What it is ain't exactly clear...Remember that song?
Anyway,some things are happening here and it's high time I told you about it all....
For one thing, it's raining!! That DOES NOT happen in Luang Prabang in January. And it's raining quite heavily, in fact, after many days of very oddly warm weather, so I guess climate change has well and truly found this place, along with the greater mass of tourists from around the world.
So what else is happening? Well, some of it is weird and unprecedented, like the rain and the fact that I made my own breakfast today. I guess it's all just progress in the life here that I have come to love, but not to expect, because what I love most here is the surprises and the unexpected stuff, the daily discoveries and new possibilities as well as the unanticipated quirks and irritations and disasters, all of which are part of the deal.
Enough waffling. I can hear Peter saying ...And your point is....?!?
One change is that I have three months off from the hotel job as they go into their high season and need all hands on deck to handle a fairly full house. Staff are having their eyes opened as to what work really means. I pop back from time to time and am gratified by the warm reception and earnest entreaties for my return that I get from all the staff. Take note: If you want to feel good about yourself---be a teacher in Laos. Students are deeply respectful of teachers and have a very sweet disposition as well so you can't miss in the warm and fuzzy department.
Having time off is a pain in the finances, but is giving me time to concentrate on the usual enhanced social life of this time of year. Yesterday the Froggie segment of the expat community plus many non-Frog of us gathered for the annual 12th Night or l'Epiphanie celebrations chez our friend Francis, co-hosted by Gilles and Yannick of the famous LÉlephant restaurant empire who laid on the nosh. This means several things. One is the gorgeous gallette de Roi and other pastries they served (Yah, I had to nibble at the fillings and leave the crusts) as Yannick is a premier pastry chef. Another is the chance to be in Francis' wonderful house, an old French colonial building in soft mustardy yellow with a sweet little garden outside and many beautiful antique pieces inside. He is extremely knowledgable about Buddhist history and practice, especially Lao Buddhism, as well as being an expert on botanical matters. He's been here for years and is a charming fellow.
Shortly after this gracious gathering in the soft afternoon sun, I changed pace completely and headed out to a small grassy field in a farming area on the outskirts of town for the penultimate pre-semifinal practice of Suzy's Superstars, my premier soccer team.
This may be just about the biggest point of the competition, bar the finals, but it's only our first meeting with one of our new players from Vientiane, late of the national team, thanks very much. Another one arrives today for literally ONE training session before Friday's BIG one at the stadium. Talk about last minute...
Fingers crossed that we win this one and can then go on to the final in two weeks. When my manager isn't on hand, I can only actually communicate with one or two of the players and that in a fairly rudimentary fashion, so it's a fun time for us all making gestures and hilarious attempts at each others' languages. Crowds of small would-be Superstars hang around to gawp and giggle at the players and the farang lady.
The coach is a big lump of a fellow with not a skerrick of social graces and a voice that could skin a pig at a hundred paces, but the lads seem to like him and he's getting good results. He occasionally smiles but not usually until post game drinks are well under way. The late and casual arrivals of our star players makes us look pretty unprofessional, but I will say that we only have a big piss-up after matches and not after training, which is regarded as a mark of serious sportspeople in this town. I supply cold drinks at practice instead or take them all out for fruit shakes.
There's more that is changing and moving....The school is up and running for real now and we are half-way through our teacher training course, with three of our trainees already exceeding expecations and the other three not far behind. They will soon move from assisting in the classrooms to teaching under supervision and this means we can start several new beginners classes next month which will mean that we are finally making some money to cover our expenses, but so far only stuff like loo paper and lightbulbs and
maybe a phone.
I am preparing my roster of advanced classes in speaking and writing and will try a course in understanding what foreigners eat. Then in May, I will be flat out with Amantaka and other places as they go into low season and staff have time to study. The idea is that I will use two of our trainees as my assistants so can cover more than one hotel at a time. So lots of planning to do....
And lots to learn. It's fascinating how difficult it is to teach expressive language, idioms and nuances of meaning to people whose own language has none of these. They stare wide-eyed when I tell them about the different ways there are to say things with different sounds, references, impacts etc. I tell them that trying to learn English is like learning to juggle live fish, but even that image takes a lot of explaining and some fairly ungainly mime work to get across.
The biggest excitement is that the first of my darling children has finally made it up here and seen that Mummy is not actually running a brothel or living on rotten rice and snake meat in some hovel. It's been glorious having her and Alistair here, but much too short, of course.
They arrived on Christmas Eve in Vientiane, where I had an ex-student pick them up and whisk them to the bus station, not because they are not capable world travellers and grown up people, but because my student was so keen to help and because I wanted them out of Vientiane and on their way to ME as soon as possible!!! They came by bus to Vang Vieng,(a beautiful place currently being destroyed by yahoo tourists), where I met them, having driven down with my dear friend Mario, who had lived in Vang Vieng on an organic farm/community outreach centre there for 6 months and wanted to visit.
The drive down was lovely and the drive back was too, as it is almost all mountain roads with breathtaking views, hairy switchback turns, and roadside villages full of wandering -pigs and adorable naked children and people doing what they do despite the occasional semi-trailers or double-decker buses thundering through, inches from their front doors.
We stopped to join a Hmong New Year party of kids decked out in their beaded, pleated, multi-coloured finery playing a traditional courting game of tossing a ball back and forth----sounds simple, but is actually rather fun.
Later we stopped at another village where I have spent some time and where I had toilets installed in honour of Alice and Andy's wedding. There the headman and his family welcomed us with open arms and presented me with a stunning gift of a Khen---a traditional Hmong musical instrument about four feet long that looks a bit like a cross between an oboe and a crossbow and is played while dancing to its music, which is a somewhat doleful flutey sound. Along with that came a simpler bamboo flute and a small but beautiful mouth organ/jew's harp in it's own case. A full Hmong orchestra---I nearly wept at their generosity. Alistair being a musical wunderkind was able to play the flute and will no doubt master the Khen, given a bit of time.
Time being precious, we hustled home ---it's a six hour drive---and had Xmas dinner with my friend Ric and his Parisian houseguests and other friends, and then spent several days trying to see and do everything here, but of course not having enough time to do it all. We hit some highlights---Kuang Xi waterfall, Mount Phousi, a walk in the jungle to the temples and the seven headed Naga statue buried in the trees on the other side of the Mekhong, a visit out to our land for a goat barbecue with the family and a swim in the Nam Khan River. And dinners out, shopping, and a trip to my old school for a guest teaching session. Then we launched ourselves on another marathon drive, this time up to Luang Nam Tha in the north.
The first bit of road is pretty good, especially along the Nam Ou River. Then we did battle with the appalling stretch from Pak Mong to Oudomsai which is redeemed by the fabuous views out over miles and miles of misty green-blue mountains and more cute bamboo huts/naked babies/wandering piglet villages before we stumbled through the really bad stuff beyond.
Finally, and quite mind-bogglingly, we hit the last 37 kilometres, recently completed as part of a corridor from China to Thailand and it was utterly surreal. One minute we're crawling over jagged rocks and steep drops and massive potholes and the next it's like a modern road in any well-developed country. Like driving on whipped cream and actually quite eerie. Drove in top gear for long stretches. People living on the road were probably awed by it to begin with but now they treat it like any other road---a good place to dry chillies, stop and chat and live their lives. Flat places are at a premium up here so they use the road as part of their living space and somehow they survive.
The kids took turns not feeling well, but after a night in Luang Nam Tha, we left them in reasonable spirits planning to meander back down to Luang Prabang via various buses and boats while Sommay and I drove the 7 hours back by road, most of it in daylight. The nighttime driving here is nothing short of harrowing as people still wander along and inhabit the road as they do in the daytime, but sans lights. They seem not to realise that they are invisible until the last minute in one's headlights and they often putter along on motorbikes and bicycles with NO lights at all. The big trucks and buses just scream on through (Liberal use of the horn is necessary as a warning)and somehow no one gets killed. At least to my knowledge.
