Every few months, a country fair sets up shop here in a big dirt field. The vendors all come from Thailand, and set up their stalls for a week or so, selling during the day and evening, and sleeping in their stalls, to watch their stuff, at night. Lao people call this fair, for some reason, the “market-fair”. I imagine this fair to be every bit as exciting for the locals as the original country fairs in America, back in the late 1880’s. People come from all over, rich and poor, to walk around the fair grounds, eat, buy, play games and people-watch. They buy cheap drinks, candy, ice cream and noodles and play pop the balloon with the dart or rubber pellet gun. The kids bounce on blow-up castles and ride around on tiny little
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