Meeting So's Family, Cars, WWF, Titanic, Stuff

In Vientiane, So's family consists of one brother, who is currently studying in Vietnam, an older sister and her husband, two younger fraternal twin sisters, and a cousin that all live with her parents. Seven in her household. This is modest by Lao standards.

Her older sister comes to pick us up at the bus station. I am surprised to see that she's arrived in a little yellow car. For some reason I only expect the richest people to afford such things in Laos, but I've not yet been to the big city ‘til now. Currently, So's family is considered upper middle class for the city. They own a small construction materials business right outside their home. Business has been good recently and they have been able to go from a very humble one room house to creating a kitchen, living room and four bedrooms over the last few years. Finally they don't all have to sleep in the same room.

Cheap cars are flooding Laos from China. They are revolutionizing transport here, and not in a good way. The motorbike, a more economically sound and resource efficient vehicle is slowly being upgraded to a car with all of its accompanying environmental and urban development problems. So's family car cost only $7000, making it within the range of some Lao people. I am also surprised to see SUVs on the road. Evidently some people have money here, and like in the West, they care about their status symbols.

We get to So's family home. They greet me and Ramsey tells them a bit about me. They seem intrigued by the "looking for my father" subplot of my journey as most people seem to be. They are very gracious and give me a room to myself. I think all the other family members are doubled or tripled up in their beds in order to accommodate the addition of the three of us. Food is delicious as is to be expected.

They have a t.v. and it seems as if everyone in Laos who has access to a t.v. is addicted to wrestling, WWF style. There's a 24 hour channel...Ramsey says no matter how much he tries to tell the Lao people, they refuse to believe it's fake. Eh, why burst their bubble.

The movie Titanic with Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet comes on and the whole family begins to watch. I remember when it came out when I was in high school and I boycotted it. Not because of some art house snobbery, but because I was so sick and tired of hearing everyone go on and on about it and because I hated Celine Dione who sings the hit song of the soundtrack My Heart Will Go On. Well, maybe there was some snobbery going on.

Everyone has watched Titanic before except me. I thought, what the hell. Halfway in the movie, it's not so bad (or good) but I can watch it without judgment. Slowly though, the movie loses its audience until it's just Ramsey and I left...which strikes the both of us as funny. And just as Rose decides she's not going to get into the life boat in order to save herself from the sinking behemoth.....zzzppptt....the cable goes out....What???!!!.... and shortly after that the electricity....Arrghh!!...which seems to be commonplace in Vientiane. I guess Titanic was never meant to be for me. I wonder what happened at the end of the movie. Is Jack exonerated for being accused of stealing the blue diamond? Did Jack get out of those handcuffs? Did Rose and Jack reunite at the end? Maybe it's best that I don't know. So tells me that when she first saw the movie it made her sad for about a month. Hmmm...a month is about the remainder of my vacation. I don't want to be in front of the most spectacular ruins of Angkor Wat and be distracted by ruminations about fictitious star-crossed lovers on an ill-conceived nautical voyage.

Though people here live with nature all around them, they have a much weaker environmental awareness and ethic than the average Canadian. The idea of ecological conservation isn't taught or engrained. The beautiful forests are being cut down at an alarming rate. Any birds or animals in the forests are being hunted to nothingness. No one's stopping it. When the majority of the people are poor, the first thought is how can the land be used to feed my family, fuel my stove, and make me some money to survive, not, we must keep this primary growth forest uncut, and sustainably manage our wild harvesting to preserve biodiversity. Environmental ethics is a luxury of the "haves", not the "have nots", though ecological disaster often effects the "have nots" the most. As well, when a country has foreign investors like China and Vietnam quickly buying up the land to siphon off resources, what control can the locals take? The final kicker is the government. They are weak and corrupt and there is no good leadership on environmental issues.

Being here makes me more appreciative of the many green initiatives in Canada. Our recycling (which I've long viewed as being the worse of the three Rs - reduce, reuse, recycle...) and composting programs, our move towards reusable bags and fees on plastic ones. The idea of carbon offsets, eating bioregionally and organically, using green cleaning products, conserving our forests, species conservation and much more. All of these ideas are becoming mainstream in the West, but they don't cross the mind of the average Lao person here. There's no push from the government, industry or education front for greater awareness - it doesn't aid their agenda.

What we need to do in Canada is use less energy (and find cleaner forms), live more meaningful and connected lives so that we don't fill that void with the idea that what we really need is stuff...the constant drive to consume stuff...stuff, stuff, stuff...stuff. Here’s a good 20 minute video that breaks it down (download is at the bottom of the page). http://www.storyofstuff.com/downloads.html .