One has to juggle steering, constant gear changes, very slow traffic as well as big fast vehicles and somehow keep enough lights on to see the road and this gets hairy, I can tell you. So I drove and manned the horn and the high beams while Sommay kept his thumb on the fog lights that are the only way to see pedestrians. In most there are no proper verges to pull onto and in many the verge is literally through someone's house, so it's a tricky business, but a great test of one's reflexes and driving skills. Never boring.
Sommay is a great co-pilot. Never gets nervous, even sleeps through the most hair-raising bits, but otherwise he is useful---in rainy season driving he gets out and wades ahead through puddles so I can see the depth, and he murmurs "Hmmm, exciting..." when we hit an unexpected bump or encounter some idiot coming at us around a hairpin bend on the wrong side of the road. Once we saw a motorbike approaching and duly dimmed all our lights, whereupon the approaching driver simply turned his off completely, rendering him completely invisible in the dark. We laughed a lot. We make a good team.
So, it is definitely a new era in our lives that he is going to go to Thailand soon to check out the possibility of being apprenticed in a mechanical shop, learning all about car detailing, painting and panelbeating as we call it in Oz. He's also interested in a law career, so we'll see which one wins out.
It will be odd without him as he may end up going for the better part of a year, but I am sufficiently local now to look after myself in most things and I still have Joy---oh, dear---- and a friend of ours called Xayngeun will take over Sommay's room and some of his roles in the house while S. is gone. Xay is an ex-student of mine and his English is much better than Joy's so I will be OK. (My potted palm has better English than Joy, of course...)
Enough already, as even here in lotus land there is stuff to be done. Happy Greetings to everyone for the new year and the new decade! Remember, if you know anyone who can help me support Phone, the wunderkind medical student that I sponsor, I will be deeply grateful, as will the population of Laos when he starts to practice in five years or so.
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
Sunday, September 27, 2009
POPCORN for ANNA
(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.
Sunday, April 26, 2009
Forty Miles of Bad Road
I feel like a solo performer on a stage in a vast, nearly empty theatre wondering if there's anybody out there since I haven't posted anything in so long, but this is to let you know that I'm still here in Laos and still loving it.
Weather is, at the moment, hideously hot when the sun is out, and nicer, but still humid, when it's not. Yesterday it was 45 degrees C. out on my front patio. That's nearly 110 F. Oof...
Work is fairly all-consuming, but still very rewarding. Training for the hotel continues as opening day approaches. I think I am learning as much as they are---possibly more.
The big news is that my friends and I are opening our own school soon. This was, of course, my original idea when I came here so it's quite thrilling. Actually I am joining forces with my friend Claus, who started his own school a few years ago, added another teacher, Marcel, and then created quite simply the best little two room school in town, despite not being native speakers, and not being able to award Government-recognised certificates. People come to Claus' school despite this because they actually WANT to learn.
(I should explain that many people here go to English language schools for the govt. certificate so they can get a government job but only a small percentage actually learn any English. That's why it has been so frustrating teaching at Pasabandith. Only a few of my students make any effort to learn anything.....You've heard my rants.)
Anyway, we're going to usher in a new era in language teaching with two of our Lao friends, one of whom is taking over the business end of things so we can get on with what we do. Claus will teach beginners and train new teachers, Marcel will teach beginners and intermediates, and I will teach advanced classes in job English and public speaking. We will no longer have to sweat over our visas as we will issue our own!
Right now we're looking for funding and organising the license. We'll stay at Claus' little school for the first year and then look at renovating a bigger building. We hope to be operating by September, by which time I'll have left PasaBandith and the wily Ping. The hope is that he will have paid me what he owes me by then. More on this as it progresses....
What have I been doing?
OK, it's been full on since the Xmas/New Years parties ended, teaching at the hotel and at P-Bandith, and I am actually geting pretty tired, but there have been a few lovely excursions and adventures to liven things up.
In February Sommay and I and our friend Gabriel went off to Sainyaburi for the annual Elephant Festival. It's a weekend of elephant viewing, photographing, riding and information, which draws huge crowds from all over the country, many of whom pay little attention to the actual ellies, spending most of their time getting together with family, shopping in the huge outdoor market, eating at numerous food stands and watching the rock bands and other entertainers.
There are almost no guest houses or hotels in Sainyaburi so they have a system of billetting people in private houses, but we arranged to stay with the family of a friend of Sommay's, who treated us royally.
Gabriel and I steeped ourselves in elephant lore, rode a lovely big creature called Balloo, inspected the feeding stations, hung around with the ellies and mahouts and enjoyed ourselves. We also had fun running into people from Luang Prabang.
The amazing thing to me was that people---regular folks, not rich tourists----were willing to travel immense distances for this occasion. There is basically only one road north and south here and only a very few east and west. There is only one road into Sainyburi province and while it's a great road, it's not paved. So for much of the three hours on that road we drove in a blinding dust storm; not a lot of fun for us, but bloody awful for the people in the villages along the way and those trudging along carrying piles of wood and small children. Most people travel by motorbike, bus or truck which is not hugely comfortable, but they came in their thousands nonetheless.
The road crosses the Mekong at one point by ferry, which caused a massive bottleneck and delays of up to seven hours!!!! We waited for 5 hours to get across on the way back, got to know our fellow drivers well and learned new meanings for the word patience. Also a few for indignation as we saw a group of Farang fool the police into thinking that one of them had a serious illness and had to be allowed to go to the head of the queue. Arrgh...
Wedding!!!!!!! Yes, another wedding....but this one was special because it was that of Sommay's next older sister Nang, who is beautiful and delightful and has had rotten luck in her life so far, but has finally found a sweet guy who loves her. She and the bridegroom's family all came up from Vientiane on the overnight bus and we had a fabulous time. I had to be the mother of the bride and stand in the reception line at the party and everything.
It was hellishly hot during the ceremony but the party in the evening was grand, held in the vast school yard in the village with lots of balloons and a really good band. We danced and carried on until a magnificent thunderstorm broke over our heads and brought it all to an exciting close. I will TRY to get the photos posted but the last time I tried, it simply didn't work.
Water, water, everywhere Festival Ah, yes, then there was Pimai Lao, the annual water throwing mayhem, that many farang like to avoid altogether....We did so in a sense by getting out of town. My boy Joy wanted us to visit his family and since this is a big time for going home to one's village, we decided to take him up on the invitation.
Joy comes from a small Lu village (one of the larger ethnic minorities in Laos) way the hell up north in Phongsali Province near the Chinese border. It's actually surrounded by China on three sides, so there are lots of Chinese people up here. This is also a place where one sees a lot of other smaller ethnic groups like the Phu Noi, (the women wear white strap-on leggings) and the Akka, ( short black skirts with pleated backs and interesting silver-bedecked head-dresses.)
It was an epic drive of about 7.5 hours up to Pak Mong, Oudomxai, and then up a fabulous river valley of thick jungles on a twisting dirt road, good, but a bone rattler.
The family were wonderful with Mum, five brothers and three sisters all gathered for the occasion. The whole village turned out to greet us and everybody had to have a look at the farang who looks after Joy, especially after the dancing started later that evening....Yee Ha!
This is the one time of year when these folks stop working like buggery and instead throw themselves with equal vigour into enjoying themselves. I never saw them stop preparing food, eating, drinking, dancing, clearing up after the meals, creating special ceremonial flag poles hung with money and various worldly goods to place at the temple, carrying water from the creek, sweeping, singing, firing off rockets and stopping for innumerable baths in the same creek.
(They run amazingly efficient households despite having no running water and fairly iffy electricity. Food is cooked over an open fire in the house with a very clever venting system for the smoke.)
I came to a complete halt for a day or so there after joining the communal bath one evening (maybe it was the duck water) and thereby contracting some sort of violent flu which kept me up all night and down with a fever the next day. But I snapped to in time for the final few parties. One night we had dinner in two different houses!
We spent one day driving up to the actual town of Phongsali, but the drive was the most entertaining thing about it. It's not an exciting place except for the location up high on several mountain peaks. 100 K up and back!
