live42day

I am a late 50 something woman travelling alone. My husband broke his foot so did not join me on this trip. I usually travel middle of the road, not five star but not one either.

I am spending the first two weeks volunteering with 'Travel to teach' and the next 10 days travelling southern Laos.

Here are some exerpts of my blog. Please keep in mind that these are my observations and may not be those of others who have been here.

When I was getting into the taxi in Bangkok I twisted my ankle (ironically as that is why my husband did not come) so the reference to my foot is this incident.

I flew from Bangkok to Luang Prabang on Bangkok Air.

Upon arrival in Luang Prabang I was met by two fellows with a wheelchair and they assisted me with getting my visa and going though immigration, retrieved my two huge bags and off we went. I was met by Ken, from the volunteer organization, and he really didn’t seem to even notice that I was hobbling along and it didn’t seem to matter. I thought he would be horrified.

He put me into a taxi, which is a three wheeled motorcycle with benches in the cab behind. In Thailand they call them Tuk Tuks. I notice immediately how much quieter, less traffic and cooler it is here. The terrain is very lush and green.

We arrive at a guesthouse ( which I wont name as none of you would stay there, I wouldnt even stay here) which will be my new home for the next two weeks. I felt so badly because the cleaner and Ken each took one of my 50 lb bags and had to drag them up the long flight of stairs.

My room. Let me describe it to you. Well it is about 15 x 15 , white walls, three windows that look out onto the alley and tin roofs of other homes. I have a king size bed with a mattress that is a little softer than a piece of plywood and a wooden headboard. There is a small desk, a wardrobe to hang my things in and a tv and small fridge. I did pay an extra $2 a day for my own bathroom. It is quite large as well with a sink and western toilet, a mirror that allows me to see anything above my eyebrows and a shower of sorts. It is a hand held shower in the middle of the room so when you shower you also wash the bathroom floor.

The best part of my room has to be the canopy over the bed. It is mint green with pink ruffles and a mint green mosquito net that goes over my bed at night. I do have a ceiling fan too which is great. No frills accommodation but it is clean. I am glad I splurged out on a nice hotel in Bangkok for two nights. They had a party going on when I arrived that went on until around 11PM. It was one of the sons 31st birthday and they had lots of food, Beer Lao and karaoke. Oh and it was really bad karaoke. Half of the house is lived in by a large family and the other half is a guesthouse.

I unpacked a bit and then made my way down to talk to Ken who went over what my job will be for the next two weeks. Ken is a young man of around 20 I imagine. He spent five years as a monk so that he could get an education. He is now going to university and also working for Travel to teach. He has another project that he is involved with too which I shall tell you about later.

I don’t start work until Monday so have the weekend to myself which is nice. I will work in the library from 8AM to 10 or 11AM then teach English at 5 –7 PM and then another hour and a half back in the library. I think I will be with a Lao teacher and helping out
.
Here are some of the words I need to learn in Lao
Sit Down
Be Quiet
Get out
Don’t waste time.
And on and on it goes. I am not allowed to be too casual, no touching of any kind to the students.
I must wear a long skirt and blouse with sleeves. I can not sit on the desk. I must leave the class when it is over without saying goodbye before the students can leave.
Very communist. On Sunday I will have some Lao language lessons. I am very excited but nervous as well.

I went back up to my room at around 6PM and just kept my foot up and read for a bit. There is no swelling which is strange but a lot of pain. Maybe tomorrow it will be all better……

live42day

Saturday Jan 8th. 6 AM and I was wide awake so decided to get an early start on the day. After a hot shower, (yeah!) I went downstairs and realized my foot was still giving me a lot of pain. Well I was dammed if I was going to sit in my dingy room all day! I decided that renting a bike would be a good idea as I could just favor the good foot. I got a half a block and realized that I always favor my right foot and that is the one I hurt. I took it back and decided to walk. Before I left a woman came by on her scooter with baskets hanging off the front and both sides full of raw meat. She had a little butcher block stool and my landlady (Mama) ordered some beef so the woman started chopping away at the bones and beef and handed a bag full to Mama. The other guesthouse owners came out and bought some as well. The butcher comes to you here. It was quite entertaining. Gross but entertaining. I am a vegetarian.

