Pi Mai Lao

It seems like time has gone by very quickly this past month!

First of all, my parents visited! It was very good to see them and fun
to show them around. After showing them around Vientiane, we
travelled up to Luang Prabang for a few days, which I had never been
to before, so it was good for me to be able to see it too. Luang
Prabang is the old capital of Laos and is known for being very
beautiful and historical. We found a nice guesthouse and spent the
next few days around the city, seeing temples, buying cloth and riding
elephants. Then we were back in Vientiane for a few days before they
left. In addition to places and people they saw and met, my parents
also got to go to a Lao wedding and baci, so they experienced some
cultural aspects as well. I was pleased they were able to see as much
as they did and things just seemed to work out well. Having them here
also reminded me how accustomed I've become to doing things the Lao
way.

Immediately afterwards, Pi Mai Lao (the Lao New Year) preparations and
celebrations began. Using American terms, I think Pi Mai Lao is best
described as spring break, graduation parties and summer vacation
combined into a celebration that also manages to celebrate the
Buddhist New Year in a week. The celebration is technically only three
days, but school was closed the other two weekdays which meant that
with two weekends, I had a week+ of vacation. During Pi Mai, water is
used to bless images of Buddha, monks, elders and everyone else. But
mostly everyone else. And virtually no one is exempt if they venture
outside their house. Pouring water on others is seen as a blessing for
a long and happy life.

The Sunday before Pi Mai, my ban (neighborhood) held a huge feast at a
local school. This lasted all day. A vivid memory was seeing my
neighbor dressed completely in red and a ridiculous hat getting picked
up and dumped into a tub of water. She didn't mind a bit. Getting wet
was quite a relief from the heat we've been having recently, so I
really didn't mind getting wet either.

Most of the week was spent feasting and getting wet at family and
friends' houses. On the last Saturday, we had our own feast at home,
featuring four ducks. (To everyone's surprise, one of them laid two
eggs earlier in the week!). During this time, Laos also has bacis for
the new year. (I've described them before, but a baci is a blessing
held for special events and is marked by tying strings around each
others' wrists as a blessing.) We held one at school and a smaller,
informal one with my extended host family. After the family baci, we
ate and talked with a few family members and some neighbors. Or so I
thought. As my host mom's oldest brother was talking to me, he
mentioned he was the first and pointed around until he had listed all
8 of his siblings! Everyone was related! Only one sibling wasn't able
to be there. I spent the rest of the evening matching up the spouses
and wondering how I didn't see the resemblances before.

All in all, it was a fun and relaxing time, but after a week, I was
ready to get back to work this past week. We've got about a month to
go before school's out for the rainy season. It's been pretty hot and
humid the past few weeks and I'm looking forward to the rain coming in
a few weeks.

I hope you all are enjoying a wonderful spring!

Justin

Just a bit longer

Hello all,

First things first- I'll be in Laos for a few more months.

A short answer to why I'm staying a few more months (instead of not
continuing at all or staying for a longer period): It turns out a
valuable national staff member retired recently and somewhat suddenly.
This means MCC Laos has even fewer resources than we had before. This
is where I can step in with my handle of English and a few
organizational skills. I'll help out with administrative types of
things, like editing reports, helping orient new service workers, and
basically whatever else needs to get done.

MCC's desperate need for someone like me seemed to fit well with my
inability to figure out what I will do when I move back to America. It
wasn't an easy decision for me to make, but the time's gone by really
quickly and I've enjoyed getting to know Laos and its people- enough
that I think another few months would be worth it. I think I have more
to offer and more to learn. As I was making my decision, I literally
opened a Bible to a passage I remembered memorizing many years ago:

"7 Where can I go from your Spirit?
Where can I flee from your presence?

8 If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.

9 If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
if I settle on the far side of the sea,

10 even there your hand will guide me,
your right hand will hold me fast.