After a week, of this non-stop fun and interesting food, (some good, some just interesting, like fish poo soup)...a lot of meat and salt and chillis and a lot of it was very cooked and somewhat unrecognisable by the time it was presented. There was the usual dismemberment of a large buffalo to share among all the villagers. The blood is especially prized and they prepare it by carefully stirring in (with a finger) a bit of water from the creek. Yes, the same one where they bathe, wash clothes, brush teeth and keep ducks.
Drinking is a big deal at Pimai and most people feel obliged to get fairly legless at least once or twice during the week, but they don't have much in the way of beer, just the local Lao-lao or rice whisky. It's famous in Laos and now I know why. Most Lao-lao is not very good, but the Phongsali stuff is beyond awful. Give me furniture polish any day!
Finally it was time to go. In addition to the three girls we brought up with us, there were three more, plus all their goods and chattels and a massive amount of stuff that the family wanted us to have, big bags of rice, beautiful handwoven coolie hats, chillis, pumpkins, weavings, tea and about ten huge watermelons. As we hugged everybody goodbye, more stuff kept appearing, and I was seriously worried about the tyres. I made Sommay give away half of the watermelons to road crews along the way, and we got back without a problem---8 hours later.
There was nary a peep about the crowding in the back, probably because they are very well-brought up and anyway they were all too busy quietly bringing up their lunches into specially purchased plastic bags, as they did on the way up and the way to and from Phongsali.
As the driver I had no such problem and just gloried in the great scenery, the fascinating little villages and the challenge of dealing with the potholes and puddles and landslips and buses and pigs and general disastrous road conditions. Mano a mano.....
So now it's back to the workaday world again, but we have entered the low season, which will probably be even lower due to the ructions in Thailand and the financial crisis. Selfishly, I don't mind as it's more peaceful without a lot of tourists, but folks here will suffer.
Happily, the rains seem to have started so things will cool down a bit. This is an awful time of year in some ways, but the flowers are quite wonderful just now and one can actually start gardening now that we're no longer bathing in dry-season dust...
OK, that's my cue to get outside with a hoe and start digging...More sometime, I promise......
Weather is, at the moment, hideously hot when the sun is out, and nicer, but still humid, when it's not. Yesterday it was 45 degrees C. out on my front patio. That's nearly 110 F. Oof...
Work is fairly all-consuming, but still very rewarding. Training for the hotel continues as opening day approaches. I think I am learning as much as they are---possibly more.
The big news is that my friends and I are opening our own school soon. This was, of course, my original idea when I came here so it's quite thrilling. Actually I am joining forces with my friend Claus, who started his own school a few years ago, added another teacher, Marcel, and then created quite simply the best little two room school in town, despite not being native speakers, and not being able to award Government-recognised certificates. People come to Claus' school despite this because they actually WANT to learn.
(I should explain that many people here go to English language schools for the govt. certificate so they can get a government job but only a small percentage actually learn any English. That's why it has been so frustrating teaching at Pasabandith. Only a few of my students make any effort to learn anything.....You've heard my rants.)
Anyway, we're going to usher in a new era in language teaching with two of our Lao friends, one of whom is taking over the business end of things so we can get on with what we do. Claus will teach beginners and train new teachers, Marcel will teach beginners and intermediates, and I will teach advanced classes in job English and public speaking. We will no longer have to sweat over our visas as we will issue our own!
Right now we're looking for funding and organising the license. We'll stay at Claus' little school for the first year and then look at renovating a bigger building. We hope to be operating by September, by which time I'll have left PasaBandith and the wily Ping. The hope is that he will have paid me what he owes me by then. More on this as it progresses....
What have I been doing?
OK, it's been full on since the Xmas/New Years parties ended, teaching at the hotel and at P-Bandith, and I am actually geting pretty tired, but there have been a few lovely excursions and adventures to liven things up.
In February Sommay and I and our friend Gabriel went off to Sainyaburi for the annual Elephant Festival. It's a weekend of elephant viewing, photographing, riding and information, which draws huge crowds from all over the country, many of whom pay little attention to the actual ellies, spending most of their time getting together with family, shopping in the huge outdoor market, eating at numerous food stands and watching the rock bands and other entertainers.
There are almost no guest houses or hotels in Sainyaburi so they have a system of billetting people in private houses, but we arranged to stay with the family of a friend of Sommay's, who treated us royally.
Gabriel and I steeped ourselves in elephant lore, rode a lovely big creature called Balloo, inspected the feeding stations, hung around with the ellies and mahouts and enjoyed ourselves. We also had fun running into people from Luang Prabang.
The amazing thing to me was that people---regular folks, not rich tourists----were willing to travel immense distances for this occasion. There is basically only one road north and south here and only a very few east and west. There is only one road into Sainyburi province and while it's a great road, it's not paved. So for much of the three hours on that road we drove in a blinding dust storm; not a lot of fun for us, but bloody awful for the people in the villages along the way and those trudging along carrying piles of wood and small children. Most people travel by motorbike, bus or truck which is not hugely comfortable, but they came in their thousands nonetheless.
The road crosses the Mekong at one point by ferry, which caused a massive bottleneck and delays of up to seven hours!!!! We waited for 5 hours to get across on the way back, got to know our fellow drivers well and learned new meanings for the word patience. Also a few for indignation as we saw a group of Farang fool the police into thinking that one of them had a serious illness and had to be allowed to go to the head of the queue. Arrgh...
Wedding!!!!!!! Yes, another wedding....but this one was special because it was that of Sommay's next older sister Nang, who is beautiful and delightful and has had rotten luck in her life so far, but has finally found a sweet guy who loves her. She and the bridegroom's family all came up from Vientiane on the overnight bus and we had a fabulous time. I had to be the mother of the bride and stand in the reception line at the party and everything.
It was hellishly hot during the ceremony but the party in the evening was grand, held in the vast school yard in the village with lots of balloons and a really good band. We danced and carried on until a magnificent thunderstorm broke over our heads and brought it all to an exciting close. I will TRY to get the photos posted but the last time I tried, it simply didn't work.
Water, water, everywhere Festival Ah, yes, then there was Pimai Lao, the annual water throwing mayhem, that many farang like to avoid altogether....We did so in a sense by getting out of town. My boy Joy wanted us to visit his family and since this is a big time for going home to one's village, we decided to take him up on the invitation.
Joy comes from a small Lu village (one of the larger ethnic minorities in Laos) way the hell up north in Phongsali Province near the Chinese border. It's actually surrounded by China on three sides, so there are lots of Chinese people up here. This is also a place where one sees a lot of other smaller ethnic groups like the Phu Noi, (the women wear white strap-on leggings) and the Akka, ( short black skirts with pleated backs and interesting silver-bedecked head-dresses.)
It was an epic drive of about 7.5 hours up to Pak Mong, Oudomxai, and then up a fabulous river valley of thick jungles on a twisting dirt road, good, but a bone rattler.
The family were wonderful with Mum, five brothers and three sisters all gathered for the occasion. The whole village turned out to greet us and everybody had to have a look at the farang who looks after Joy, especially after the dancing started later that evening....Yee Ha!
This is the one time of year when these folks stop working like buggery and instead throw themselves with equal vigour into enjoying themselves. I never saw them stop preparing food, eating, drinking, dancing, clearing up after the meals, creating special ceremonial flag poles hung with money and various worldly goods to place at the temple, carrying water from the creek, sweeping, singing, firing off rockets and stopping for innumerable baths in the same creek.
(They run amazingly efficient households despite having no running water and fairly iffy electricity. Food is cooked over an open fire in the house with a very clever venting system for the smoke.)
I came to a complete halt for a day or so there after joining the communal bath one evening (maybe it was the duck water) and thereby contracting some sort of violent flu which kept me up all night and down with a fever the next day. But I snapped to in time for the final few parties. One night we had dinner in two different houses!
We spent one day driving up to the actual town of Phongsali, but the drive was the most entertaining thing about it. It's not an exciting place except for the location up high on several mountain peaks. 100 K up and back!