I hobbled up to the end of the road and then hailed a taxi to downtown Luang Prabang, which would have only been a 10 minute walk but I wanted to save my foot. I stumbled upon a morning market. This is where the locals come in the morning to buy their vegetables, fruit, live chickens, dried bat (yes dried bat) and lots of other things that I wasn’t sure what they were. Most women in Asian countries shop daily as they don’t have refrigeration. It was just fascinating and went on for blocks.

I made my way down to the Mekong River and walked along watching the boats crossing to the other side. The current is so strong that the boats are almost sideways with the engine full throttle. Breakfast was in order and I came upon this charming little place overlooking the river and had a small bite to eat and was able to rest my foot.

Luang Prabang is just wonderful. Peaceful, lush with lots of flowers and greenery, the air is clean and the people are quiet and so friendly. Quite a change from Bangkok. The main area is not that big really and you can walk around quite easily. A lot of foreigners ride bicycles and there are a number of motorbikes and tuk tuks (taxis) on the road but I would not hesitate to ride a bike here. There is hardly any traffic at all.

You can still really see the French influence with beautiful wooden buildings with the blue shutters and Baguettes for sale everywhere. I walked and walked and walked. Very slowly mind you. After a while my foot didn’t hurt that much anymore. Maybe I was just getting used to the pain.

There was a Wat (Temple) down the road that I went to visit for an hour . The rest of the afternoon was spent at another Wat, the Museum and walking the streets. I don’t know when I have walked so much. And my foot felt better!! Strange. I am not sure how it will feel tomorrow but it does not hurt as much now.

The weather is perfect. Blue sky and almost no humidity with a comfortable temperature. It feels like a nice Spring day in B.C.. I could hear some wonderful music coming from this large building so I went to investigate and found that at 6PM the Lao National Ballet was performing. I purchased a ticket and sat with a couple from Australia. We watched some very beautiful and graceful Lao dancing for the next hour. I was happy that I came across it.

On the way back I walked through the night market. Oh my Gosh it was incredible. It was overwhelming really. They close off the streets for blocks and the vendors set up on the ground with all their wares four stalls deep. The silks and fabrics are outstanding.

I bought a couple of silk table runners but know that I will be back so didn’t go too crazy. The wonderful thing is that the Lao people are so gracious and kind and they ask you if you want to buy but don’t hassle or hound you.

I grabbed a taxi back to my room and just relaxed for the rest of the night. I hope my foot is okay tomorrow as I want to get up early and head back into town.

live42day

Saturday Jan 8th. 6 AM and I was wide awake so decided to get an early start on the day. After a hot shower, (yeah!) I went downstairs and realized my foot was still giving me a lot of pain. Well I was dammed if I was going to sit in my dingy room all day! I decided that renting a bike would be a good idea as I could just favor the good foot. I got a half a block and realized that I always favor my right foot and that is the one I hurt. I took it back and decided to walk. Before I left a woman came by on her scooter with baskets hanging off the front and both sides full of raw meat. She had a little butcher block stool and my landlady (Mama) ordered some beef so the woman started chopping away at the bones and beef and handed a bag full to Mama. The other guesthouse owners came out and bought some as well. The butcher comes to you here. It was quite entertaining. Gross but entertaining. I am a vegetarian.

I hobbled up to the end of the road and then hailed a taxi to downtown Luang Prabang, which would have only been a 10 minute walk but I wanted to save my foot. I stumbled upon a morning market. This is where the locals come in the morning to buy their vegetables, fruit, live chickens, dried bat (yes dried bat) and lots of other things that I wasn’t sure what they were. Most women in Asian countries shop daily as they don’t have refrigeration. It was just fascinating and went on for blocks.

