Perspective

This is an article from The New York Times.  It is interesting what an outside perspective will produce.  I am not sure when the author was driving around town without traffic, it must have been around 2 or 3 a.m.

http://travel.nytimes.com/2012/03/25/travel/36-hours-in-vientiane-laos.html

International Women's Day

March 8th is International Women's Day.  I have no idea why we don't celebrate this holiday in the US.  We have plenty of women.  I have lived in a couple of countries where this holiday has been celebrated in style.  Here in Lao, it is an actual holiday.  It is my understanding that some men had to work, but the women were excused.  We didn't have school.  I had planned on grading a bunch of papers.  I ended up spending some time at my favorite coffee shop in the morning.  In the late afternoon my friend Stephanie came over.  We watched Glee, had gummy bears, tacos, and chocolate chip cookies.  It was a great day.  Very relaxing. On Wednesday evening, my students presented me with a flower and good wishes for not only the holiday, but for the rest of the year.  The coffee shop gave me a second one with my breakfast.  Love, M.

Traffic

The traffic here is terrible.  I guess the only good thing about it is that people don't seem to get bent out of shape like they would in other places.  There isn't a lot of horn honking or fist shaking.  I think that is the only good thing.

Kyle said he felt like he was in a video game when he was driving here.  I don't think video game as much as a fight for my life.  It can get kind of hectic.  I recently read an article in the newspaper that said traffic accidents were on the rise.  They decided the highest risk group was young men ages 10-25.  That's the problem.  What are 10 year olds doing driving?  And, they are boys, not young men.  Good grief.

Two nights ago I was almost home, sitting at the last stoplight, thinking about how much I wanted to be home.  It had been a long, hot day, and I was ready to be done.  I knew it was my turn next, so I got ready.  Then two police officers stepped out and started blowing their whistles.  This is never good news.  It almost always means you won't get to go when it is your turn and the light just got really long.  Usually, it is when there is some sort of motorcade headed through town-those guys don't have to wait at stoplights.  I was mildly intrigued because I had not seen that at night, but mostly irritated because I was ready to be home.

Imagine my surprise when it was a Fire Engine racing through the light.  Seriously.  It made me wonder why they would need to do that.  It is pretty basic knowledge to know to get out of the way of an emergency vehicle.  I guess it doesn't always happen here.  At least they have those police officers with whistles.  Buckle up and stay safe.  Love, M.

Rain Suited Up

I bought a rain jacket when I was in Thailand in preparation for the upcoming rainy season.  Less than a week after arriving back in Laos in early Feb, we had a tremendous day of rain.  All of the locals declared it "very unusual."  Nevertheless, I was able to try out the new jacket.  It worked well but I found the lower half of my body dripping after only a few minutes on the road.

I promptly emailed Bri and told her to pick up a pair of pants for me before she got on the plane.  She did a great job.  I have yet to actually try them, but as you will see in the pictures, it looks promising.  Love, M.

Oops

I lose my keys a lot.  They aren't really lost, as much as misplaced.  I keep my motobike key separate from my house and gate keys because I don't want all of those keys in my ignition at once.  It was inevitable that I would lose my motorbike key.

It was the first day of school.  Bri was visiting.  I finished class, went back to my office, collected my stuff, and discovered my key was missing.  I had been to two different classrooms, and the bookstore-twice.  I retraced all of my steps with my anxiety growing by the minute.  It was my only key and I had no idea what I was going to do.  I was thinking that I would have to buy a new one.

Luckily, I have some friends who are more rational that I am.  They said, "no.  They can change the ignition."  What?  That's right.  Because theft is so common here, it is really easy to get a new ignition and a new key.  When we rolled the motorbike into the shop, they didn't even check my papers to see if it belonged to me.  They gave me an extra key, so next time, I have a back up.  Love, M

Unwanted Visitor, Part 2

You all know how I feel about lizards in the house.  If not, look back.  Well.  I had another encounter and think I handled myself much better this time around.

Last week I was getting ready for school.  It was in the early morning.  I had been in and out of my kitchen several times, including putting some dishes in the sink.  I was about to walk out the door, but wanted to rinse out my coffee cup.  I walked into the kitchen and look what I found.

I took a step back and said, "What are you doing in here?  And how did you get in?"  As if this little guy was going to answer me.  I calmly decided to trap him in a plastic cup and relocate him to the great outdoors.  I managed to do all of this without jumping or screaming or anything.  Progress.  Love, M.

Out of Order

Nope, not broken, just out of chronological order.  I have a TON of stuff to write about.  Normally when this happens, I get overwhelmed and don't write anything because I want to write about events in the order in which they occurred and you miss out.  Not this time.  Be warned.  I have had a very busy month and have a lot to write about.  Very little of it will be in order.  So, try to keep up.  Love, M.

The Little Things

I arrived back in Vientiane the end of January and had a little less than a week to prepare for LaoTESOL.  It was a 2 day conference for English teachers in the country.  It was a lot of fun.  English teachers from all over the country came to the city for the U.S. Embassy sponsored event.  I was able to present and had a very full room.  I had a chance to meet many teachers and it was interesting exchanging stories.