After a week, of this non-stop fun and interesting food, (some good, some just interesting, like fish poo soup)...a lot of meat and salt and chillis and a lot of it was very cooked and somewhat unrecognisable by the time it was presented. There was the usual dismemberment of a large buffalo to share among all the villagers. The blood is especially prized and they prepare it by carefully stirring in (with a finger) a bit of water from the creek. Yes, the same one where they bathe, wash clothes, brush teeth and keep ducks.
Drinking is a big deal at Pimai and most people feel obliged to get fairly legless at least once or twice during the week, but they don't have much in the way of beer, just the local Lao-lao or rice whisky. It's famous in Laos and now I know why. Most Lao-lao is not very good, but the Phongsali stuff is beyond awful. Give me furniture polish any day!
Finally it was time to go. In addition to the three girls we brought up with us, there were three more, plus all their goods and chattels and a massive amount of stuff that the family wanted us to have, big bags of rice, beautiful handwoven coolie hats, chillis, pumpkins, weavings, tea and about ten huge watermelons. As we hugged everybody goodbye, more stuff kept appearing, and I was seriously worried about the tyres. I made Sommay give away half of the watermelons to road crews along the way, and we got back without a problem---8 hours later.
There was nary a peep about the crowding in the back, probably because they are very well-brought up and anyway they were all too busy quietly bringing up their lunches into specially purchased plastic bags, as they did on the way up and the way to and from Phongsali.
As the driver I had no such problem and just gloried in the great scenery, the fascinating little villages and the challenge of dealing with the potholes and puddles and landslips and buses and pigs and general disastrous road conditions. Mano a mano.....
So now it's back to the workaday world again, but we have entered the low season, which will probably be even lower due to the ructions in Thailand and the financial crisis. Selfishly, I don't mind as it's more peaceful without a lot of tourists, but folks here will suffer.
Happily, the rains seem to have started so things will cool down a bit. This is an awful time of year in some ways, but the flowers are quite wonderful just now and one can actually start gardening now that we're no longer bathing in dry-season dust...
OK, that's my cue to get outside with a hoe and start digging...More sometime, I promise......
Sunday, December 21, 2008
Rudolph the red-nosed buffalo...
You will no doubt be relieved to know that I have decided that I will no longer open my posts with elaborate apologies for the paucity of my reports from up here, but simply glide serenely into the latest news...
First, the weather...
Up here on the misty Mekong, the big, dry teak leaves are falling with their usual clumsy clatter, the restaurants continue their wild serenade of completely different music played at the same time. But not so loudly that I can't sit out here on my little balcony in the balmy air that passes for a wintry afternoon in these parts, before the evening chill sets in. (Early mornings are bloody cold, and all we have in the way of actual winter.)
The rains have abruptly ceased, the roads are rutted and dusty instead of rutted and muddy, and the rivers are falling, but still fairly big, with no trace yet of the massive sandbank that usually appears outside our house every year.
How am I?
Am I still happy? I ask myself that question on a daily basis, and the answer is still a resounding YES!!! The tourists slowed down a bit during the Bangkok Airport Unpleasantness, and are taking a while to build up again, but as long as one stays out of the little tourist strip, life goes on unchanged.
Teaching
I am unconscionably busy with teaching and training, but loving it. At last count, I'm up to 37.5 contact hours per week, (between Amantaka Resort and Pasabandith College) which probably accounts for that stunned feeling and the baggy eyes that are my usual mien these days. My New Year's resolution is to bring some sanity to that regime, by cutting teaching hours to allow for some preparation time, currently minimal, due to the need to eat, sleep and take the odd shower. The upside of this timetable, of course, is that I spend far less time in Bacchanalian pursuits with my friends at the wine bar, some of you will be happy to hear.
But my lovely students make everything allright, even the recalcitrant ones who refuse to remember what a verb is and still say ge how instead of guest house. Recently, we held a massive Exorcism ceremony---Amanataka is being built on the old hospital site and is positively reeking with bad spirits and threats to one's composure---which involved two hours of chanting, no fewer than 22 monks and the entire staff of the hotel, plus management and guests. At one point I turned around and saw all 126 of my trainees smiling at me and it was a wonderful moment that I will never forget.
As far as my employment goes, Ping is as wily as ever. I am waiting until he renews my visa before I start hassling him about various sources of discontent, but I know he needs me far more than I need him.
My students there are learning Writing and English for Everyday Activities. The first is made difficult by the fact that no one has told them about sentences, punctuation, parts of speech and little things like that so I have to start from the beginning again. The EEA class is learning how to talk about catching a bus, using shaving cream, using a toaster, none of which they will probably ever need to do and know nothing about. Never mind, as I keep saying, they are all gorgeous and I love every minute of my teaching time.
I have the first few volunteer teachers starting soon, despite Ping's attempt to ignore my efforts to set up a co=teaching project. Had a great and unexpected trial run with this when Brisbane teacher Susan Whiting showed up the other day saying that two friends had told her to look me up here. We had a great time over dinner and a bottle of wine and then I enveigled her into taking two of my classes that I couldn't do due to work at the hotel and she did a great job! The students were delighted to hear another voice and Ping was no doubt tickled pink that he didn't have to PAY anyone to take my classes.
Amantaka Resort is still a building site with Opening Day receding steadily into the distant future. (Probably March). I am actually pleased as it gives me more time to prepare my charges for their jobs.
It's a huge task. From security guards to sous-chefs they all have different challenges, levels, vocabulary, etc. many have never used a knife and fork or seen a French fry, and now they are being trained to handle silver service and to know their croutons from their choucroute. And all of it has to come out of my head...
Monk-y business....
Recently I sponsored my maid, Mimi's, son Thep to go into the temple as a novice. He seemed a bit lost, with three sisters, the two little ones very bright and the older one very capable and poised, so I suggested the idea and he leaped at it. This meant that Mimi and I went along and spoke to the abbot of the temple I had chosen for him---the best in town---- and happily, we got him in!!!
Then we went out and bought all the orange bits and pieces he will need, robes, bag, umbrella plus bedding, bowl and spoon, begging bowl, etc. Then an auspicious day was chosen and we had a great ceremony, starting with a procession from their house; twelve year-old Thep --all in white robes---and his father going first, Dad Keo with his hand on the lad's shoulders and an umbrella over his head, followed by me carrying his robes, and then the elderly ladies of the village, lustily singing wailing, traditional songs and clapping, then Mimi and guests carrying various things, especially my young friend Phone, who kindly volunteered to mastermind the whole thing with two of his friends.
At the temple we presented gifts to all the monks and novices and there was an elaborate ceremony in which I had to sit at the front and ceremonially hand him his orange get-up, and there was lots of chanting and tossing of rice and lollies. At some point Thep went off with some older novices and they dressed him in his orange robes for the first time and he came out beaming from ear to ear. The old monk doing the ceremony was stone deaf and very ancient so he kept forgetting his prayers and chants. The village elders running the show had to keep reminding him what to say and do and everyone had a good-natured laugh about it all.
I paid for it as his parents couldn't, but it means I get a lot of merit for my next life. Now we take it in turns to take food to the temple every day and I've paid for him to have a special English course, so his parents are especially delighted. It's basically for the 5 years of high school, so he gets a good education.
Christmas in a Buddhist Climate
Now the next celebration is Christmas, which up here consists of shops decorated with masses of multicoloured tinsel and lights, waiters in Santa hats and expats retreating to restaurants for dinners and parties, although I'll be working every day anyway, I imagine.
Tonight I'm off to an opening of my friend Thep's (different one) latest paintings and tomorrow to my friend Ric's baci ceremony to bless his new house with dinner for 12. Then on Christamas Eve, our little coterie of Lao/French/Canadian friends are having dinner at LÉlephant, followed by a private party hosted by our friend Keo at his wine bar. And that doesn't even include Christmas Day! So one's social life is still active which is very gratifying and jolly.
Help!!!!!!!!!