I made my way down to the Mekong River and walked along watching the boats crossing to the other side. The current is so strong that the boats are almost sideways with the engine full throttle. Breakfast was in order and I came upon this charming little place overlooking the river and had a small bite to eat and was able to rest my foot.

Luang Prabang is just wonderful. Peaceful, lush with lots of flowers and greenery, the air is clean and the people are quiet and so friendly. Quite a change from Bangkok. The main area is not that big really and you can walk around quite easily. A lot of foreigners ride bicycles and there are a number of motorbikes and tuk tuks (taxis) on the road but I would not hesitate to ride a bike here. There is hardly any traffic at all.

You can still really see the French influence with beautiful wooden buildings with the blue shutters and Baguettes for sale everywhere. I walked and walked and walked. Very slowly mind you. After a while my foot didn’t hurt that much anymore. Maybe I was just getting used to the pain.

There was a Wat (Temple) down the road that I went to visit for an hour . The rest of the afternoon was spent at another Wat, the Museum and walking the streets. I don’t know when I have walked so much. And my foot felt better!! Strange. I am not sure how it will feel tomorrow but it does not hurt as much now.

The weather is perfect. Blue sky and almost no humidity with a comfortable temperature. It feels like a nice Spring day in B.C.. I could hear some wonderful music coming from this large building so I went to investigate and found that at 6PM the Lao National Ballet was performing. I purchased a ticket and sat with a couple from Australia. We watched some very beautiful and graceful Lao dancing for the next hour. I was happy that I came across it.

On the way back I walked through the night market. Oh my Gosh it was incredible. It was overwhelming really. They close off the streets for blocks and the vendors set up on the ground with all their wares four stalls deep. The silks and fabrics are outstanding.

I bought a couple of silk table runners but know that I will be back so didn’t go too crazy. The wonderful thing is that the Lao people are so gracious and kind and they ask you if you want to buy but don’t hassle or hound you.

I grabbed a taxi back to my room and just relaxed for the rest of the night. I hope my foot is okay tomorrow as I want to get up early and head back into town.

live42day

sorry, the last one posted twice. The internet is sketchy here.

It’s 5:30AM and I make my way down the dark alley from the guesthouse to the main road. The air is a bit chilly and it has rained overnight so everything is fresh and clean. I am hoping to catch a taxi on the main road but it seems that only I and a few roosters are up and around. An occasional motorcycle passes but it is very dark and very quiet. I walk towards the centre of town in search for the morning monk procession at dawn.

A few women come out and sweep the sidewalks in front of their homes keeping the city pristine and clean. Eventually I hear voices at the top of a small hill and head towards it. I really have no idea where I am going in the dark, I was hoping to just ask the taxi driver to take me there.

I see an area where a few blocks have the sidewalks lined with bamboo mats and small baskets placed on them. I wander around a bit as I have read about this but still unsure as to how it all works. A woman asks if I would like to buy some food to give to the monks. I take off my shoes and kneel on the bamboo mat. I must have my feet facing away from the monks and must have my head below them.

A young man around 20 from Australia sits beside me. His friends have all stayed in bed not seeing the sense in learning anything about the Laos culture and only partying every night. At his young age he just cant imagine that and is her to experience it all. We have a wonderful conversation for the next half hour waiting for the monks to arrive. We both purchase a basket of sticky rice and some sweets wrapped in palm leaves.

Eventually we see a flash of orange down the dark sidewalk. The monks make their procession towards us. There are hundreds of young monks, some appear not much older than 8 years old. They come every morning for offerings of food from locals and now tourists as well. They are wearing their robes of saffron and orange and carry a basket over their shoulder which holds a metal pot with a lid. As they pass you hold up your offerings and if they want it they will open their lid and you place the item into the basket. There were two children sitting on the other side of me with large wicker baskets. Some of the monks would take things from their baskets if they were getting full and put them into the large baskets for the children. I found that most of it was the sticky rice and they kept alot of the sweets for themselves. These children were poor and the monks were paying it forward. This is a really great system if you think about it. The woman make money by selling the food, the monks get food, the poor get food and the tourists get a great photo op.

