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Published: December 18th 2010
The wandering elephants
Ah, well this would explain Xieng Lohm's elephant crossing zones. We falangs like to ride them!Imagine this scene:
A child running into class late, out of breath, backpack askew, face and body drenched in mud. “Sorry, teach'! But an elephant was crossing in front of me and he just stopped in the middle of the street and pooed right in front of my bicycle! It was all I could do to swerve to avoid it, and I hit a massive pothole that splashed water all over all over my friend and I, who were riding tandem. And that wasn’t the worst of the obstacles I faced – I waded through some potholes in the street that soaked my pants to the knees with the warm, liquid mud. I swear, it’s not my fault that I’m late for the test this morning!!”
I think that this must be the Lao version of “The dog ate my homework”, as it was near enough to my experiences as I rode on the back of Sunoy’s motorbike to Xieng Lohm to launch a pilot of a new program that Pencils of Promise is developing. Sunoy, PoP’s coordinator and link to our Xieng Lohm school, drove me through driving rain to talk to the director and a teacher about partnering
The writing's on the (school) wall
Proof that Xieng Lohm students are learning English - scribbled on the wall of the pencil-colored preschool: "I love you"
As a side note, I find that I can learn a lot by entering a preschool classroom. I need to buy me some of those alphabet posters to put up in my room to practice Lao letters... with a middle school in the US to share pictures, drawings, videos, songs… anything that makes them them. Who are you? What is your school and community like? What are you learning? What sports do you play? How are you different from me? And most importantly – how are you similar to me? This is an opportunity for kids in the US (a country where 50% of its 18-24 year olds couldn’t even place NY state on a map) to understand a little about a very foreign culture, and for kids in Laos (who are more than likely even worse at world geography than Americans (assumption – happy to dispute this one if you want to try me)) to do the same.
I’m really excited to see the progress of the program, and think about how it can be improved for next school year!
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Cecilia
non-member comment
Cool
Alphabet posters on the wall - that would be the first step toward fulfilling your goal to be conversationally fluent in Laos by the time we get there. No pressure, but you will be our guide then and there. P.s. I thought I signed up to be automatically notified by email when you have new postings, but no. I have to try again.