But, jolly as we are, this year as usual, I am appealing to everyone I know to help me to help people up here. As I mentioned in my last post, I need people to help me send Phone, a promising young man, to medical school on Vientiane. I have paid his first term fees, but I am hoping that everyone who is able will help me with this as he needs living expenses as well and it's a long course! It will cost about $150 Usd per month, so it's a big ask, but I'm hoping that a little bit from a number of people will do the trick......
On the Home Front...
The boys and I are still getting on famously and our little house is a very happy one, except for the recent trauma of losing our darling doggie Dam-dam under the wheels of a truck, followed by the loss of little Buster, one of our replacement puppies only a few weeks later. Now we cling to the gorgeous Milo, a fluffy caramel and white all-breed, with lovely smudgy eyes and a delightful personality, despite a tendency to poop in inconvenient places.
So despite deeply missing my family and friends, you can see that I am FINE and thriving. I hope you all are, too and that you will have an excellent Christmas Holiday and New Year !
Now to fashion a Christmas tree out of banana leaves.....
First, the weather...
Up here on the misty Mekong, the big, dry teak leaves are falling with their usual clumsy clatter, the restaurants continue their wild serenade of completely different music played at the same time. But not so loudly that I can't sit out here on my little balcony in the balmy air that passes for a wintry afternoon in these parts, before the evening chill sets in. (Early mornings are bloody cold, and all we have in the way of actual winter.)
The rains have abruptly ceased, the roads are rutted and dusty instead of rutted and muddy, and the rivers are falling, but still fairly big, with no trace yet of the massive sandbank that usually appears outside our house every year.
How am I?
Am I still happy? I ask myself that question on a daily basis, and the answer is still a resounding YES!!! The tourists slowed down a bit during the Bangkok Airport Unpleasantness, and are taking a while to build up again, but as long as one stays out of the little tourist strip, life goes on unchanged.
Teaching
I am unconscionably busy with teaching and training, but loving it. At last count, I'm up to 37.5 contact hours per week, (between Amantaka Resort and Pasabandith College) which probably accounts for that stunned feeling and the baggy eyes that are my usual mien these days. My New Year's resolution is to bring some sanity to that regime, by cutting teaching hours to allow for some preparation time, currently minimal, due to the need to eat, sleep and take the odd shower. The upside of this timetable, of course, is that I spend far less time in Bacchanalian pursuits with my friends at the wine bar, some of you will be happy to hear.
But my lovely students make everything allright, even the recalcitrant ones who refuse to remember what a verb is and still say ge how instead of guest house. Recently, we held a massive Exorcism ceremony---Amanataka is being built on the old hospital site and is positively reeking with bad spirits and threats to one's composure---which involved two hours of chanting, no fewer than 22 monks and the entire staff of the hotel, plus management and guests. At one point I turned around and saw all 126 of my trainees smiling at me and it was a wonderful moment that I will never forget.
As far as my employment goes, Ping is as wily as ever. I am waiting until he renews my visa before I start hassling him about various sources of discontent, but I know he needs me far more than I need him.
My students there are learning Writing and English for Everyday Activities. The first is made difficult by the fact that no one has told them about sentences, punctuation, parts of speech and little things like that so I have to start from the beginning again. The EEA class is learning how to talk about catching a bus, using shaving cream, using a toaster, none of which they will probably ever need to do and know nothing about. Never mind, as I keep saying, they are all gorgeous and I love every minute of my teaching time.
I have the first few volunteer teachers starting soon, despite Ping's attempt to ignore my efforts to set up a co=teaching project. Had a great and unexpected trial run with this when Brisbane teacher Susan Whiting showed up the other day saying that two friends had told her to look me up here. We had a great time over dinner and a bottle of wine and then I enveigled her into taking two of my classes that I couldn't do due to work at the hotel and she did a great job! The students were delighted to hear another voice and Ping was no doubt tickled pink that he didn't have to PAY anyone to take my classes.
Amantaka Resort is still a building site with Opening Day receding steadily into the distant future. (Probably March). I am actually pleased as it gives me more time to prepare my charges for their jobs.
It's a huge task. From security guards to sous-chefs they all have different challenges, levels, vocabulary, etc. many have never used a knife and fork or seen a French fry, and now they are being trained to handle silver service and to know their croutons from their choucroute. And all of it has to come out of my head...
Monk-y business....
Recently I sponsored my maid, Mimi's, son Thep to go into the temple as a novice. He seemed a bit lost, with three sisters, the two little ones very bright and the older one very capable and poised, so I suggested the idea and he leaped at it. This meant that Mimi and I went along and spoke to the abbot of the temple I had chosen for him---the best in town---- and happily, we got him in!!!
Then we went out and bought all the orange bits and pieces he will need, robes, bag, umbrella plus bedding, bowl and spoon, begging bowl, etc. Then an auspicious day was chosen and we had a great ceremony, starting with a procession from their house; twelve year-old Thep --all in white robes---and his father going first, Dad Keo with his hand on the lad's shoulders and an umbrella over his head, followed by me carrying his robes, and then the elderly ladies of the village, lustily singing wailing, traditional songs and clapping, then Mimi and guests carrying various things, especially my young friend Phone, who kindly volunteered to mastermind the whole thing with two of his friends.
At the temple we presented gifts to all the monks and novices and there was an elaborate ceremony in which I had to sit at the front and ceremonially hand him his orange get-up, and there was lots of chanting and tossing of rice and lollies. At some point Thep went off with some older novices and they dressed him in his orange robes for the first time and he came out beaming from ear to ear. The old monk doing the ceremony was stone deaf and very ancient so he kept forgetting his prayers and chants. The village elders running the show had to keep reminding him what to say and do and everyone had a good-natured laugh about it all.
I paid for it as his parents couldn't, but it means I get a lot of merit for my next life. Now we take it in turns to take food to the temple every day and I've paid for him to have a special English course, so his parents are especially delighted. It's basically for the 5 years of high school, so he gets a good education.
Christmas in a Buddhist Climate
Now the next celebration is Christmas, which up here consists of shops decorated with masses of multicoloured tinsel and lights, waiters in Santa hats and expats retreating to restaurants for dinners and parties, although I'll be working every day anyway, I imagine.
Tonight I'm off to an opening of my friend Thep's (different one) latest paintings and tomorrow to my friend Ric's baci ceremony to bless his new house with dinner for 12. Then on Christamas Eve, our little coterie of Lao/French/Canadian friends are having dinner at LÉlephant, followed by a private party hosted by our friend Keo at his wine bar. And that doesn't even include Christmas Day! So one's social life is still active which is very gratifying and jolly.
Help!!!!!!!!!
But, jolly as we are, this year as usual, I am appealing to everyone I know to help me to help people up here. As I mentioned in my last post, I need people to help me send Phone, a promising young man, to medical school on Vientiane. I have paid his first term fees, but I am hoping that everyone who is able will help me with this as he needs living expenses as well and it's a long course! It will cost about $150 Usd per month, so it's a big ask, but I'm hoping that a little bit from a number of people will do the trick......
On the Home Front...
The boys and I are still getting on famously and our little house is a very happy one, except for the recent trauma of losing our darling doggie Dam-dam under the wheels of a truck, followed by the loss of little Buster, one of our replacement puppies only a few weeks later. Now we cling to the gorgeous Milo, a fluffy caramel and white all-breed, with lovely smudgy eyes and a delightful personality, despite a tendency to poop in inconvenient places.
So despite deeply missing my family and friends, you can see that I am FINE and thriving. I hope you all are, too and that you will have an excellent Christmas Holiday and New Year !
Now to fashion a Christmas tree out of banana leaves.....
Friday, September 26, 2008
Umm....Dig Deep....
Just a quick report on doings here.....The house over the river is almost finished and looks great. The family is camping nearby under a plastic tarpaulin and waiting with shining eyes to move in with their little bags and bundles. On Sunday the monks will come and we will have a baci to celebrate and to bless the house. Just in time as the brief dry spell is over and we are in the last rainy time before the weather gets cold again.
Meanwhile, I am hoping that anyone who can will find some spare cash to help me pay for all this. The whole thing was around $2500 USd. Soon I will have an arrangement for US contributors to give tax free, but who knows how long it will be until I can afford to do it in Oz. May have to wait until Dan is a practicing lawyer to get a good rate....