When the procession is done I head off to find some breakfast and find a wonderful French Lao restaurant that serves muesli yogurt and fruit. I also indulged in croissant as I heard that they were incredible but certainly wont be making a steady diet of that as it was very rich.

I head down to the river and buy a ticket on a long covered boat to take me down the Mekong to some caves with Buddha statues. The trip is two hours upstream and a very peaceful ride. The river has a very strong current with whirlpools every once and a while. The color is a muddy brown and there is a lot of small sand beaches at the edge of the river.

There are little villages along the way with the steep slope having the gardens near the bottom, where I could recognize corn and potatoes and other vegetables. The woman would wash the clothes in the river and hang them to dry at the rivers edge. The men and boys were throwing their nets into the river to get their daily catch. At the top of the slope were the homes and living area and behind that rolling green hills. Everything was very green and tropical with palm trees and other jungle like vegetation.

In one area we see some elephants being taken down to the river to get washed. Some boats similar to our pass by and you can see that the families live on them, this is their home. Perhaps our driver lives on this boat that we are on.

One thing that stuck me is that there were no birds. Anywhere. Actually above the water there was no life at all except the humans. Very odd.

Eventually we arrive at the caves and there are hundreds of stairs to the top cave. Someone had told me that the cave at the top was the best so off I went. I wish I could remember who that was because it certainly wasn’t true. I reach the top and quite frankly was very disappointed. It was a very dark cave with a couple of Buddha’s in it. Going down was actually harder than going up as there was not a handrail but eventually I made it to the bottom and then climbed the other stairs to the lower cave. Much more impressive. People from many areas have come here to place buddhas in this cave and come to worship. The best part of the trip was definitely the getting there.

Tonight we get to meet the volunteers who are already here and ones who are just starting like myself. I met Cynthia who is 34 and from Holland. She is a corporate lawyer and taking time off to stay in Asia for a couple of months. Her husband is a foreign correspondent and going to meet up with her in a month. She and I are very similar. We are both very organized, control freaks of a sort and work with a schedule when we are given one. This is going to be a great exercise in letting all that go for both of us we have discovered.

Ken walks us to the school/library which takes around ten minutes from our guest house. We meet Eddy from Australia, a 21 year old Finance student at a university and another from the US who is around 30 something and a Biologist but going back to get his masters in Development as he wants to do NGO work in developing countries. There were five Lao volunteers, four girls around 19 and one boy the same age. They are going to university but volunteer at the library as well.

A very sad library. The room is the size of a classroom with maybe two hundred books in total all in a state of disrepair. There are 4000 students at the school and the children from outlying areas as well as the University students come here. There were boxes of books under the desk of English text books likes the ones I had planned to bring. They will never get used and the person who took the trouble to get them there will never know. They can not read English novels as they really only need very basic readers.

There is a party planned as one of the volunteers is leaving tomorrow after a month of volunteer work and Cynthia and I are starting. Eddy has two more weeks. There are about 20 students who are the brightest in the country, the top students in this school and most of the other three high schools as well.


There is a ceremony for us. A large bowl is put in the middle of the room with flowers and a lit candle in the middle and sticks with lots of string on them hanging off the sides. There are many sweets and chips in the bowl. We have to remove our shoes and sit cross legged on the floor around the bowl. There are prayers in Lao and we all touch the bowl and blessings are said for the four volunteers. Then the string is taken off and each student ties a string on each of our wrist and says a blessing for our good luck and health. This took quite some time as there were four volunteers and 20 students. It was very sweet. Then we tied some string on their wrists and bless them.