My sister was set to arrive the following Tuesday.  I was really looking forward to spending the weekend mostly relaxing with a little bit of housework to make the place presentable.  Instead, I work up Saturday morning very sick.  I think it must have been the flu.  I managed to make it ok, but had a little mishap on Sunday evening-which is the point of this post.

I met my friend Julia for dinner Sunday evening, came home, was feeling particularly weak and ready for bed.  I decided to take a shower before calling it a night.  I had done some laundry throughout the day and mopped a little, so my water use was unusually high for one person.  I was in the shower when I heard the water pump making some weird noise(it is normally noisy, but it was different this time).  I thought, "I wonder what is wrong.  Maybe I should make sure the soap is all off."  Well, it was a short time later that the pump came on, stayed on, and the water went out.  YIKES.  It was about 8pm on Sunday night.  I went out to look in the tank. I stood on my tip toes and used my little flashlight to see what was going on.  Sure enough, no water.  I had to call my landlady. 

Calling my landlady is always kind of fun.  She speaks about as much English and I do Lao.  I tried explaining and soon found myself talking to a younger woman(her daughter?) in English.  I explained the pump made some strange noises and that I didn't have water.  She told me to wait.  A few minutes later my landlady and her husband (who speaks a great deal of English) showed up.  We investigated the problem, discussed the possibility that the water company had shut off the water, dismissed that, talked to the neighbors, made some phone calls, did some yelling across fences and determined that nobody had water.  They saved my night by putting a hose over  the fence and partially filling the tank.  I went to bed wondering how many days I would need to be careful with my water consumption.  I went out the next morning to a full tank.  I still go out and check every once in awhile before doing laundry or taking a shower.  I don't want to take that water for granted anymore.  Enjoy the little things.  Love, M.

Fun in the Sun

I had a few days of work in Bangkok the end of January.  Kyle and I took the opportunity to go to Thailand early and relax on the beach for a few days.  It was wonderful.  Here are the pics.

On the night train to Bangkok

Beachside restaurant

Ready for a day of adventure exploring the island  

Delicious looking fruity drinks...check

 

 

Snorkeling with TONS of fish

Sunset

Kyle Snorkeling

Fishing at Sunset

 

 

The happy fishing guide

Kyle swimming in the ocean

Holding out high-dollar "fishing poles"

Me and my "fishing pole"

Happy New Year

Outside the gate before the trip

We didn't go on an elephant trek, but we did get out of town.  We decided to go to southern Laos to a place called Si Phan Don, or 4,000 Island.  It is an archipelago on the Mekong between Laos and Cambodia.  I had seen some pictures of it and it looked beautiful.  Kyle and I decided to take advantage of the long weekend and go on an adventure.  It was pretty fun.




We actually spent New Year's Eve on the night bus to Pakse.  We left around 8p.m.  The night bus is a pretty good idea.  You get on the bus, go to sleep, and wake up at your destination.  The night bus is not designed for tall people, at least not tall people who share a bunk.  Even though it was a long night, it was still better than taking a 10 hour bus during the day.  We arrived and had some trouble figuring out where we were supposed to go next.  We got on a bus, went two blocks, got new tickets, the bus driver took us back to where we were and told us to go with another driver in a minivan.  We said hello to the new driver, gave him our luggage to put on top, he strapped everything on and said, "Wait here" before driving away.  It was a nerve racking 20 minutes. He did finally show back up.  We were put in the very front row, which wasn't secured to the floor so it was a wobbly 2.5 hour ride to the island.  We took a little boat (ferry) to the island and had a little time to say hello to our friends Matt and Nicole before they headed back to Vientiane.  They did give us a good recommendation on a place to stay and some good ideas for dinner and entertainment while we were there.

The King of Bus...still too small

Happy New Year-on the King of Bus

Ferry to Don Khong-the BIG island

Evening view across the river

A shot of our hotel from the river

The second day we went on a tour.  There are a couple of famous waterfalls and some endangered dolphins we wanted to see.  It was a nice day.  It started off cloudy and cool.  We took a long boat ride, a long bike ride, another boat ride, more bike riding, another boat ride, a van to and from another waterfall, and finally a boat ride home.  By the end of the day, the sun had come out and I was fried-on the tops of my arms and face-a serious farmer's tan.  Kyle was fine, but I was crispy.

Kyle on the bike ride

Getting "life-jacketed up" before looking for dolphins

The Irrawaddy Dolphin-this is a picture from the internet.  I was too slow

The first waterfall of the day

The second waterfall of the day

That is a LOT of water

There were many other tourists around

 We ended up heading back to Vientiane the next evening on yet another night bus.  This one was even smaller than before.  It was once again, nice to be home.  Enjoy the pictures.  Love, M.

Houston, We Have a Camera

It was finally time to bargain like a pro and get a camera.  Too many experiences to let the time go by undocumented.  We picked it up the day before getting out of town for New Years (More on that later).  Here are a couple of shots for now.

Kyle rolling Spring Rolls like a Lao lady-like a champ

Kitty Kitty-the kitten Kyle talked me into buying actual cat food for

Fixing the Yincin