Somehow it's all connected. The stuff we buy in Canada...a piece of electronics that contains a rubber belt...the rubber used to make that belt leads to the vast rubber plantations in Laos that are displacing subsistence farmlands, and therefore relegating the previously independent farmer into a lifetime of poverty working as a rubber tree man, poverty leads to finding food where you can, even if it's the last bird in the forest. Your wedding, the wedding industry, the prerequisite engagement ring, a diamond, a diamond mine in Sierra Leone, and children with missing hands. What trees were cut down, mountains cut open and extracted dry, animals displaced, waters poisoned, soils damaged, air polluted, and people made sick and exploited to make this three pound netbook I purchased for the luxury of writing this travel blog while on my vacation now? Like Lady Macbeth, we'll never be able to get that spot out at this point. It's too late...but hopefully we can have the grace to make that spot as small as possible with our time spent on this Earth.

Blah...who cares about the Titanic making me blue. This topic is sending me to bed.

Hitchhking, Fresh Soy Milk, Laos Pros and Cons

Gong says that he's going to be very sad for the four days that we are gone. Last time Ramsey and So left for Canada Gong cried for several days.

We miss the first bus to Pakse (where we'll take another bus to Vientiane), so we end up waiting for another one at the cafe section of the "Dao" woman's store. Her grandson is up and about with toy gun in hand...his name is Rambo...they named him after the Stallone character - no joke.

Another bus comes along but it is jam packed horizontally and vertically, in a way only developing nation buses can be - Ramsey wants to take it, but So and I say no. As I see another pickup truck go by, I suggest to So and Ramsey that we hitchhike the 60km to Pakse. Ramsey looks doubtful and says that he's never done that in Laos before and he's never seen others do it. (He later amends this by saying that he has hitchhiked in another part of Laos, but that was about eight years ago). We try anyhow. A few trucks later, we find one that is going to Pakse and is willing to take us and we hop on the back. This is fun and we get a great open air view. The truck is flying and we end up passing most of the trucks that couldn't take us on, as well as that overcrowded bus. We are joyful. It begins to rain a bit, but a couple of tarps in the back help us out and the weather doesn't dampen our mood.

Scenes from the back of a truck as we hitch hike to Pakse.

In Pakse we offer the driver some money (60 000 kip - the cost of our bus fare) but he refuses despite our pressure. I am surprised because I know that money isn't the easiest thing to come by here.

While looking for a place to eat, we pass by this vendor selling deep fried goods as well as fresh hot soy milk (3000 kip). It is absolutely the best soy milk I've ever had. I go back to get another. This makes me wonder if fresh soy milk vending would be a good idea in Toronto. I mean, the soybeans are dirt cheap and the product you end up with doesn't have all the additives found in the store bought stuff. It's taste is pure and delicious. Hot fresh soy milk in the winter, and chilled with ice cubes in the summer. I think I have a winning idea...it's mine...don't you dare steal it!

Before the bus we eat at the Pizza Boy, a tourist geared restaurant that also has Asian food on the menu. Ramsey gets a cheese pizza. Now I'm not sure what following your dreams in Asia does to you, but over time, it might make you eat cheese pizza with soy sauce and catsup. I try it just in case it's good. It's not. Yuck.

The eleven hour ride from Pakse to Vientiane is made sweeter by the sleeping bus. This bus is used solely for long overnight trips and contains bunk beds (150 000 kip).

As the bus rocks back and forth I think about what it would be like to live in rural Laos and not just visit. Knowing that I am only on vacation for a short time, I have put aside my need for creature comforts (I have no choice really) and have looked at all the potential inconveniences as interesting and fun differences, but if I had to live here, certain things might really get to me in the long run and become deal breakers. For example:

1. Food. The amount of time it takes to find, prepare, make and eat food three times a day. There is no fridge, so meat and produce needs to be purchased or harvested from the school site daily.
2. Laundry. The amount of time it takes for laundry to dry in the rainy season is insane. Ramsey and So's cloths took five days to dry, and had to be washed twice more in the meantime to prevent mould.
3. Creepy crawlies. The ceaseless insects, (I must sleep with at least two or three hundred of them in the Library each night) itchiness and skin irritations.
4. Washing. Never being able to shower naked. Blah
5. VO2 max. The lack of aerobic exercise. Double Blah.

Then again, Ramsey's managed to overcome all these obstacles, along with the added challenge of being the only vegetarian in the school. He has to be more resourceful about getting his protein.

Things I like here and wish I could have in Toronto.