We hold out our hands and the students put the sweets and chips into our hands. Like the monk ceremony this morning we are told to take what we want and give the rest to the students. They were thrilled.

We sat in front of a feast of food and some of the students did some Lao dancing for us. We were then invited up to learn some dancing ourselves. I must have looked pretty funny as the students were giggling and pointing a lot. A lot of the dance is hand movement so hopefully I wasn’t saying anything rude with my hands. Then the food and Beer Lao flowed.

We can’t teach at the high school this week as they are in the middle of exams so we need to go to a small school about 10 K out of town. I had chosen to teach at 7PM to 9PM. Ken said that I can ride my bike there and back.

I looked at him and said “That’s not going to happen”
He stared blankly at me.
“ I am not riding my bike 10 K in the dark at 9PM by myself “
He just couldn’t understand why not.

We agreed that Cynthia and I will both teach at the same school at 8AM and that we will help in the library at 1-3P and again at 5-7PM
We staggered home at midnight and are very nervous and excited about our day tomorrow

live42day

Teachers are held in the highest regard here, at the top of the food chain so to speak. Unfortunately they only get paid a salary of around $1,000 a year. Even in Laos that is a terrible salary. But so many of the kids we are meeting want to be teachers for the respect that it brings. So sometimes the teachers just don’t show up for class because they have to have another job, mostly farming. If they need to tend to their fields they just don’t come to class.

At 8 AM we travel 10K by taxi to our school on the outskirts of town. I keep thinking about riding my bike out here…..ha. No one is on a bike. What happened to my quiet clean air of Luang Prabang? The weekend was great but Monday brings on a whole new scenario. So much traffic! So much exhaust !

We arrive at a little three room school house that is very cute and well kept. I meet the teacher that I am working with. It is his first day too! They have just started a new semester. I have seven students, two girls and five boys all around 19. They go to University but need to come back to school for a couple of hours during the day as they need to brush up on some things.

They are painfully shy. I write my name on the board and introduce myself. The teacher asks each student to stand and say their name and where they are from and what they are studying. It was painful.

Then the teacher hands me a text book and says ‘this is what we are learning’ and walks off.

It is past present and future sense of the word make.
What a stupid book. I didn’t even understand some of the sentences in there. And three of the students don’t have the text book because they cant afford it.

I write the questions on the board and drew a lot of pictures. They could read and say the sentences but I figured out pretty quickly that they really had no idea what they were saying. Two hours later and we did two small pages. I really am not sure if we were any further ahead at the end of it all but I gave it my best shot. Eddy says if we just show up we are still doing better than a lot of their regular teachers….

I said to the teacher that I would be back tomorrow at 8AM.
“Will we be doing the next lesson in this book?”
(I was just getting the hang of it.)
No, tomorrow we do a different text book.
“What will that be?”
“ I don’t know”
Okay then. See you tomorrow at 8AM.

The library was a lot better. We hang around and talk to the students, help them read and speak English and help with their homework. We spoke with two girls who live in the dormitory and go to University. A great percentage of these kids are from outlying towns and villages so have to live here and only see their families around once a year. The dorms for the girls have 23 beds per room and one bathroom per dorm room. Can you imagine? They said it is very noisy in the room at night with all the girls chatting all at once. There are three floors and a kitchen on each floor. 18 rooms with 23 beds each.

The boys are in different dorms but the same situation
I go back again tonight and will hopefully have a chance to talk to the co-ordinator about the books and cameras that I have brought with me. Things move slowly in Laos. Cynthia and I are learning to slow down with it.

Kathie

I've been looking forward to your report!

live42day

So now I am up to date. It is Friday, and this is what we have done so far:

Cynthia and I have a routine down of sorts. It may and possible will change next week, but for this week we have been doing the following:

At 8AM we get picked up at our guesthouse either by a tuk tuk or an SUV driven by the wife of the director of the school. We make the long drive out to the school in heavy rush hour smoggy traffic, so we really prefer the SUV. It has also been really cold so another reason to prefer the comfort of the SUV.

