no title for this one....

I know time is starting to run out-I made a list yesterday!

I am ready to come home, for sure. I miss my kids and my friends, and I need to make some money. But, it is so beautiful here, and so warm. But, it is the people I will miss the most.-some of the falang I have met, but mostly the Lao people I have come to know-both the BBM staff and those students who drop in regularly. I have started to remind people that I leave relatively soon, so if they are looking to start new projects that can’t be finished quickly (which, I have learnt, is just about anything more than a very, very short school assignment) they will have to find someone else.I have started to refer them to Katy. Hard to let things go.

(Realized it sounds like I might not care much for the falang here...I have met some wonderful people during my stay, but for the most part, they were visitors, rather than in-country long stay residents. I have concluded that most of the north americans who settle out here full-time are very odd ducks.)

Will have to find out the schedule for the book party staff-I have to be sure to say a proper good-bye to so many of them. I have not told them I leave soon-they just got back from a 12 day trip, by boat, and are tired and some of them are sick, so will wait a day or so.

Linda, one of the book party staff was really sick before the left on their latest adventure. She is the one who took such a liking to me early on in my stay, and made things so much easier for me through her warmth and friendship and hugs. Her English is not that great, so I had Pho (one of the staff who is really good in English) translate. Turns out she wasn’t taking any medicine because, just as I thought, she could not afford to buy it. So, I gave her 100,000 kip and sent her off to the pharmacy. 100,000 kip sounds like a lot of money-it is less than $12 US. For a Lao, it is a HUGE amount of money. She started to cry....it was such an easy thing for me to do, and she was so very grateful. It was a very dramatic example of the very different financial worlds the Lao and I live in, even though we are in the same country.

One of my favorite students is working a full time job and going to school. His name is Thong. His monthly salaries for a server in a restaurant, one of the medium range restaurants, is 400,000 kip per month.-yup, about $48 per month..this puts him well above the average income, by the way, which is about $300 per year). His work schedule is 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. Since this is a “nice boss”, Thong gets two days a month off and lunch at the restaurant. He goes to school from 4:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. He is looking for a night job, so he can continue to go to school. His parents can’t (or won’t, I’m not sure, but probably can’t) help out at all. They have permitted him to come to the city to study, rather than being at home working on in the fields, so they have lost a considerable income, due to his absence. I asked him when he will sleep if he gets a night time job. He said he will get a job as a security guard, and then he can sleep in between his walk abouts....remember this if you check into a hotel in Laos-if it has security guards, don’t feel too secure-when you sleep, so do they. Most security guards are university students....

He wants to be a tour guide. I told him that when Champoo gets back, I will introduce them.

Just thought of something; you need a fill-in on:
Katy: she is an Australian, 28, who is here for a year volunteering at BBM.
Champoo:is the Lao guide that I had the first time I was in Laos. I contacted him and we had dinner and went for a sunset cruise on the Mekong-he has recently bought a little boat to take out tourists. Don’t think of a N.A. boat-this is an SE Asian boat-quite different. Champoo is leading a group until the 21, and then he will be back in Luang Prabang. He is very industrious, and is in the process of setting up his own company to serve tourists.

Have been invited to another wedding this upcoming weekend. Lucky me.

One of the trainees at the TAEC(Traditional Arts and Ethnology Centre) told me his is so very anxious to improve his English, but cannot afford to pay to go to school. I told him about the morning drop in at BBM, and he was so excited. With his work schedule, he can only come on Mondays, but he so very keen. I have promised him I will be there next Monday morning. He did not know where BBM was, so he borrowed a motorbike from a friend, and he drove me there after my work at the Centre. He is not a great driver, and I had a bag, some groceries and my computer, so I was very relieved when we arrived at the office. I had visions of being splattered all over the road-in fact, he drove very slowly, so I would not have splatted, and knew I would not die, so I was not terrified, just worried about a temporary loss of mobility. The BBM staff saw him drop me off, and of course, they all wanted to know who he was. I told them he was my new boyfriend, and then teased two of the staff who have been trying to find girls to date.

I got back to the office around 3:15 p.m. I had arranged to meet Thong at the office at 4:00 p.m. that same day for a special session,since he can’t come in the morning anymore. So, when he showed up, they asked me who he was, and I told them he was my new boyfriend, and that I had dumped the other one. Thong is about 16, so they knew for sure I was teasing them.

I am enjoying the research at TAEC and learning a great deal about the various ethnic groups, but I miss being in the office. Hope to finish up my research this week,so I can get back to the office.


More later,but not much more and not much later-I will be home soon!.

---

---