponsorship of the team. While we were still fairly inebriated they said they'd be called Suzy's Boys, but once we'd sobered up we decided on Suzy's Champions.
We have spiffy blue and green shirts and blue shorts for weekend matches and are already working on putting together a super team (Suzy's Superstars) for some serious competition. So far we play most weekends and spend the following week reminiscing about it, and we've got some good players. My coach, Bounlieng, has visions of grandeur for the super team but while we still have to play on lumpy, unmown fields with mud wallows that could swallow some of our smaller players we aren't holding our breath.
I, of course, pay for all this, but insist that after game drinks are their own responsibility. We have had some glorious celebrations; like the night they first got their Suzy's Champions shirts AND we won our first game. We danced and cheered for hours at a nearby beer garden and I was the Queen of the Night. One boy still kisses the front of his shirt and falls to his knees in greeting to show his gratitude.
The girls from the hotel often come along to cheer, but it's usually just me, roaming up and down the sidelines, conferring with Bounlieng, tidying up rubbish, handing out water and encouragement and enjoying the moments when the players leave the field and have to surrender their shirts for the next guy. I suggested they play bare-topped with a tasteful tattoo with the team name across their backs....but got no agreement on that.
Some of them have no proper shoes to play in and often share them, but that's a big ask for me so right now I have promised them bright red socks if they win their next game. Bounlieng is busy trying out new players from outside the hotel and we plan to start with proper practice and skills training soon. SO much fun. (Needless to say, my son Sommay is one of the absolute stars of the team along with my darling Jack....)
And finally, today we have had a big event which is the occasional push by the World Heritage people to clear away all the riverside restaurants, some of which double as residences and some of which obscure the view of the river. Only happens every few years but it meant that I had to go and tear down the fence protecting my garden. And I have been assailed all day by the raucous clamour of my neighbours moving all their noodle restaurant bits and pieces from the other side of the road into their yard and building a new shelter etc. RIGHT outside my window..... That's a pain but I won't miss the other places with their blasting karaoke and the heavy motorcycle traffic late at night ----mainly hallooing drunken youth and shrieking, giggling girls...My neighbours are only open during the day and their noodles are wonderful.
Speaking of which; I'm hungry....so that's yer lot. I' ll see the Oz lot of you soon.
The hotel is finally about to open officially with a gala party next weekend, complete with motorcade for the governor of the province and all the dignitaries. We are still deep in workers scurrying to polish off the last of the finishing touches and a list of 'rectifications'----sounds very uncomfortable--- but I have at last a classroom there, too. And that's where a spend my days frantically devising the learning materials that cannot be had any other way---no, don't send CDs--- these are all custom designed for the hotel and our staff. I have figured out that since we can't get at the students during high season because the hotel is too busy, we will hold proper classes from May t0 September and the rest of the time do a lot of passive learning by making the training room materials---flash cards, games, reference books available and having a teacher there around start of shift to answer questions. Already seeing some success with this.
PASABANDITH COLLEGE And I still have to do two nights a week at poor old Pasabandith until my visa finishes, but that will be early December, so I won't have to do that for long. Yes, the wily Ping still owes me money, but this time he PROMISES to pay. Ha! Wait till he finds out that one of his former and one of his present teachers have decided to come and work with us!!! Claus is starting a full-time teacher training course soon so we are really moving into high gear.
MY SOCIAL LIFE Social life is still lots of fun, especially now when the fly-away expats start coming back. Tonight my dear friends Chris and Anthony are back so we're toddling off to one of our favourite haunts. And I have only just had time to recover from a flying visit from Charles and Thep.
The opening party at Amantaka will kind of kick off The Season. Mind you, some grumbles are being heard as the popularity of this place grows and costs go up, mitigated only by The Downturn, and Luang Prabang is no longer the home of the extraordinary cheap life for us expats. Poor us---can't go out for a sumptuous French meal every night!!
But the life is still wonderful. Now that I really am getting to know the place it has opened up even more and become even more interesting. Traffic is a pain in the arse, petty bureaucratic procedures are irritating, the lack of good cheese is tragic, but most of us thanks our lucky stars often that we are here. A few long-timers are muttering about having reached bliss-out and threatening to move home, but that's after nine and ten years here....
The ceremonies are sometimes quite wonderful. Next weekend is Ok Phan Saa, the end of Buddhist Lent, and it is wonderful. Everyone makes beautiful paper lanterns to hang outside their houses and then converges in the evening at the end of the peninsula by Wat Xieng Thong (our oldest and loveliest temple) for the blessing and launching of hundreds of little boats made of banana leaves and flowers and stuck with candles and incense. Absolutely beautiful.......
MY FOOTIE TEAM I seem to be getting more entrenched as my garden grows and my 'family' gets bigger and now I even have a football team. As in soccer. Amantaka declined to sponsor an employee team, but I went along to watch the boys play, joined the two teams and supporters afterwards for "one quick drink" that turned into hours of wonderful, beer-fuelled fun, dancing and laughing and eating until far into the night---there were still six of us at a night club at 1 AM----and the upshot was that I took on the sponsorship of the team. While we were still fairly inebriated they said they'd be called Suzy's Boys, but once we'd sobered up we decided on Suzy's Champions.
We have spiffy blue and green shirts and blue shorts for weekend matches and are already working on putting together a super team (Suzy's Superstars) for some serious competition. So far we play most weekends and spend the following week reminiscing about it, and we've got some good players. My coach, Bounlieng, has visions of grandeur for the super team but while we still have to play on lumpy, unmown fields with mud wallows that could swallow some of our smaller players we aren't holding our breath.
I, of course, pay for all this, but insist that after game drinks are their own responsibility. We have had some glorious celebrations; like the night they first got their Suzy's Champions shirts AND we won our first game. We danced and cheered for hours at a nearby beer garden and I was the Queen of the Night. One boy still kisses the front of his shirt and falls to his knees in greeting to show his gratitude.
The girls from the hotel often come along to cheer, but it's usually just me, roaming up and down the sidelines, conferring with Bounlieng, tidying up rubbish, handing out water and encouragement and enjoying the moments when the players leave the field and have to surrender their shirts for the next guy. I suggested they play bare-topped with a tasteful tattoo with the team name across their backs....but got no agreement on that.
Some of them have no proper shoes to play in and often share them, but that's a big ask for me so right now I have promised them bright red socks if they win their next game. Bounlieng is busy trying out new players from outside the hotel and we plan to start with proper practice and skills training soon. SO much fun. (Needless to say, my son Sommay is one of the absolute stars of the team along with my darling Jack....)
And finally, today we have had a big event which is the occasional push by the World Heritage people to clear away all the riverside restaurants, some of which double as residences and some of which obscure the view of the river. Only happens every few years but it meant that I had to go and tear down the fence protecting my garden. And I have been assailed all day by the raucous clamour of my neighbours moving all their noodle restaurant bits and pieces from the other side of the road into their yard and building a new shelter etc. RIGHT outside my window..... That's a pain but I won't miss the other places with their blasting karaoke and the heavy motorcycle traffic late at night ----mainly hallooing drunken youth and shrieking, giggling girls...My neighbours are only open during the day and their noodles are wonderful.
Speaking of which; I'm hungry....so that's yer lot. I' ll see the Oz lot of you soon.