(I know I should have raised the money first, but the rains were falling and there was no time to waste.)
Got to run, as I have two classes tonight and then a HUGE party that we have organised for my new boss Gary. Tomorrow I teach all morning and then have a dinner party here and Sunday I teach, do the baci and next week I start my Amantaka staff classes in the mornings and continue with the Pasabandith ones at night. Whew!! And everybody says this is a serene lotus-eating existence!
Hugs o you all!!
Meanwhile, I am hoping that anyone who can will find some spare cash to help me pay for all this. The whole thing was around $2500 USd. Soon I will have an arrangement for US contributors to give tax free, but who knows how long it will be until I can afford to do it in Oz. May have to wait until Dan is a practicing lawyer to get a good rate....
(I know I should have raised the money first, but the rains were falling and there was no time to waste.)
Got to run, as I have two classes tonight and then a HUGE party that we have organised for my new boss Gary. Tomorrow I teach all morning and then have a dinner party here and Sunday I teach, do the baci and next week I start my Amantaka staff classes in the mornings and continue with the Pasabandith ones at night. Whew!! And everybody says this is a serene lotus-eating existence!
Hugs o you all!!
Monday, September 15, 2008
The Little Forest Family and other stories
Once upon a time there was a little man called Lit and his wife Pheng who lived in a forest glade with their five small children. They lived on forest foods, a veggie patch and fish from a pond. They were Khmu people, one of the Lao tribal groups who have traditionally been the bottom of the pecking order in Laos.
But then the children began to grow up and soon the Ngaai Baan, the village chief from the village nearby said that they could not live in the forest any more because the children had to go to school and the government did not want little tribal groups living in the forest with no services or medical care.
So the little family trudged into the big village, where they also had no services and no medical care and no money for school supplies, uniforms or fees. At some point Lit began to drink and rapidly became a helpless alcoholic, spending all his meagre earnings as a porter for people bringing cargo over the river to and from the village.
So Pheng worked harder than ever, walking back into the forest every day to gather food and tend her veggie patch and then crossing the river to the town to sell her produce in the streets. When she wasn't busy doing this she was hugging and loving and playing with her kids, still full of patience and love and smiles for her babies, despite her hard life.
The family lived on a little wooden platform covered with a grass roof, perched precariously on the edge of the Mekong River. As the rainy season grew more intense, the roof leaked copiously on the little family as they huddled in their hut, no bigger than the average vestibule.
The other villagers, not exactly flush with funds themselves, watched this and were worried. They talked amongst themselves and finally told their friend, Phone, from the town. He told me and we bought them tarpaulins and mosquito nets and blankets and began to talk with the NgaaiBaan about where else they could live.
Then the rain began to fall heavily and the river began to rise and soon the family had to dismantle their sodden hut and climb up to live on somebody's porch as the flood waters swept away their foundations.
The upshot is that I am now building them a house on a nice high spot that belongs to the village and has a great view of the mountains to the north. It's high and dry, with nice neighbours, plenty of trees, water supply nearby.
The father sits and stares dully, his clouded eyes full of pain---or is it simply an alcoholic haze?, but the children smile and laugh and their mother smiles and holds my hands tightly. The kids are all kitted out with everything they need for school and have started the year already.
I estimate that it will all cost a couple of thousand bucks to complete all this, including paying the builder and the locals who are working for him. I am hoping that some of you may find a few bob to send along to My Bamboo Village Foundation to help with this, as I have a few other projects that are taking my funds as well.
Contact my daughter Molly on 617 3368 2676 or piggysweetheart@yahoo.com.au She'll pop the money into the bank for me. No, I still don't have tax-free status as that costs thousands to arrange. But I have a logo and the website is in the works.
Project Number Two:
All this has been accomplished because of the remarkable Phonepasert. He comes from a village far to the north and lives here in LP with his aunt and uncle and his cousins, burly chaps of few words and sweet smiles. Phone is just finishing his nursing training and plans to move to Vientiane next year to train as a doctor.
He spent 4 years as a monk and has a sweet, kind, almost elderly demeanour, despite being only in his early twenties. He wanted to be an environmentalist but when his father fell ill, he decided that medicine was a more useful path.
Now I am looking for someone or several people who would like to sponsor him as he will need living expenses and fees to go to medical school. Please let me know if you want to know more about him and about helping him out.
He and I and my maid Mimi all share a love of plants and gardening and so he took us on a long jungle hike the other day gathering plants for my garden, orchids, vines, flowers, gingers, and herbs, guided by his mate, who knows the forest intimately, exactly where to find this or that plant, which of a maze of tiny paths to take, how to avoid the worst mud wallows, and can scamper up the tallest tree to pick fruit for large farang women with great ease.
It was an enchanting day. We started at the house site, had a lengthy conference with the builder and the gaggle of locals that always join in and contribute whenever anything is discussed, whether it has anything to do with them or not.
Then we set off on our walk, past ancient temples and relatively new ones, through Lit and Pheng's abandoned village site, past rice fields and veggie patches, fish ponds and buffalo paddocks, all shrouded in dense jungle.
Finally, loaded with plants and very muddy, we reached a village where Phone's friend lived and where we were invited to lunch. I was thinking they'd fix us a little something and we'd be on our way, but no.....
First we sat a spell and chatted. Mimi discovered that the lady of the house was in fact her cousin so they had a great time catching up. Then we went for a wander through the village, greeting old friends of Phone's and ending up at a house where they kept ducks, to purchase one for lunch. Well, when I say 'kept'---the ducks kind of wandered about in the general muddy area of the house and there was an all-family circus in progress to catch the thing by the time Phone and I continued our wander.
Finally we sat at a little table by the edge of the village and watched a column of dark silver rain as it advanced over a wide, fiercely green rice field. Three young women were laughing and picking fruit nearby and stopped to bring us a jug of cold water and glasses. Such hospitality...Finally the rain began to fall and we headed back to the house where we were served a delicious fish soup with rice. I assumed that the duck had eluded the chase and shortly after lunch wondered if we should be getting back, but no, out in the kitchen the duck was being dealt with as Mimi and her cousin chatted by the fire and chopped and pounded and prepared what turned out to be a fabulous meal of BBQ duck, with a sort of salad of duck blood and giblets, chillis, herbs, garlic and peanuts. Wonderful!
By now I had lost any sense of time or of thinking we should get back and accomplish something and soon the laolao appeared, plastic bags full of it from the local shop---home-distilled rice liquor. Filthy-tasting but very warming. One passes a glass around, refilling for each person and the jollification that ensues is always hearty indeed.
There was a short recital from one fellow who was once a doctor and is now a farmer and has a rich baritone voice, and the party really took off when the second baggie of laolao arrived. Finally, it really was time to leave because one needs to get across the Mekong before dark as the boats have no riding lights.
The village cultivator tractor was hired to get us back to Ban Xieng Maen, as we were several kilometres away. This is a two wheeled device that can plow a muddy field and also pull a small wagon and which is used for transport among the smaller villages. The journey was especially festive because our hosts, their grandson, the baritone, the forest guide, and Phoné's mate all insisted on coming with us, piling into the wagon with us, along with the rest of the laolao and the last plateful of BBQ duck as well, just to be sure we didn't get peckish on the way.
So off we chugged in the late afternoon sun, along the dirt road between rice fields and small farmhouses, drunkenly singing and clapping and laughing and hallooing, waving to the general populace, who just smiled and waved back. The glass of laolao continued to be passed amongst us and a snort was literally forced down the throat of the driver as he drove. The tiny grandson watched all this with round eyes, from his perch between Grannie's knees.
25 minutes later we poured out of the wagon and said a warm farewell to our hosts as we tumbled down the steep bank to our waiting boat and putted off across the golden river.
BUT WAIT....It doesn't end there. Once back on the Luang Prabang side of the river, Phone dropped me at my house where Sommay was in the shower, shouting, Hurry up, Mammy, we have to go soon!
