Magic Fish Soup and Other Mood Alterations

Today is the last full day at the school. It is Saturday and most of the students have left except for San, Buapan, Jentong and Apple.

I find Sutlaw all surly in the morning.

Evidently his nickname is “Little Balls”. It's a bit weird to see an intact cat - he doesn't have as much to be surly about as the male Canadian cats.

Ramsey is giving Nick a tour of the school. I wash my running shoes and do laundry but realize there's no hope of it drying before tomorrow's 4am departure from the school site. Of course it rains almost all day.

Ramsey preparing galangal - which is a more subtle cousin of ginger.

So and the students prepare a special fish noodle soup dish that is served only during Lao weddings. This will contain some shredded banana flower which is pretty tasty, though looks like some weird luncheon meat when transected.

I go and purchase Beerlao after Apple told me that he and the three remaining female students drink beer. He said that they would all drink one, so I buy one beer (1000ml each) for everyone. This would be my contribution to the last supper together. Turns out that Apple meant that they would all drink one (small) glass, and I misunderstood. Oh, well, there's no turning back. Things begin to get funny as the students get a bit tipsy, especially Buapan...their English actually improved quite a lot with each small glass!

Then I notice a funny leaf in my fish noodle soup as I'm eating it. I pull it out...marijuana leaf?...I look at Apple, and he shrugs and laughs. Turns out he put all the marijuana that he "harvested" into the fish soup stock. I was on my second bowl of noodle soup, but I didn't feel anything...yet...knock on wood. Evidently, they use fresh cannabis as a seasoning in some dishes.

The Expedition

I hear screaming in the morning. It's Meuoy screaming as one of the boys chases her with something in his hand. It turns out to be this beautiful caterpillar.

On the first day to the school I had pointed to a mountain and told Ramsey that I wanted to do an expedition up one of those mountains. He said that a few of his students lived at the base of one of the mountains near his school and that they may be willing to take us.

Somehow, a month later, my request is coming true. So, Ramsey, Nick, the students, and I are going to climb the mountain today. The students of the mountain will lead the way for the others. Yesterday the students had prepared enough food for all of us, and the plan today was to picnic when we got to the top. The approach to the base of the mountain is a 1.5 hour hike, but we get a pickup truck to take us closer to the foot of the mountain.

Approaching the mountain at 9am.

The students are carrying up fish, salad, rice, noodles, spicy chilli sauce, water and condiments, as well as containers to serve and eat the food in. I notice that Somat is also carrying his guitar up!
It will be a 4 hour hike uphill and through some very slippery, muddy and uneven terrain. A machete will be needed to hack through some of the brush. The guitar seems ridiculous to me, but at the same time, it seems such a positive act that it brings a smile to my face every time I catch a glimpse of him with it. Everyone except for Nick (in Keens), Ghet (in sneakers) and I (in runners), is wearing flip flops for the expedition. Again, this seems a bit crazy with the slippery footing. A bunch of them have also brought umbrellas in case it rains, and some of the girls are wearing their traditional Lao skirts. In Canada, this type of climb would have people in their Gore-Tex windproof, waterproof breathable rain gear, hiking boots, hiking poles, water packs and strategizing to pack as light as possible with processed foods in gel or power bar form.

On top of that San has been having bad menstrual cramps all yesterday night and today. I can't believe she still decided to do the expedition. I can tell by the tight look on her face that she's in pain. I show her some ibuprofen and motion to her stomach and said "medicine", and she responds with "I want eat" and takes it from me gratefully. Here's San with Somat's guitar after the painkillers take effect.

As well, Fullmoon and Apple have diarrhoea. This climb must be hard on them, and they don't look all that energetic. I am surprised and touched at the solidarity.

Some scenes on the way up.

Rest stop.

Fungi.

Nick loafing.

A snail.

What?

Chameleon or lizard?

Whoa...A single marijuana plant!

At the top I had expected a huge forest, but instead I am greeted by this weird rocky landscape covered in lichen and moss. There are marshy areas as well as wildflowers and individual trees sprinkling the landscape. Though it hasn't rained yet, the sky is looking murky now and there is a mist in the air that predicts fog and possible rain.

As I approach a white wall of mist where the students seem to have lined up, I notice the wind getting much stronger. I then see that we've reached a cliff. We're at the edge of the mountain. As I approach a jagged part of the edge, I have to get down on my hands and knees to reach it because the wind is gusting so strongly that I feel in danger of being blown off the mountain.


So windy!

Other scenes from the summit.

We sit down for our picnic and it's very misty and cold. Everyone is in good spirits and huddled around the food. Near the end of the meal the wind begins blowing harder and it begins to rain. Some of the students are very poorly dressed and get drenched and are cold. As it begins to come down hard, we all abandon our picnic and food and run to a nearby cave. This cave turns out to be located down a vertical drop and most of us are reluctant to go down so we stay huddled and cold underneath shared umbrellas. Though I kinda feel bad for the shivering students, the situation is also kind of funny. I am wet, but fairly warm and cozy in my rain jacket, scarf, and brimmed hat. I came prepared for once!