11 If I say, "Surely the darkness will hide me
and the light become night around me,"

12 even the darkness will not be dark to you;
the night will shine like the day,
for darkness is as light to you."
(from Psalms 139)

Those of you desperate to see me in person will be relieved to know
I'll be able to make it back to the States for a couple weeks in July.
Hopefully I'll be able to see you then. Then it's back to Laos until
about the middle of December.

In other news from the past month or so, a couple weeks ago, I went on
a retreat with teachers and students to Vang Vieng, a popular place to
visit a few hours outside of Vientiane. We packed into two school
buses and set off. It was interesting being in Vang Vieng with kids
and Lao people I know- Vang Vieng is popular for its beautiful
mountains and rivers, yet it's also known for a sometimes "party"
atmosphere, especially among tourists. But it was fun to play in the
water and have fun with students instead of worrying about wasting
class time.

I also attended a funeral for the mother of one of my neighbors. It
turns out it is quite a process and it was pretty educational for me
and a good opportunity to learn about how Lao view death and life
after death.

The parents are coming in just a few days! I'm excited to show them
around and I'm sure lots of fun and adventure will await.

Hope all is well on the far side of the sea,

Justin

Back at school

I have a little catching up to do. It's not that I don't want to, but I just don't get around to writing often...

The end of December and beginning of January were filled with more celebrating. In addition to the holidays I'm used to celebrating, there were a lot of weddings, too. Even though few people in Laos are Christian, they are perfectly willing to celebrate Christmas- even if they're not quite sure what it's all about. (I looked up Christmas in a dictionary and found a literal translation of "Foreigner New Year". I think many people are celebrating "Foreigner New Year" on the 25th of December and then "International New Year" only a week later on the first!) Christmas is celebrated here more like how most people celebrate a holiday like Memorial day where people spend time at home with neighbors and family. My host mom kindly threw a Christmas party on my behalf for the neighborhood. I made sure to wear red because that is apparently the color you're supposed to wear. New Year's was a similar but larger affair. Three neighborhood houses had food and music and neighbors just wandered between the three locations. I got to help kill and grill ducks at our house. And it rained! It wasn't much, but with a "winter" dominated by sunny skies and few clouds, it seemed pretty unusual.

School started again right after the break. I was a little surprised at how familiar it felt after a two-month break. We also got a new English teacher. The teacher who previously taught English to the upper primary students (whom I don't usually help teach) and some of the lower secondary classes decided to get married and move away over the break without telling the school. In a scramble to find a new teacher, my schedule changed for about a week as I covered those classes. After a week, a new teacher was found. Very new in fact- he had never taught before and had many questions. This led to a number of tricky situations in the classroom where he wasn't sure what to do and I thought I knew what should be done, but didn't quite know how to explain it to him or the class. (Both his English and my Lao have a little ways to go, and I also didn't want to say things too bluntly.) However, we've now been able to get down a system that works for both of us. I'm thankful that I've been able to give him more suggestions and input than if he wasn't a new teacher.

And now for a look inside the classroom. One of my favorite rooms in M1C. "M1" stands for the first year of Lao secondary school (about 6th grade) and the C means it's the third room of M1. Theroretically, students are placed in the different rooms due to their ability with "A" being the highest and "C" the lowest. I'm still not sure how or why this is done. Maybe the fear is that the better students will get slowed down by the other students. But this system has a number of problems and exceptions. What if you're good at English and but don't have a mathematical mind? How are the students actually chosen for each room- only by tests? If so, I have many doubts about its credibility. Is it really a good idea to put all the "troublemakers" in the same class? Just a few of many questions I have. At any rate, the classes end up being about the same although the B and C classes tend to have more of the "energetic" students.