Yes, his sister Nang, the one who had the grumpy husband and lost her only child to meningitis last year, was suddenly getting engaged and we had to be there for the betrothal ceremony. She is a delight and we are all very happy for her. She met the groom at her brother Xai's wedding in Vientiane only two months ago, and we all made the journey down there to celebrate the occasion. That's when I bought my car, but that's anoher story.
All the family, plus brother Xai, the groom-to-be's family, the elders of the villages, plus brothers and sisters and cousins and aunts, were all sitting on the floor at the family house in their village outside town, discussing the marriage contract, the bride price, the advisability of Nang remarrying, the procedures to be followed along with long perorations about marriage and the duties of each partner and how to have a sucessful union.
The highlight for me was when little Ai, the 3 year-old foster son of Sommay's brother, Bounlay, came into the house and chose my lap to sit on of all the assembled mob. Ah! A Grannie moment...
Then there was a baci ceremony and we tied strings and money around the wrists of the couple and then sat down to a large meal of laap, minced meat salad with herbs, rice and soup, washed down with lots of beer. I brought my usual cask of wine so as to avoid the gluten-rich brew, and we toasted and cheered and celebrated. Then the women started singing traditional jolly songs and soon somebody put on some music.
The women were pretty jolly by now and started to dance lao style and, of course, I had to join them and do my version and then it was on for one and all. We danced and danced till I was soaked with sweat and finally had to bail out and head home. What a night! What a day! What a life!!!
More soon.....
But then the children began to grow up and soon the Ngaai Baan, the village chief from the village nearby said that they could not live in the forest any more because the children had to go to school and the government did not want little tribal groups living in the forest with no services or medical care.
So the little family trudged into the big village, where they also had no services and no medical care and no money for school supplies, uniforms or fees. At some point Lit began to drink and rapidly became a helpless alcoholic, spending all his meagre earnings as a porter for people bringing cargo over the river to and from the village.
So Pheng worked harder than ever, walking back into the forest every day to gather food and tend her veggie patch and then crossing the river to the town to sell her produce in the streets. When she wasn't busy doing this she was hugging and loving and playing with her kids, still full of patience and love and smiles for her babies, despite her hard life.
The family lived on a little wooden platform covered with a grass roof, perched precariously on the edge of the Mekong River. As the rainy season grew more intense, the roof leaked copiously on the little family as they huddled in their hut, no bigger than the average vestibule.
The other villagers, not exactly flush with funds themselves, watched this and were worried. They talked amongst themselves and finally told their friend, Phone, from the town. He told me and we bought them tarpaulins and mosquito nets and blankets and began to talk with the NgaaiBaan about where else they could live.
Then the rain began to fall heavily and the river began to rise and soon the family had to dismantle their sodden hut and climb up to live on somebody's porch as the flood waters swept away their foundations.
The upshot is that I am now building them a house on a nice high spot that belongs to the village and has a great view of the mountains to the north. It's high and dry, with nice neighbours, plenty of trees, water supply nearby.
The father sits and stares dully, his clouded eyes full of pain---or is it simply an alcoholic haze?, but the children smile and laugh and their mother smiles and holds my hands tightly. The kids are all kitted out with everything they need for school and have started the year already.
I estimate that it will all cost a couple of thousand bucks to complete all this, including paying the builder and the locals who are working for him. I am hoping that some of you may find a few bob to send along to My Bamboo Village Foundation to help with this, as I have a few other projects that are taking my funds as well.
Contact my daughter Molly on 617 3368 2676 or piggysweetheart@yahoo.com.au She'll pop the money into the bank for me. No, I still don't have tax-free status as that costs thousands to arrange. But I have a logo and the website is in the works.
Project Number Two:
All this has been accomplished because of the remarkable Phonepasert. He comes from a village far to the north and lives here in LP with his aunt and uncle and his cousins, burly chaps of few words and sweet smiles. Phone is just finishing his nursing training and plans to move to Vientiane next year to train as a doctor.
He spent 4 years as a monk and has a sweet, kind, almost elderly demeanour, despite being only in his early twenties. He wanted to be an environmentalist but when his father fell ill, he decided that medicine was a more useful path.
Now I am looking for someone or several people who would like to sponsor him as he will need living expenses and fees to go to medical school. Please let me know if you want to know more about him and about helping him out.
He and I and my maid Mimi all share a love of plants and gardening and so he took us on a long jungle hike the other day gathering plants for my garden, orchids, vines, flowers, gingers, and herbs, guided by his mate, who knows the forest intimately, exactly where to find this or that plant, which of a maze of tiny paths to take, how to avoid the worst mud wallows, and can scamper up the tallest tree to pick fruit for large farang women with great ease.
It was an enchanting day. We started at the house site, had a lengthy conference with the builder and the gaggle of locals that always join in and contribute whenever anything is discussed, whether it has anything to do with them or not.
Then we set off on our walk, past ancient temples and relatively new ones, through Lit and Pheng's abandoned village site, past rice fields and veggie patches, fish ponds and buffalo paddocks, all shrouded in dense jungle.
Finally, loaded with plants and very muddy, we reached a village where Phone's friend lived and where we were invited to lunch. I was thinking they'd fix us a little something and we'd be on our way, but no.....
First we sat a spell and chatted. Mimi discovered that the lady of the house was in fact her cousin so they had a great time catching up. Then we went for a wander through the village, greeting old friends of Phone's and ending up at a house where they kept ducks, to purchase one for lunch. Well, when I say 'kept'---the ducks kind of wandered about in the general muddy area of the house and there was an all-family circus in progress to catch the thing by the time Phone and I continued our wander.
Finally we sat at a little table by the edge of the village and watched a column of dark silver rain as it advanced over a wide, fiercely green rice field. Three young women were laughing and picking fruit nearby and stopped to bring us a jug of cold water and glasses. Such hospitality...Finally the rain began to fall and we headed back to the house where we were served a delicious fish soup with rice. I assumed that the duck had eluded the chase and shortly after lunch wondered if we should be getting back, but no, out in the kitchen the duck was being dealt with as Mimi and her cousin chatted by the fire and chopped and pounded and prepared what turned out to be a fabulous meal of BBQ duck, with a sort of salad of duck blood and giblets, chillis, herbs, garlic and peanuts. Wonderful!
By now I had lost any sense of time or of thinking we should get back and accomplish something and soon the laolao appeared, plastic bags full of it from the local shop---home-distilled rice liquor. Filthy-tasting but very warming. One passes a glass around, refilling for each person and the jollification that ensues is always hearty indeed.
There was a short recital from one fellow who was once a doctor and is now a farmer and has a rich baritone voice, and the party really took off when the second baggie of laolao arrived. Finally, it really was time to leave because one needs to get across the Mekong before dark as the boats have no riding lights.
The village cultivator tractor was hired to get us back to Ban Xieng Maen, as we were several kilometres away. This is a two wheeled device that can plow a muddy field and also pull a small wagon and which is used for transport among the smaller villages. The journey was especially festive because our hosts, their grandson, the baritone, the forest guide, and Phoné's mate all insisted on coming with us, piling into the wagon with us, along with the rest of the laolao and the last plateful of BBQ duck as well, just to be sure we didn't get peckish on the way.
So off we chugged in the late afternoon sun, along the dirt road between rice fields and small farmhouses, drunkenly singing and clapping and laughing and hallooing, waving to the general populace, who just smiled and waved back. The glass of laolao continued to be passed amongst us and a snort was literally forced down the throat of the driver as he drove. The tiny grandson watched all this with round eyes, from his perch between Grannie's knees.
25 minutes later we poured out of the wagon and said a warm farewell to our hosts as we tumbled down the steep bank to our waiting boat and putted off across the golden river.
BUT WAIT....It doesn't end there. Once back on the Luang Prabang side of the river, Phone dropped me at my house where Sommay was in the shower, shouting, Hurry up, Mammy, we have to go soon!