We finally make the decision to collect our picnic and go down the mountain. Hiking down warms everyone up and I am surprised that everyone is still smiling, laughing, some singing, and still in good cheer. I give San two more ibuprofens and she still manages a smile and a joke as we descend. I'm really impressed by her spunk, determination, as well as great attitude; many people would let their periods, let alone cramps, be reason enough to excuse themselves from a whole day of mountain climbing. These kids are amazing!

They keep asking me how I am and I honestly answer "very happy". They are reassured that I am having a good time and I begin singing and humming and making nonsense sounds on the way down. There were a couple of hairy moments when I almost fell off of slippery down slopping logs that served as bridges over the thick brush. Mai caught me once. At one point a log was placed across a 4 meter wide and 7 meter deep crevasse and I thought I might slip off, but I tried not to over think it and just crossed without getting psyched out. Ack...I have no travel insurance!

Mai, Apple, Fullmoon, Somat and I get separated from the group at one point and we get a bit lost, but rendezvous with the lead pack later on.

We pass by the marijuana plant again and Apple takes a fistful of branches with him. I wonder what he will do with it.

Students also collect snails, and we collect corn as well at the base.

There is no truck waiting for us this time and we have to walk all the way back to the school. We don't make it back until 6:30pm and everyone is tired and hungry. The corn is delicious.

An awesome day.

Nick Comes to the School - Disco Night!

Nick and I take a Lao bus to the school. As we board we notice that the walkway between the seats is filled with rice bags waist high. We have to climb over them to reach some seats and when we do we see that the floor space in front of the seats is also filled with rice bags.

This seems comical and we are in high spirits with the absurdity of the situation. I tell Nick that this isn't so bad compared to when Ramsey and So took the same bus but they had goats and pigs tied down onto the roof of the bus. The were bleating and oinking through the ride and then of course it began to rain and the goat and pig "juice" began leaking through the roof and onto the passengers. Wow, perhaps that would have been less comical. I consider Nick and I lucky just to be inconvenienced by space, and not by livestock run off.

We arrive at the school and one of the students greets us at the gate, Sai says hello and shakes Nick's hand - progress! The other students also greet Nick, and I see that they seem a lot more confident then when I first met them. Nick is great with the students and encourages them to interact with him in English. They are very interested in another falang at the school. The girls seem to be especially interested in Nick, and Ramsey comes over to tell us that the girls all find Nick hot. Ramsey has said that the Lao usually find him ugly so he suggests that Nick is considered more attractive because he is lighter skinned, with a smaller than usual falang nose, and because he is clean shaven (the Lao women don't like facial hair).

Nick sees the students playing rattan ball and decides to join in. The students seem impressed by his attempts and he manages a few good moves. Ramsey watches for a while, and even though he refused to play when I asked him to play with me earlier (claiming it hurt his feet) some sort of male competitive pride sets in and Ramsey decides to play on the team opposite Nick.

In the kitchen I challenge Nick to eat a whole hot chilli pepper in front of the students. He does it without much difficulty and they are impressed. Later Ramsey said that he had to do the same thing cause Nick set the bar, but Ramsey was feeling a bit of gut rot as a result. Male pride strikes again.

Nick experiences his first night time bath in the river; he is taken aback at the strength of the current and the unevenness of the stream bed. He has a lot of difficulty getting his footing and I can't help but laugh at how odd he seems just falling everywhere or being stuck not knowing where to move next in the stream around the slippery rocks. I warned him it was tricky!

They have planned special food and a dance in my honour since I'm leaving in a couple of days. They have retrieved an amp and music system from another village and have set up the school into a disco. You have no idea how weird this seems. On top of that, it is the full moon tonight.

They are all wearing their best clothes and all of the girls have foundation and powder on their faces to make them look whiter. I have seen a few of the girls do this before, since they prize white skin over dark, but all of them wearing it at once seems really strange - they all look like weird ghosts. Even So has put on some makeup for the evening.

They play Thai folk music, Lao music, Southeast Asian dancehall as well as American hip hop. Ramsey takes my flashlight and proceeds to wave it about frantically to mimic a disco ball scattering light on all the dancers. His ability to keep this up during the night is a bit absurd in combination with his frantic style of "freedom" dancing as I call it - I can't stop laughing every time I see him spasming around.

The girls keep on surrounding me and mimicking all of my dance moves en mass. It is a bit unnerving so I begin to dance with the boys who are doing more hip hop moves and robot moves. I'm not sure how they learned this stuff but it was more fun to try to dance this way.

What the heck…I get Nick’s belt off of him and get the students to limbo under it. They find this very amusing, especially as they fall.

Very surreal evening.

Fan Yuan - Sweet dreams.