So theoretically M1C is both the youngest (unless a teacher moves away without telling anyone...) and most challenging class that I teach. They might be the most "immature" or not, but they are also the most interesting. A nice thing about M1C is that it doesn't have as many students as the other M1 classes- I think just over 30 students. Students range from the quartet of girls in the front who always try to give me a snack and are sweet even during a test when they say they don't have anything but are really hiding a paper underneath a leg to the boy towards the back who is more likely to playfully hit someone than write a word down. One girl in the front always has a question about one of the letters in one of the words I've written on the board. A couple boys in the back stir up enough trouble (or their friends do) that I have to come back and visit them. When I do, I'm subject to many questions in a mix of Lao and English: "Are you scared of ghosts?" "Does America have rice fields?" "Because America doesn't have rice fields do they get their rice from Thailand?" "Why are your eyes blue?" (After sputtering a couple words out, I said it was because I like the color blue.) "Why aren't my eyes green?" Almost all of these questions are met with a pair of grins and eager anticipation for an answer. Another boy off to the side knows enough English to be moved up a couple grades. Somehow times almost always passes quickly in this class. What I've said about M1C is more or less the same for the other classes I teach, but maybe not as vivid.

At school, we've recently been having a number of competitions with other schools. Athletically there have been volleyball, football (soccer) and kataw (sepak takraw which I described earlier). Also the girls have participated in "fawn" competitions. "Fawn" is the traditional Lao dancing that occurs at a lot of important events. In fact, our school even held a competition for the district. I arrived at school on Monday to find everyone making decorations out of recycled bags, bottles and wrapping paper. The next day, we had the competition all day with 14 schools (and the national television company). So we have three days of school this week! Nita did quite well, but didn't get first.

That's all I have for now, except that I'm pretty sure we're out of whatever "winter" we had. Thanks for your continued thoughts and prayers!

Celebrations

December 9-18th the South East Asian Games came to Vientiane, Laos. This was a big deal. In the previous 24 SEA Games, Laos had never hosted. A year in advance, there was a screen downtown counting down the days until the games started. Fortunately, I was able to attend both the opening and closing ceremonies with my family and neighbors. The opening started with Lao songs, special effects, and a grand entrance by the athletes from all eleven participating countries. Later dances performed by thousands of dancers depicted scenes from Laos. The grand finale included all the dancers and many fireworks. It was great to see the Lao people excited about their country.

The sports in the games are a variety of world-wide and Western sports along with more traditional SE Asian sports. Quite a few types of martial arts. On a Saturday, I went to see sepak takraw which is similar to volleyball except the players can only use their heads, legs and feet to hit a plastic ball a little larger than a softball. A very exciting sport featuring very flexible and creative athletes.
Men's football (soccer) was by far the most popular sport for Lao fans to watch and I think for fans of other countries as well. Someone told me it's the most popular because it's a team sport. I think the worldwide popularity of football also has something to do with it. The Lao men did better than ever before, making it to the semifinals. Unfortunately they lost in this round, but I was able to see the third-place match in person. It was a very hot day and I hid underneath my jacket and many others did the same. (Lao, especially Lao women don't want to get tan, and often walk around under umbrellas even on sunny days. I just didn't want to get burned.) Unfortunately it was not Lao's day and they surrendered three goals before scoring one of their own in the closing seconds. Due to the heat, the game wasn't quite what I had hoped it might be, but watching the Lao cheer on their team was great. It sometimes seems like Lao don't get excited very often.

Seeing Laos host the SEA Games also made me realize what a small world Laos is. For instance, roughly 1 in every 10,000 citizens of Laos was an athlete directly participating in the games. My neighbor who is still studying at a university did an "internship" as a TV commentator and ended up working quite a few of the games. It was great to see my host Grandma's face light up the first time she saw him on TV. Also, a friend of mine knows the family of a choreographer for the dances at the opening and closing ceremonies. At least three or four of my neighbors worked at the SEA Games in some way. I've also seen many other instances where two people I thought were strangers to each other somehow had a connection. I think the Lao are more welcoming and friendly to each other because they think of each other as distant relatives. People usually refer to each other with a family name along with the given name. For example, I call the neighbor lady who is about the age of my mother, "May-Sun" ("May" meaning mother.)