1. A landscape that inspires. Mountains at the edge of every horizon. It reminds me of a tropical Asian Vancouver.
2. Ironically, the amount of importance placed on food. The time devoted to the communal making and eating of food.
3. Peeing outdoors where ever I like.
4. A stream right outside my home.
5. A well!
6. Despite the complaint about the ants and mosquitoes. I love the dragonflies and butterflies everywhere.
7. Being able to make stuff out of raw materials using a machete and bamboo.
8. Living in nature and on land where you grow your food.
9. Knowing who grows my food. 100 mile diet assured.
10. Feeling more at the mercy of nature. A humbling and grounding feeling.
11. A giant family with numerous siblings, parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, nieces and nephews all living under the same roof. Just kidding! Family is good...but phew...there's a lot of family in tight quarters here sometimes.

Libraries, Doors, Ant Infestation Redux

It's been raining for two days, and today is no different. It's time for indoor activities like...drum roll...cleaning up the library! So and I take all the books off the rattan shelves and dust off the shelves. Hmmm...mouse and gecko poo, tones of spider webs, dead and living insects and dust. This is a rural library Lao style! It takes 3 hours just to clean the shelves (rattan's a slog to clean), and sweep and mop the floor. Now there's the Herculean task of organizing the books - Ramsey's job.

Gong heard me say yesterday that I didn't have enough needles, so he takes the time to make some extra for me. He proudly shows them to me. Very sweet, but Ramsey is a bit miffed that Gong wasn't on task with his assigned job instead.

Ramsey has assigned Gong to make two doors for the kitchen to keep out the chickens and deter thievery of the kitchen tools. Gong has been dragging his heels and I suggest that Ramsey assign Gong to "show me" how to make a door. Gong likes me and will do things for me when I ask or even before I ask. We strategically use this to make Gong do his job! I also suggest assigning one of the highly competent students, Mai, to help Gong get the job done. Mai is a problem solver, a thinker, a natural leader. Poor Gong is relegated to shotgun position as soon as Mai gets in the picture, but Gong seems relieved to have help and direction. Copper, Sai, Ramsey and I help build the door too. I get better and better at using a machete on bamboo. It was frustrating to begin with, but I'm beginning to understand both the tool and the material better. At the end of the day a door is built. It feels like a victory.

I come back to the library to turn in. Sweet ants swarm over my bags! I go through all the bags and can't find the source of sweetness. Then I see that there is a huge concentration of them on my water bottle. I open the lid and a bunch of them pour out of the lid onto my hand and begin biting me. It isn't the small ones, it's the big ones with the meaty heads and they hurt! I hurl the water bottle down and it's metal casing clangs on the ceramic floor. I try to flick them off, but the big ones have a tenacious hold on my flesh. Finally I have to pry them off and just hope that I don't rip off their bodies while their heads remain attached to me. I drown the bottle in water and manage to get most of them out. Then I notice that they have eaten the edges of the rubber stopper as well as the edge of the hard plastic spout! They were trying to get in. I must have eaten something sweet today and then drank some water and the ants, with their supernatural ability to sense the sweetness, zeroed in on my water bottle. A marvel.

Tomorrow is Friday and after the morning classes, So, Ramsey and I will travel to Vientiane, the Capital of Laos, to visit her family for the next three days.

Sick? Knitting Part Deux.

I have been expecting some gastrointestinal illness to hit me while here, so every odd gurgle of my stomach gives me pause, but so far my stomach has been cast iron even in the face of a lot of novel foods and the addition of tons of chili and some MSG in my diet. However, last night I went to sleep with bit of a headache, and now I'm waking up with a scratchy, irritated and thick throat and the headache hasn't left me. I hope I'm not coming down with something - this feels like it might be the common cold. Perhaps the lack of sleep and the baseline stress of travel is finally getting to me. It's 6:30 am. It's raining and the sound is soothing. I tell Ramsey about my plight and he says "Don't go all H1N1 on me now." I was really tired and slept like a stone for seven hours last night, but maybe I should go back to sleep and get more rest. Yes.

I'm wrapped up in two blankets and a sweater. I feel cold, but it's been raining and overcast the whole night and day, and I think the temperature has dropped. I have a splitting headache. During my sleep I hear Ramsey and So go in and out as well as Gong and some students looking at books in the library as well as talking with So. I'm too tired and my head hurts too much to feel self-conscious that I am lying on my mattress in the middle of the unusally trafficked library. Ramsey comes in after teaching morning classes and seems more concerned than he was this morning when he finds me still sleeping and bundled up. He asks all the questions - fever? stomach hurt? headache? throat? etc. I tell him not to worry, and he responds with, "but this is how malaria always begins." In the background I hear Gong say "ice-cream". WHAT? I sit up in my bed for that. Turns out ice-cream is a corn and sugar slurry frozen in a bag - still yummy stuff though - and the kicker is that they all tell me I'm not supposed to eat cold things while I'm "sick". I counter with the argument that eating something that will make me happy will be more conducive to my healing than avoiding eating something just cause it's cold. I'm hungry anyway since I've missed breakfast and it's now 12:30pm. This convinces Ramsey to give me the treat, and I hear him have to justify his decision to So. It is yummy - it makes me get up and start my day. I was right, an infusion of Vitamin Happy K.