We have been teaching in the same class which is great. She will do ten minutes and then I will do ten minutes. There will be anywhere from six to 10 students each day. We write the question on the board and then get them to find the right answer. It is very very painful. They have no comprehension at all. They are great at repeating and reading but if we ask them questions they just look blankly at us. Part of that is because they are so shy but you can tell they really don’t understand much English. It is a very long two hours. Today however we spent the last half hour playing ‘hangman ‘with the words that we learned and they really enjoyed that and were quite excited. We are breaking all the rules and being very casual and silly and having fun. They told the teacher that they can tell that we really like teaching and are starting to open up to us and relax a bit. The teacher we have now is a young girl who has only been teaching for a year and much more relaxed than the fellow I had on Monday.

At 10 AM we are driven back to our guesthouse and we head to our favorite little French/Lao restaurant for some muesli , yogurt and fruit for breakfast. Sometimes I have a Lao coffee or tea as well. We chat and enjoy our breakfast for about an hour. We then start to make our way back to the other end of the city and look at some stalls, maybe check our emails and end up at the high school library at 1PM.

This is our favorite volunteer time. Cynthia tutors a girl of around 18 and I pull out some games that I have brought. Two of the favorite are both Bingo games where I call out a number in English that they match up or I will call out a word such as fish, cat, dog etc. and they must find the picture of what I am saying. This is mostly the young ones that do this. Yesterday I have 20 of them and they are sooooo enthusiastic. They want to play over and over again. They get very excited when they get Bingo but not too worried if they are first or last they just want to complete their own card. They range in age from around eight to twelve and some of them have a very good comprehension while others basically none but they all help each other.

Yesterday after they found their number I would get them to repeat it in Lao so that I can learn Lao as well. I want to be able to go to the market and bargain in Lao.

At three PM we head back to town and go to a restaurant by the river and have a snack. Sometimes a fruit shake or a banana pancake and just relax by the river for an hour and talk. We then walk back to the library slowly poking around some shops or just sight seeing along the way. We are back in the library from 7 to 8PM but it is usually very quiet because the students have exams next week and are in the dorms studying. Eddy Cynthia and I will usually play scrabble with a couple of the kids.

At eight PM or there abouts we walk back into town, (it takes us about 20-30 minutes each way to walk to and from the school from town) the three of us go for dinner and have great discussions and talk about our life in our respective countries. We have had some fantastic meals. Indian, Thai and Lao so far and we try a different restaurant every night. We usually wander through the night market on the way home.

I am averaging around $15 a day although last night was quite expensive. I had a Lao vegetarian curry with rice, Lao beer, two Lao Lao drinks which are like margaritas and finished off with a Pina Colada. The total bill came to $100,000 Kip which is $12.50 Canadian.

If you include the cost of accommodation I am living on an average of $25 a day and living quite well. Although I would upgrade my room a couple of dollars if I was choosing one myself so maybe $30 a day.

We have been eating some of the street food which is very good and also can have ice in our drinks for some reason which is nice. It seems that all the tourists are able to eat the street food here and not get sick.

live42day

The air in Luang Prabang is not as clean as I first thought it to be. I guess after Bangkok it seemed great and the first day I spent down by the river which is so much cleaner and quieter. On the main roads it is very smoggy with all the car and motorcycle exhaust. People wear masks here and we cover our nose and mouth as well. My poor lungs are sore and I am starting to cough. Sigh. I am hoping that down south will be better. I did buy a mask today, which is like a surgical mask that hooks on your ears and covers you mouth and nose and made from a flannel material.

There are a lot of tourists here from all over the world and of every age and budget. You hear so many different languages when you walk down the street. The Lao people I find very honest and friendly. If I give a $50,000 bill instead of a $5,000 bill they will give it back and say that I made a mistake. If you look at an item and ask how much it costs they won’t hound you for the next ten minutes to buy it because you showed some interest. I really like it here a lot. If I try to speak Lao they are really impressed that I know more than hello and thank you and try to help me with my pronunciation. Lao is not an easy language. I can understand why they have a problem speaking English as we use different vowels.