Along the lines of thinking of neighbors as family, this past weekend the neighborhood hosted a wedding, and it certainly was a neighborhood event. I've been to a couple weddings already in Laos, but this was the first time I could get a behind the scenes look. My house was the "kitchen". On the day of the wedding, I slept until after 7:30 and felt like I had slept in too late. Already the women were washing and cutting vegetables and a group of men were chopping huge slabs of beef into smaller chunks. Around 10:30, there were cries that the groom had come already. Sure enough, the groom came trotting down the road with a large group of his family and friends. As is the tradition, the groom "fought" his way through the bride's family and friends, with everyone smiling and laughing. Below, the groom is in the middle, dressed in white and red. Inside the bride's house, a baci was held for the new couple. The morning baci is supposed to be a smaller ceremony, but I think there were 100+ people there. I think I've mentioned bacis a little before, but they are traditional Lao ceremonies symbolized by tying strings of blessing around each others' wrists. I wasn't able to actually see this baci because of the large number of people, but I already knew the gist of it. Afterward, a large meal was served.


The afternoon gave people a chance to rest up and get ready for the evening. A month or so ago, the free space behind my house was cleared and the grass was cut short. Now it was set up with lots of chairs and tables. A banner announcing the happy couple was set up and 10 huge speakers were hauled in. Around 7:00, people started arriving, but the tables weren't full until after 8:00. I think about 600 people were there at the peak moments. Since my host parents were two of the hosts for the reception, my host sister helped serve drinks and my host brother was in the band, I sat at a table with my uncle, aunt, cousin, another aunt or friend of my aunt, the "mayor of our village" and his daughter, a next door neighbor who can speak a little French, English and Russian but can't quite say my name right however many times he asks me, and two other men who I think are neighbors. (As you might have figured out, Lao are friendly but don't always go to great lengths to explain who they are and what connections they have to others, even if they have those odd connections I mentioned earlier.) From here on out, it was more or less like a wedding reception you would probably be familiar with: food buffet style, singing and dancing- but all with a Lao flavor to it.

Having all these celebrations also makes me think about the celebrations I'll miss. Since there are not many Christians in Laos, there are few reminders of Christmas although Lao are more than willing to celebrate a holiday they don't know much about. I have enjoyed attending church services and a "Carols by Candlelight" celebration in the Australian tradition of celebrating Christmas with a picnic lit by candles. I'm also pretty sure my host mother is planning a Christmas party, but it will be interesting to see how it turns out considering she thought Christmas was the day I celebrated the New Year. I'll certainly miss seeing all (or at least some:) of you during this holiday season and also the lack of religious moments, but I really have felt welcomed by the people of this country, especially in the time spent together the past couple weeks. May you have a terrific and meaningful holiday season!

My November

My schedule has changed a lot since school let out in late October. After a week or so of hanging around MCC and doing whatever little tasks needed to be done, I embarked on a trip to the countryside with Bounchan, a national MCC staff person who is kind of in charge there and who speaks very good English. We headed to the southern part of Xieng Khouang Province to the district of Tha Thom. Since it is mountainous and there aren't good roads, it can be difficult to get to. MCC had been trying to get a pick-up truck out there for the past number of months but due to the mud, when staff needed to travel there and back, they took a boat down the river and then traveled by bus. Apparently you could also hitch a ride on a big truck. But now it was early November and the rainy season had died down, so we could risk driving a pick-up. The first part of the journey went fine, but in the early afternoon we came to a river. The river itself wasn't the problem because it only came up to my knees at the deepest points, but a truck hauling motorbikes was stuck on the mud bank of the other side of the river. I gathered that the driver could call a bigger truck to pull him out, but the cost of that would pretty much negate any profit he would make upon delivering his load. It was a much better plan for him to wait for a big truck to come by, either on its own or summoned by another waiting vehicle in more of a hurry than he was. So we waited too. About three hours later a truck did come by and the road was clear again. Look closely at the middle of the picture below and you can find a stuck truck.