With their newly made needles, I teach the students how to knit this afternoon. Some pick up on the knit stitch faster than others. I give them time to master it. Fullmoon, Sai, Wen, and Apple have separated from the pack so I teach them how to purl. Then I teach them how to do four by four rib. At this rate, we will have to buy much more yarn. They seem engrossed for three hours. Even Ramsey comes to learn after a while...I think he felt left out. And I tell him to get one of the students to teach him. Ramsey has more difficulty that most of the students at learning how to knit. It requires a lot of concentration, and reinforcement for him to get it right. After a while he says "it's stuff like this that make me realize that my potential is not unlimited." Even he manages to create a swatch of knitting...with a few dropped stitches...by the end of the lesson. I tell them to unravel their knitting so that they can do it again tomorrow. Ramsey says "no way, I've got to show this to my mom."

So asks me for my favourite quote or saying to write down in her book. I don't quite remember the exact words so I paraphrase it for her. "It's not the mountain ahead of you that is the biggest challenge, it is the pebble in your shoe." Mohammed Ali

A Travel Blogger's Tool Bag

1. A small digital camera with a large memory card (16G) and recharger.
2. A small netbook (10 inch screen, 6 cell battery giving 7 hours of battery life, slot for the SD card from camera.), equipped with word processing program, photo editing program and video editing program. Charger.
3. A high capacity USB key (4G +).
4. A pen and unlined notebook.

The above was taken by my netbook's webcam. I am writing this blog entry while in the hammock outside of the library, against a backdrop of greenery. Sweet...wish you were all here.

Ant Infestation, Needles and Greetings

It's 5am, and I'm just waking up inside my bug net and I haven't slept very well. I feel itchy...but then again that's a baseline feeling here. I just realized I haven't gone into a tirade about all the bug bites, stinging plants and sticky hot itchiness that I've been experiencing constantly. Well...there...it's now on record. Ramsey feels the same way, but it becomes a bit of a default sensation after a while and fades from constant attention. However, the itchy stinging feeling of right now is slightly different, it's acute and on my face, shoulders, scalp and back. What the hell?!! Ayyyyyhhhh! I feel little things crawling all over me so I flip up the netting and turn on the mattress side lamp. ANT INFESTATION! They are crawling everywhere over and under my pillow, on the mattress, on the floor around the mattress and they're on me. I quickly stand up and brush them off. I go for the stinging spots on my scalp and fish out a few ants. I feel all these little itchy welts rise up on my shoulders and arms. I am so tired. I eye the hammock outside.

So tells me that a month before they left for Canada, at the beginning of the rainy season, they had an ant infestation as well, except that theirs was worse. They woke up to millions (Ramsey says thousands) of ants marching across their room and through their mattress. They just do this every now and then. No one seems surprised except me.

So and I take all the bed sheets and blankets outside and dust off the mattress. We sweep the entire floor of ants. Out the door they go.

When I return later, Ramsey is marking papers on the floor of the library, and I see a new trail of ants leading from the door, across the room and around Ramsey's foot. I despair a bit that the ant infestation problem might be a continuous thing. Ramsey shows me something cool, that you can disrupt an ant's sense of direction if you just drag your finger across their pathway. This removes the scent trail they depend on and they become disorganized at that point, and then they stop marching because they don't know where to go. They just mill around in a daze. It's kinda fun confusing them. He tells me to sweep them all out the door again. I tell him they will just come back, and he says they won't if they continually feel like they're not being successful. Hmmm...do ants feel demoralized? I begin OPERATION ANT DEMORALIZATION. Every time I see a trail of them I sweep them out the door and after a while I see less and less. Ah yes...I am tyrant of the ants! Muuaahhhh. The question as to why they showed up in the first place is answered when we find a remaining swarm of them clustered around a bag of squishy-I-don't-know-what, probably some sweet fruit. I think one of the students must have brought it into the library during Baraka and sat on it and then forgot it.

At breakfast I try So's dish of "naturally sour fish". I don't taste the sourness but the saltiness is unbelievable. I decline eating any more, though I do go for the yummy fried garlic garnish.