After the library today Cynthia and I grabbed a taxi (tuk tuk) and headed to the weaving factory which was about 20 minutes out of town. There were no tourists there and I think most of the women were on a break because it was very quiet. One of the women took us out back and showed us how the silk worms make silk and how they turn it all into silk thread. I had seen this before in Chaing Mai but Cynthia had not. She then showed us how she did some weaving and spinning of the thread. Then of course we went in to see the items that she had made and wanted us to buy. It takes so long to make each item you hated to try to get it for a low price which is what they are hoping for.

She showed us the different quality and grades of silk and which were silk blends etc. I had bought a couple at the night market but the quality was no where near as good as it was here. We ended up buying a few items and I know I paid too much because she gave me a free gift afterwards. It was still a good bargain for me though so I was happy.

The library was very quiet tonight. The students all have exams next week so they are studying. I have been bringing the items I brought with me slowly to the library over the week. The games were a huge hit as I said. I also brought Scrabble, Battleship, some other word and basic math games. I also brought a bunch of basic English Reading books, a light up beach ball globe which was a big success as well and four digital cameras which were donated by friends and colleagues. The library manager was thrilled. He will lend the cameras out to students to take pictures and then they can come back and download them to the computer. Someone donated photoshop so they can play around with that.

I gave about 50 blank exercise books to Kenny the volunteer coordinator to take to his village as the students here all use books that have graph paper. So now I am down to one suitcase. Yeah! I will give this away quickly before I fill it up with the amazing goods I see in the market!

I got all the information of what to bring from the website
The Language Project in Laos which helps all the librarys in Luang Prabang and does amazing work.

We played scrabble and then went into town for Indian food . A quiet night tonight staying up until 2AM working on my blog and this fodors blog as well.

I am looking forward now to two days of rest. No school or library for the weekend . I will get a massage and pedicure for sure and spend time taking pictures . As I said it has been really cold the last few days, (well for here) but today was nice and warm and I heard that warmer weather is in the forcast. I think we have walked every inch of Luang Prabang center at least a few times and feel I know it very well now.

Will write more later….

Marija

I'm enjoying reading about your adventures. Thanks.

Craig

Great blog, Debbe. BTW it is not uncommon in Asia to receive a "free" gift with your purchases.

Keep it coming...

b__b

Thankyou for this fascinating acount.,..You are having a truly inspiring adventure...Awaiting next entry with baited breath...

Vientianeboy

"Sit Down
Be Quiet
Get out
Don’t waste time.
And on and on it goes. I am not allowed to be too casual, no touching of any kind to the students.
I must wear a long skirt and blouse with sleeves. I can not sit on the desk. I must leave the class when it is over without saying goodbye before the students can leave.
Very communist."

No this has NOTHING to do with communism whatsoever as you will soon learn. This is part of Lao culture and has been for centuries. The no touching is primarily on the head which Buddhists regard as sacred. Not saying goodbye is nonsense. I always say goodbye to my students as they do to me. All the Lao teachers do likewise.

The ceremony in which you took part is called a Barsi. Theravada Buddhists believe the soul is divided into 23 parts. The Barsi is meant to bring the fractured parts together as a whole.

Enjoy your time there. Lao are wonderful people.

live42day

Thanks Everyone. Yes Vientienne boy I think that the information I recieved the first day was a little over the top as the second teacher is certainly not like that at all.

I find that all the Lao people are very warm and friendly and see that the men and women both are so loving and caring for thier young children. It is not just the women.

I will post more in a few days. Really looking forward to some warm sunshine today.

rhkkmk

really enjoyed reading of your adventures... i think your advice about what to bring the kids will be very helpful to others...

rivet

What a great opportunity you have found! Voluntourism can be a rewarding way to experience another culture.