Yes, his sister Nang, the one who had the grumpy husband and lost her only child to meningitis last year, was suddenly getting engaged and we had to be there for the betrothal ceremony. She is a delight and we are all very happy for her. She met the groom at her brother Xai's wedding in Vientiane only two months ago, and we all made the journey down there to celebrate the occasion. That's when I bought my car, but that's anoher story.
All the family, plus brother Xai, the groom-to-be's family, the elders of the villages, plus brothers and sisters and cousins and aunts, were all sitting on the floor at the family house in their village outside town, discussing the marriage contract, the bride price, the advisability of Nang remarrying, the procedures to be followed along with long perorations about marriage and the duties of each partner and how to have a sucessful union.
The highlight for me was when little Ai, the 3 year-old foster son of Sommay's brother, Bounlay, came into the house and chose my lap to sit on of all the assembled mob. Ah! A Grannie moment...
Then there was a baci ceremony and we tied strings and money around the wrists of the couple and then sat down to a large meal of laap, minced meat salad with herbs, rice and soup, washed down with lots of beer. I brought my usual cask of wine so as to avoid the gluten-rich brew, and we toasted and cheered and celebrated. Then the women started singing traditional jolly songs and soon somebody put on some music.
The women were pretty jolly by now and started to dance lao style and, of course, I had to join them and do my version and then it was on for one and all. We danced and danced till I was soaked with sweat and finally had to bail out and head home. What a night! What a day! What a life!!!
More soon.....
Sunday, September 14, 2008
I'm Baa-aa-aa-ck!!
Incredibly, the internet saga that halted my blogging all those months ago had a few more twists and turns and I've been once again without Internet access until a few days ago!!!!
I am gibbering with relief at being back online and can only hope that you haven't totally given up on me. First our internet account ran out and they just simply unplugged us. No warning, no invitation to renew, nothing.
Then we tried three different routers and many days of fiddling and re-configuring and finally the thing worked. Well, not mine, only Sommay was able to connect. There was some sort of virus that sneaked into my computer via a USB and it took days and days to fix, once it was discovered, because my computer guy works at two jobs and has very little time.
Anyway, I won't go on as it's very boring and because there is so much more to tell you that isn't....
The JOB(s).....
My 'visa' job at Pasabandith has been totally undemanding for a bit as they were doing exams and then being graded and finally graduated in a big ceremony in the Provincial Administration Auditorium, which is conveniently only a few steps from my house. Very grand with lots of varnished panelling and furniture, all decorated in day-glo orange and white bunting at the back, red white and blue bunting near the front plus hideous plastic cherry blossom branches. The students were kitted out in black academic robes edged with traditional Lao woven design. The custom here is that everyone gets flowers for graduation and takes endless photos afterwards clutching their certificates and beaming.
But now I am teaching a 'summer' course in English for Office work in the Travel Industry. Only about eight students so I won't make more than pin money, but they're nice kids and it's not too demanding, but it's every evening for an hour and a half', so my days are long.
Soon the regular term will start and I'll teach in the evenings and teach the teachers in the afternoons. Not that we have very many, as most of them quit, pissed off with the Wily Ping because of his highhanded manner with them and the pitiful salaries he pays. They get 45 bucks a month!!!!!
And I have also got a contract job to teach a group of government employees how to report verbally and in writing to an aid group who are looking at setting up an agricultural improvement project. Again, not a lot of money but a worthwhile endeavour.
Then I'm going to set up some intensive seminars for the company that runs the airport--snack bar people, Xray screening, passenger services, to bring them up to a better standard of English and tourist interaction.
That will pay well.
But my big job, as education administrator for the newest Aman resort in the chain-to be called Amantaka, is fairly full-on just now. Two weeks ago I interviewed 700 job applicants in five days. I was screening for English levels and then sending them off to the various department heads. It was mammoth.
I also had to find translators and helpers for this enterprise and it was hot and sticky and utterly exhausting. One night I came home and fell asleep, completely missing my evening class.
Then this past week we did the Second Interview for which we called back about 300 people, and then had a two day Management Training Seminar, which entailed listening to hours of motivational gobbledygook and doing daft things in teams to develop team spirit and define our values. Or something. But I survived. And yes, we developed lots of rapport and bonded and all that.
Then last night we had a gala night out for just the ten of us with beautiful Lao food and music and dancing and a Baci ceremony to celebrate our bondedness. Afterwards a few of us went out and had a lot of fun getting roaring drunk. So now we're all well-bonded and rather hungover.
So, work-wise, I am very busy and in much demand. In about two weeks I'll start teaching the Amantaka employees and I'll learn the real meaning of the word 'work'.
Right now I am going to re-define the meaning of sleep, as I've been gardening all day and am utterly pooped. So tired in fact that I had to turn down an invitation to eat with Sommay's family tonight. They ran over a snake on the way back from the Pak Ou boat-racing festival (Sommay's brother Bounlay captained the winning team!!!) and were having a feast of snake soup. Cheers!
I am gibbering with relief at being back online and can only hope that you haven't totally given up on me. First our internet account ran out and they just simply unplugged us. No warning, no invitation to renew, nothing.
Then we tried three different routers and many days of fiddling and re-configuring and finally the thing worked. Well, not mine, only Sommay was able to connect. There was some sort of virus that sneaked into my computer via a USB and it took days and days to fix, once it was discovered, because my computer guy works at two jobs and has very little time.
Anyway, I won't go on as it's very boring and because there is so much more to tell you that isn't....
The JOB(s).....
My 'visa' job at Pasabandith has been totally undemanding for a bit as they were doing exams and then being graded and finally graduated in a big ceremony in the Provincial Administration Auditorium, which is conveniently only a few steps from my house. Very grand with lots of varnished panelling and furniture, all decorated in day-glo orange and white bunting at the back, red white and blue bunting near the front plus hideous plastic cherry blossom branches. The students were kitted out in black academic robes edged with traditional Lao woven design. The custom here is that everyone gets flowers for graduation and takes endless photos afterwards clutching their certificates and beaming.
But now I am teaching a 'summer' course in English for Office work in the Travel Industry. Only about eight students so I won't make more than pin money, but they're nice kids and it's not too demanding, but it's every evening for an hour and a half', so my days are long.
Soon the regular term will start and I'll teach in the evenings and teach the teachers in the afternoons. Not that we have very many, as most of them quit, pissed off with the Wily Ping because of his highhanded manner with them and the pitiful salaries he pays. They get 45 bucks a month!!!!!
And I have also got a contract job to teach a group of government employees how to report verbally and in writing to an aid group who are looking at setting up an agricultural improvement project. Again, not a lot of money but a worthwhile endeavour.
Then I'm going to set up some intensive seminars for the company that runs the airport--snack bar people, Xray screening, passenger services, to bring them up to a better standard of English and tourist interaction.
That will pay well.
But my big job, as education administrator for the newest Aman resort in the chain-to be called Amantaka, is fairly full-on just now. Two weeks ago I interviewed 700 job applicants in five days. I was screening for English levels and then sending them off to the various department heads. It was mammoth.
I also had to find translators and helpers for this enterprise and it was hot and sticky and utterly exhausting. One night I came home and fell asleep, completely missing my evening class.
Then this past week we did the Second Interview for which we called back about 300 people, and then had a two day Management Training Seminar, which entailed listening to hours of motivational gobbledygook and doing daft things in teams to develop team spirit and define our values. Or something. But I survived. And yes, we developed lots of rapport and bonded and all that.
Then last night we had a gala night out for just the ten of us with beautiful Lao food and music and dancing and a Baci ceremony to celebrate our bondedness. Afterwards a few of us went out and had a lot of fun getting roaring drunk. So now we're all well-bonded and rather hungover.
So, work-wise, I am very busy and in much demand. In about two weeks I'll start teaching the Amantaka employees and I'll learn the real meaning of the word 'work'.
Right now I am going to re-define the meaning of sleep, as I've been gardening all day and am utterly pooped. So tired in fact that I had to turn down an invitation to eat with Sommay's family tonight. They ran over a snake on the way back from the Pak Ou boat-racing festival (Sommay's brother Bounlay captained the winning team!!!) and were having a feast of snake soup. Cheers!
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