For the knitting lesson today, they will need two needles, but there isn't enough to give each student two. I think that maybe I will need to do two sessions of teaching, but then So tells me they can figure out how to make their own needles today and that I can teach them how to knit tomorrow. This seems miraculous to me. She instructs the students to make knitting needles, and when I see them, they are hard at work making them. I tell them two needles for a bag and four needles for a hat. I go to the "Dao" woman's store to get them some g'da sai - sandpaper - and tell them that they need to make their needles as smooth as possible, especially the tips. This is the knitting needle maker's toolkit. Bamboo, machete, glass shard and sandpaper no.360 (fine grain).

Some of them produce needles as good as the ones that are machine made and sold at Romni's or Lettuce Knit. They seem to be able to make whatever it is they need. Farming people seem very versatile with concrete problems. Their lives involve a lot of problem solving and building things to serve different purposes. They are strong and contain a spirit of curiosity and ingenuity. I'm probably romanticizing things, but I am impressed. Perhaps this is a measure of how ineffective I feel I would be in a similar situation.

These are ready for sandpapering.

At one point, I am holding some student's knitting needles and Ramsey asks to see them, but he just came back from the well so I worry that his hands are wet. I say "are your hands wet?", he says "no" but I don't believe him so I withhold the needles. Then Ramsey forgets himself, and he pushes his hand into my face to push my head back. In front of all the students! I am in disbelief, what about this whole thing about not touching? I don't care anymore, I can't let this insult pass, so I get up and punch him in the arm and kick him. Later on we both tattle-tail on each other to So. She thinks we're both at fault and I think the students must be confused. I am a bit worried at what conclusions they've drawn from our mock fight.

Along with the students at the school, kids from the village come in the evenings to learn more English with Ramsey. Tonight is the first night they show up. Ramsey hasn't decided if he would like to resume teaching them because a lot of adults in the village have expressed a desire to learn English. As well, he's been on an intense teaching schedule since the school's been open. He teaches morning classes, afternoon classes, and then these additional evening classes. He never has free time and I can see this leading to exhaustion and burnout. He's thinking of putting evening classes on hiatus for the summer or just doing one evening class a week.

Ramsey goes to greet the evening kids. They are different from our students at the school. Their families have a bit more money and they all go to school as well as help out on their farms. They are all ethnically Lao. I immediately sense the difference when I introduce myself. They are less shy than our students and they are more expressive. They need no prompting to practice their English with me and they have better English than our students because they learn it in school.

I decide to do an impromptu lesson with them on Canadian vs. Lao greetings and in modes of expression. Ramsey and I teach them the differences in how you greet people and different types of handshakes. I show them the Gunshot Handshake that Chad taught me and they all like that one. At the end of the lesson, I tell them that they need to come up with their own greeting that contains four parts. One girl steps up to the plate and begins to create her own greeting.

Part 1. make a gun sign with one hand and draw the index finger of that hand across your forehead.
Part 2. transition that hand into forked devil fingers (pinky and index extended and other fingers folded down) and extend the hand foreword slowly from your forehead.
Part 3. quickly snap your head back with a look of distain.
Part 4. grab the lapels (or imaginary lapels) of your shirt with thumb and index finger and flick them forward quickly, also with a slight look of distain.

Okay...yes...I should have gotten a video, but this belaboured description will have to do. Try doing this greeting...it's wicked kuul.

When the evening students leave, I decide to extend the lesson to our students. I think they understand now that in Canadian culture it's okay for women and men to touch and have it not be romantic in nature or taboo. I do the gunshot handshake on both the guys and the girls and they all think it's funny too. I don't go so far as to get the male and female students to come into contact with one another though. Ramsey gets two of the male students to demonstrate the basket-ball chest bump and he shows them the finger signs for the Bloods (gang sign). I demonstrate the double air kiss on So and the girls. I jokingly approach one of the boys to do the same and he skittishly backs away when my face nears his, and nervously reflexes into "How are you?". Everyone laughs. I also give them homework to come up with novel greetings of their own.

At night we all gather at the library again to finish watching Baraka. Ramsey makes it voluntary since some of the students felt very dizzy watching it the other day...that the images were moving too quickly. Now for those of you who have seen Baraka, you know it's not the fastest paced movie, so I wonder why some kids would get this vertigo. Lack of exposure to the moving picture format? I dunno...theories anyone?

At some point in the movie there is footage of Nazi death camps and ovens, the Killing Fields as well as atrocities from other cultures. Despite the attempt to not explain things during the movie last night, there is a lot of explanation of things tonight. I hear the students make this characteristic Lao sound that expresses "that's impossible". It can be used in either situation where they want to express that something is horrible, or that something is fantastic. The sound is similar to the tsk tsk tsk sound of scolding a child. They make this sound throughout Baraka. I can't imagine what they must feel and think as they see aerial photographs of burning Iraqi oil fields, or watch the Masi of Africa jumping in their beautiful costumary, or witness the massive industrial farming of baby chicks.