Recently I went to a presentation on volunteer placements - Africa , Iran and Laos were the featured countries. The one in Laos was most interesting and live42day, you have raised a point that came up during that session.

The University of Calgary has had a partnership for many years with the hospital and medical school in Laos, though I got the impression it was Vientiane, not Luang Prabang. Maybe I am wrong on that? Anyway the goal is to help train medical students and fund various upgrades to the existing facilities.

The presentation was focused on the pathology department , and the state of the pathology lab there was alarming. As you found boxes of books hidden below a desk in the library, books that were not useful for the community, the same was apparent in the laboratory. They showed slides of shelving units with unlabelled bottles of brightly colored reagents and chemicals, undated, likely expired and dried up. Well intentioned , yet useless donations, …unless training goes along with the donation. There were entire rooms filled with rusting and broken equipment. Expensive centrifuges and microscopes, with minor problems that rendered them unusable – unlike our own countries, there are no service people in Laos, just a phone call away. No spare parts either.

The presenters pointed out that the Lao people are so very grateful for receiving gifts …books, machinery, chemicals….that it is impossible for them to discard these gifts, even if they will never be used. So things pile up and are stored indefinitely. As others have mentioned here, itseems critically important that people make good choices when considering what can be used by the community in Laos. Sometimes, the Wish Lists that organizations publish seem a bit vague.

Anyway I am enjoying reading your candid remarks about your teaching in Laos and especially the day to day details.

The group with the pathology lab accomplished a lot in a few months in Laos and they had some stories that made you just want to sign up.

There was a young boy with a sore leg, just above his knee;a visible lesion on the xray….and to see changes on an xray there must be 50 % bone degeneration so that was a big worry. Having no other diagnostic options, besides the xray, a diagnosis would have been made as The Worst Case Scenario. Considering the age of the patient and the location of the abnormality, the doctors suspected osteogenic sarcoma…always treated aggressively by amputation. The basic pathology lab sponsored by the U of C , confirmed , in fact another condition. A virulent bacteria infection, completely treatable with antiobiotics. That lab saved the boy his leg.

live42day

One of the best things to do I think is when you get here buy books that are in Lao and english. You can buy them at Big Brother Mouse both in LP and Vientenne and they are very inexpensive. I think that Vientenne is the best place to buy books as our librarian here is there is weekend with some money to buy books at various stores there as he says it is better.

If you feel the need to give things to children when you come to countries such as this, books are a great alternative as they encourage reading and education instead of the candy and toys that I myself am guilty of doing in the past.

I saw something disturbing to me today. I was sitting at a cafe and two young children came up to me on two different ocassions and asked if I wanted to buy some trinkets that they were selling.

I said no thank you and they put on this pout and looked like they would cry and said 'for school'. It reminded me of Cambodia where the kids are so skilled at working the tourists with thier sweet little faces.

I hope that the toursim here wont ruin this beautiful country.

thursdaysd

Very interested to read this as I'll be back in Luang Prabang in February - and it would help to tell us the name of the guesthouse! Congratulations on the volunteering.

Femi

Thanks for this great report. I love the feeling of walking around with you taking in the sights. Also interesting to see what life is like as a member of the community rather than a tourist.

When I first arrived in LP I was offered some postcards for purchase. When I declined and the lady vendor said 'OK', I almost fell over! The lack of hassle and prssure to buy made shopping much more enjoyable. I love the geometric designs on fabric, very unique.

live42day

the guesthouse is Si Saphone but not in any of rhe books. It is right beside the Merry Guesthouse which he also owns and looks much nicer

Vientianeboy

Big Brother Mouse is not the best place to buy books; they are a for profit organisation. Should you wish to buy books, the best place by far is the Morning Market in Vientiane, which has books written by Lao for Lao and also books written by expats who work and teach here.