Tha Thom is quite beautiful with a lot of mountains and greenery. I learned on the trip out that this district used to be a ''special zone" directly governed by the Lao government because there was supposedly still a risk of people actively protesting the government which some have done for over 30 years. Historically, most of these people have come from the Hmong ethnic group. (That why when you hear about Lao(tians) in America many times they are Hmong.) The district was no longer declared a special zone roughly a year ago and much change has happened since. Tha Thom received electricity last April and telephone service. Before that time, the people depended on a few generators and the only phone was at the mayor's house. I hear the Internet is coming soon.


I stayed at the MCC office which doubles as the national staff's living quarters. I helped out with the technology we brought like computers, a copy machine and satellite dish. We also visited a number of villages MCC works in and saw school gardens and latrine projects there. These villages were quite simple and all the houses were built of bamboo or wood and raised on stilts in the traditional Lao way as shown above. Below is a picture from inside one of the houses. I took the picture while crouched in the opposite corner of the house. I think most families send the parents to work in the rice fields while the grandmothers care for the children and house. The animals seemingly care for themselves and only gather to eat. (Another one of my duties became chasing the cows and water buffalo out of the yard while the others were in meetings.)


We had quite a time getting back because we couldn't go back over Small Elephant Mountain we had crossed on the way in because it had rained recently and there was a pretty good chance we would get stuck often. Instead we headed north to the capital of the province. This road wasn't a whole lot better and was like driving through a construction site- actually it was as crews are working all over the main roads in the district. We left in the late afternoon but at 7:30 we pulled up to a bridge that had the gate down. We heard they were working on the road until 11 PM. We decided it would be a good time to eat the supper we had brought. We had stopped in a Hmong village so Von, the recently hired driver who apparently can speak Hmong, found us a house to eat in because it was dark and quite cold (in the 50s I think and windy). The family had a simple house but were quite welcoming. It turned out that night was the first day of the Hmong New Year and the father announced that he was honored to have us as guests. There was a family of maybe six or seven people, but we only ate with the father. The father spoke Hmong and some Lao, Von speaks Lao and a little Hmong, Bounchan speaks Lao and good English and I of course speak English and a little Lao. All that makes for an interesting (and slow) dinner. After saying goodbye, we dozed a little in the truck until 9:00 when they opened the gate. After getting through, it wasn't clear if the construction was done or not. The road was certainly not any better and we had to wait several times for backhoes to clear us a way. Finally at midnight, we arrived at the guesthouse next to the bus station. By 7:00 the next day, Bounchan and I were off on the bus. It was an all-day affair and we finally pulled into Vientiane at 5. With time added for the tuktuk driver mistaking the word MCC for embassy, I got home in time for dinner.

A few days after getting back, I went on a two day retreat to the beautiful Nam Ngum lake area with all the MCC Laos staff. We also toured a zoo and played many fun games with each other. I had a traditional Thanksgiving with Americans and Canadians a week before the actual day. A day before Thanksgiving in the US, my host mother had convinced me to make a dish for the family. (Making a whole meal was just too risky.) After figuring out what I could make with mostly only using food from the local market and what could be made over a charcoal fire, I came up with chili. So we had chili for Thanksgiving. I thought it turned out fairly authentic and the family said they liked even though they were somewhat hesitant to eat it.

The past few weeks I've worked at MCC doing various projects. I was going to start teaching English to a volunteer group MCC works with, but alas, only one showed up after a small group said they would come. No one came on the rescheduled date. I guess they were all afraid that they would be the only one to show up- so no one did. Maybe they also felt they had to say they would come because it would be rude to refuse, but in reality they were too busy or didn't want to come. But it seems like most everyone in Laos wants to learn English, so I've been teaching English to volunteers and staff at PVG, an after-school program for children which doesn't have much activity now that the schools are not in session. It is a pretty informal affair, but fun and it gives me a chance to learn and use Lao at the same time.

The very long awaited SEA Games have finally come to Laos, and Laos is ready. Unfortunately, I'm not ready yet to tell you about them- hopefully that will be soon!

Calendar

I just got back from Tha Thom, a very beautiful and rural place. Also quite difficult to get to and from. Hopefully I can write more about it when I have more time.