I find myself coughing intermittently throughout the movie. I have a bit of headache. I hope I'm not getting sick. I wonder if the ants will get me this night. I feel positive that they won't. I am very tired. Good night.

Knitting, Baraka

I sleep badly. Even though I wasn't offered nearly as much strong tea or alcohol as Ramsey at the Su Kwan yesterday, I still end up having a restless night.

I go for a run to wake up. I pass by some students who all ask me what I'm up to. I say "run" and then make the universal running motion with two downturned wiggling fingers. This time I run in the opposite direction and preempt the entourage of barking dogs.

I return back to the library to find Ramsey and So attempting some Yoga. I try to teach a few more poses which So takes to, but which Ram says just hurts his bony body. Every time he can't do something physical he blames the inheritance of odd biomechanics. He goes to pains to explain how he's got less of an ability to grip with his feet than us Asians, because Asian toes can naturally spread while his are squished together in a way that is non-conducive to yoga. As well, he believes that women derive more enjoyment from sensual (and masochistic) experiences that stimulate the senses. Hence their enjoyment of Thai massages, painful yoga stretches, and in general, women have a greater enjoyment of food. I pointed out a red herring to his argument, that men seem to enjoy sensual experiences as well, but that they are mostly concentrated in one particular spot consisting of a very small surface area.

So teaches two business classes to the students today. The business classes are one day a week. She has also taken out her sewing machine to get them used to the way it works. She will teach them how to sew later on.

I end up in the hammock reading Jared Diamond's book Guns, Germs, and Steel. The back of the book says "This book answers the most obvious, the most important, yet the most difficult, questions about human history: why history unfolded so differently on different continents. Geography and biogeography, not race, molded the contrasting fates of Europeans, Asians, Native Americans, sub-Saharan Africans, and aboriginal Australians." It's is an information dense book, but written in an easy to read manner. I'm just 50 pages in, but so far it's been good and I'm looking forward to reading more. Even though the book isn't directly about Laos, I'm sure it will help frame my experience of Laos in an interesting way.

We have snails for lunch. Not something I was initially looking forward to, but they turn out to be really tasty. All you need is a sharp stick to get them out. You can go through 100 in a meal.

In the afternoon I see the kids milling around in between classes so I decide to see if any of them want to learn how to knit. With permission and blessing, I get a bag of So's yarn and needles and go to where a group of girls are talking outside of the girl's dorm. They seem excited when I take out the needles and yarn. I teach them to make a slip knot and cast on and this attracts a few of the boys who want to try it out too. A student named Fullmoon seems to catch on the fastest. I call him ahjan (teacher) and he seems pleased. He begins to explain in Lao to those who are having difficulty casting on and I hear "ahs" and "ohs" when the light bulbs turn on. Soon I have almost all of the students trying out knitting. It's been really productive and the language barrier has added a fun challenging element to the lesson, instead of making it frustrating. They all indicate that they want to make hats. Slowly grasshopper! I leave them with the homework of casting on twenty without looking.

I notice how studious, respectful, polite, and eager the Lao students are. They seem really appreciative when anyone wants to teach them stuff. There's higher buy-in of the learning/teaching situation. I wish my students were more like this. However, these kids are also less expressive, less confident, less critical of authority and maybe the world around them. It takes a lot more encouragement to get them to participate and warm up, and they would find self-directed education quite difficult I think. If enough time is invested, these barriers could be overcome...I see Ramsey doing it. Another thing I find difficult with the students is the way they communicate their understanding or lack thereof. Often I'll ask them a question and they will just look at me, or at each other, and then not answer and there is no indication of whether or not they've understood me. I think their cues for understanding, not understanding or acknowledging is very subtle - I'm not used to it yet and can't read it. Sometimes it's just a flick of the eyes or a twitch.

In the evening the kids gather in the library to watch at film. A laptop, projector and screen is all you need to create that home theatre experience in the middle of rural Laos. Baraka is on the menu tonight. It contains no dialogue, and is full of footage of different aspects of parts of the world, it's peoples and cultures. It is a photo essay and one of my favourite films. I'm sure some of the images must seem really strange, awe-inspiring and confusing to the students. So tells me that when she saw this movie before, the part showing the burning of the dead body in India really scared her.

At one point there is footage of a city from above...a forest of towering sky scrapers. I am surprised when So tells me that one of the students say that he wishes that he was Bin Laden. Fascinating, but I don't know what that means, and don't want to stop the movie to find out. Ramsey said that when he first came to Laos about eight years ago, there were lots of Lao people with Bin Laden t-shirts on. I guess it's a good thing Ramsey and I are Canadian and not American.

Ramsey's mom calls during the movie and all three of us get a chance to talk to her. She likes my blog. Hi Liz! The movie is only halfway through when we stop. It's 10pm and the students usually turn in at this time.

It's 2 am and I've been blogging for 3 hours. I feel really tired, I think I will wake up at an unprecedented 8am tomorrow instead of 5am.

Run Fun, Laos Laundry, Gong's Su Kwan

In Toronto, I usually do between one to two hours of biking every day, usually ten out of the twelve months of the year, and I'm beginning to feel the lack of aerobic exercise on my trip...it's been a week of travel so far. I've been a bit sluggish the last three days so I decide that I will go for a run today. I wake up at 5 am, lace up, drink some water, down a couple of ibuprofens (anti-inflammatory) and hit the road. I must look like some sort of foreigner oddity in my lime green shorts and white running shoes (nothing here is white) expending more energy than is necessary in the heat. Even at 5am it's hot today in Laos and there are villagers on the road already. The first little bit is uphill so it makes me feel really out of shape. Then I arrive at a flatter area and I get into a groove. It feels good and I welcome the sweat and rhythmic breathing. The air tastes of diesel and water vapour. Eleven minutes later I begin to hear barking. I look behind to see that I've picked up a couple of four-legged foes. They follow me and bark continually and they end up drawing more to their cause. There five of them now and I am a bit freaked out so I decide to cut my run short and head back to the school. This feels like a bit of a repeat of my bike touring trip in Cuba where I rode my bike in Havana and got chased a couple of times by some mean street dogs...a lot more mangy, angry and faster than the ones here.

I arrive back at the school to see So and Ramsey doing laundry at the well. I let them finish while I attempt to start breakfast. Ramsey teaches me how to start a fire Lao style. My technique to create kindling with a machete sucks, but I will improve. I then begin to make two sauces to go with the sticky rice and fried egg breakfast I'm intending. One sauce is Lao style with lots of chilis, and the other is non-spicy so that I can eat it without pain or feeling drugged up. I love the non-spicy sauce I've come up with and will make this again in Toronto. Finely chopped: green onions, cilantro, garlic, ginger, lemongrass; add some soy sauce, olive oil, and lime juice. All fresh ingredients - delicious.

After breakfast I pull water from the well to fill the barrel and then do my laundry. I can do the Asian squat (obviously!), but I feel a loss of circulation after a while so I opt for a stool to do my laundry. Not traditional, but hey - whatever works. Doing the laundry is meditative and calming. Hand over fist over hand...rinse...wring dry...repeat.

I'm almost done with my laundry when Gong's mother appears and speaks to me. I don't understand a word she says but then Ramsey tells me that I have to get ready quickly to go to Gong's family house. They are having a Su Kwan for Gong today and So, Ramsey and I are invited. A week and a half ago Gong got sick and crashed his motorbike. The Lao believe that this happened because of bad luck. The Su Kwan is a ceremony that is designed to chase away the bad spirits and to welcome the good ones back - to reverse the bad luck.

Ramsey takes me on the motorbike to Gong's house. I hold on for dear life but when we near the house he abruptly tells me to let go. I can't cause I feel a bit freaked out. He keeps on yelling at me that he's serious and as we enter Gong's family property, I manage to kinda let go...but not really. He says that it's not good if he's perceived to be touching some other woman other than So. The Lao people will wonder if there's something going on between him and I, and if I'm the second wife. Ha!

Inside Gong's family house, there are at least twenty-five people at the Su Kwan...almost all of them Gong's family members. The men sit at one part of the room and the women at another part. Gong sits roughly between the two groups and in front of a presentation of sticky rice, boiled egg, sticky rice whiskey, money and a pile of small white rope. Before the ceremony begins Ramsey and I are offered two drinks. One is a concoction of the STRONGEST black tea I have ever had...it is truly vile. The family laughs at the face I make, but they like it and I drink all of it out of respect. I am then offered the sticky rice whiskey...also vile...but Ramsey tells me it's really pure...and I drink every glass I am offered when I realize that my protestations don't work around here. Ramsey eggs them on and has already been offered two whole glasses - I think he's going to be in trouble today. We demonstrate to them that in Canada, we clink our glasses in cheers before we drink. They seemed to like that idea.