I just wanted to call your attention to the current MCC calendar. If you have access to one, you will notice this month features schoolchildren from Ban Sang Thong. While I don't work there, these children look very much like the children I teach.

Going to the temple

A few weeks ago I got my license to drive a motorbike after passing
the test, which is an interesting story in itself, and I received a
motorbike to use. Now I can get places faster and not be sweating,
either! My joy at having a motorbike quickly faded when it was stolen
a day after I received it. I came out of the National Cultural Hall
where I had watched a competition to see who would be emcees for the South East Asian games and crossed the street only to find my motorbike was missing. I looked frantically around and confirmed that this was were I parked it. I asked a man in the area if he knew what had happened and he directed me to the owner of a local guesthouse who tried to explain things to me, but ended up saying I should go to the police tomorrow. I assumed I had parked illegally and the police had taken it. I started walking, looking for a tuktuk home and called Khamseng, the MCC person I'm supposed to call with any problems (he can usually fix them!). He didn't quite understand and thought I should talk to a policeman, so I promptly turned around and headed
back to the Culture Hall where I knew there lots of men in uniforms.
(It turns out they weren't policemen- just military or security
guards, but it didn't really matter.) By the time I reached the
Culture Hall, Khamseng wanted to talk to the man I had talked to, so I
crossed the street, and ventured up the stairs of the guesthouse to find the owner watching TV with a few other men. I was able to get the owner to talk with Khamseng and while they talked, I gathered from the other men that one of them had seen two men walking away with a red motorbike. When I got the phone back, Khamseng decided he should come, so I hung up and wandered outside to talk with a young man who knew about the situation too and could speak a little English. He helped confirm and fill in a few details.

After I waited awhile, Khamseng called me back, saying he was coming, but then he was cut off abruptly. I checked my phone and realized it was out of minutes. I started walking down the street looking for where I could by a phone card, trying to stay in view in case Khamseng arrived. I asked a security guard where I could buy more minutes and he pointed me down the street. When I stopped and asked a woman, she pointed me farther down the street. Finally I stopped at a little drink stand to ask where I could go, and it turned out they sold minutes there at the tiny drink stall! Just as I was walking away, Khamseng pulled up. He took me to a policebox where he explained the situation to a policeman who said they would be on the lookout for it.

Khamseng then took me home and told me I could sleep well. I didn't
sleep great, but was later educated on the things I can do to keep a
motorbike safe. Apparently this bike has been stolen before and was
just recently returned to MCC in the past few months. I guess it was a lesson learned the hard way. This was reinforced less than a week later on the way to the office when my cellphone disappeared from my pocket and was lost forever. A Lao friend quietly suggested to me
that in light of this bad luck, I should consider going to the temple!

Though not right away, I did go to the temple- in fact I went to the
famous golden temple of Vientiane, Wat That Luang. I didn't offer
alms, instead I perused the many shops and stalls around it because
this past weekend was the celebration of That Luang which includes
many religious and nonreligious activities at the temple. I since
received a replacement motorbike and cell phone and strive to take
great care of them.

School went well up until the break which started last Thursday. Now
we have a two-month break until the beginning January. This break is
due to the SEA Games which Laos is hosting for the first time. I
think the long break is mostly to do with security concerns- they don't want anything happening to a school or anywhere else during this time, though I can't imagine that anything would. Not having school also takes more people off the roads and allows students- especially
college students- and teachers to return to their home villages if
they're not from Vientiane.

Now I get to do all kinds of different work, because I am not
teaching. I have been helping out at the MCC office, making charts,
moving and setting up computers, moving blankets, proofreading and
more! I recently finished helping interview candidates for IVEP which is the opposite of SALT- it sends young people throughout the world to live Canada and America for a year.

After this weekend, I will travel out into the countryside to a
province where MCC has a few projects. I will get to tour the
villages they work in and meet the people they work with. I hear like
many Lao, the national staff working there would be quite eager to
improve their English, so I might help with that. It will be nice to
take a break from the city and get to travel a little!