During the ceremony, everyone takes some white cotton string - they can either tie money to it or not - and then tie the string around Gong's left wrist. Gong's other hand is held up in prayer position in front of his face. Before they tie the string they wave the string over his arm and offer their blessings for the bad spirits to depart and the good ones to come. I am surprised when I am approached by many of the family and they also begin to give me blessings and string rope around my wrist. I am supposed to keep the string tied for three days so that the blessings will stick. I feel really honoured to be here, and so I perform the same rites with the rope for Gong and some of his family.

My blessed wrist.

The ceremony also involves food - sticky rice, four chickens gifted from So and Ramsey's school, fish prepared into a soup, spicy raw fish tar tar, spicy fried minced fish, and of course the ubiquitous chili sauce. I am intrigued by the raw fish dish but feel reluctant to eat it - the health officials here are trying to discourage the villagers from eating the raw fish because of the potential for parasite transmission (reading Parasite Rex has also made me more hesitant.) So tells me not to eat it...she wouldn't. I ask Ramsey for his opinion and he says that one bite shouldn't hurt me and that he's tried it and it tastes good. I decide that I'll go for a bite, but then Ramsey comes back quickly and says "Will you blame me if you get something that disables you for life?" This does not engender confidence in me.

Cooked and raw fish dishes from left to right.

Luckily the choice is taken away from me when So, Ramsey and I are presented with our food. It contains neither the raw fish tar tar nor the minced fried fish. There is also this green sauce that no one else in the family has. I ask Gong about it and he says that he prepared it especially for me so that I would have a non-spicy option. I am delighted until he says "not hot...only two chilis." It was hot. We are also offered a frozen desert in a bag. It contains sweet potato, coconut milk, corn and sugar. It is saip (tasty). I will try to make it when I'm back.

Too hot!

Ramsey and I are offered more whiskey and some pineapple alcohol that Ramsey taught them how to make the year before. I am beginning to feel a bit buzzed but comfortable and happy.

Other things to note.

The cute, super shy and disgruntled two year old in the sling cradled by proud papa. He's also Gong's dad. I really like how versatile the sling is. My mom used one for me when I was a kid and I would use one for my kid if I ever have one. (This makes me think of Mari and I wonder if she's given birth yet, if it's a boy or a girl, is there a name, and if Mari's doing okay.) Gong is one of eleven children - this isn't a surprising number here, but wow, his mom popped out eleven kids!...she's thirty-eight years old now. They must think it's strange that I am an only child. I think they already think it's weird that at the age of thirty-two, I'm not married and have no kids. Gong doesn't think that I look thirty-two...he thinks maybe twenty-six. Yes...I am flattered.


Their television draws my attention. I ask Ramsey about it. He says that even some poor people in Laos have a satellite dish and t.v. About a month ago, the Lao government began giving out agricultural loans and the Lao people have been borrowing like crazy. The problem is that a lot of them are not using the money to invest in agriculture. They are using it for things that bring no return like metal roofs, additions to the house, cell phones, t.v.s and satellite dishes. There has been this huge perceived jump in prosperity over just the last month due to this government loan (at 7% interest a year). This is reminiscent of America's sub-prime mortgage crisis. I wonder what will become of the Lao people in the upcoming years.


So and I finally say our goodbyes and we leave Ramsey to talk to the family some more. We leave them in deep conversation about the economics of banana farming. Our walk back to the school is beautiful - rolling lush green countryside against a backdrop of clouds and dark green hills. So points out some edible and medicinal plants. She draws my attention to this one plant growing abundantly along the roadside - a coagulant that will stop bleeding in a heartbeat. I almost want to do an experimental cut on myself to see how it works...but I'm sure I'll have plenty of opportunities for real accidental cuts in my time here...I mean, they have foolishly entrusted me with using a machete after all.

I finish my laundry and sit down to write.

Ramsey doesn't show up for another three hours. He staggers a bit into the library and I can tell he's tipsy...I mean, you can't talk for three hours about agriculture at a Su Kwan without being forced to drink a lot of whiskey by the locals. He slurs a bit and, of course, denies that he's drunk and pretends to choke me...it's very ineffective. If only the Laos people were to see this body contact! I laugh and make fun of him and he goes upstairs to sleep it off. I don't envy his hangover tomorrow. Every now and then I hear him shout out "shut up Anh-Thi!" Hahaha. Before the Su Kwan, Gong told Ramsey that there wouldn't be any alcohol at the event - I guess he was misinformed...poor Ram...hahaha. So assures me Ramsey hardly ever lets this happen.

The students arrive back in the evening and Ramsey musters up the energy to get up, greet them and have dinner. Ramsey and I get into a debate about climate change...every now and then he says "I can't believe you're arguing with a drunk person" even though his arguments sound perfectly reasonable.

Sleep.