Lao National Circus (Russian circus)

Sunday night we met up with a new friend to see the circus. I had seen this circus perform something like 15 years ago in Savannakhet and at that age really liked it. I wanted to see it again. There were many talented acrobats dogs, monkeys and snakes.

Biking trip

Jared came so I had to go take him for a long bike ride and get sunburned. We had a lunch at a noodle shop and stopped by the largest temple to see the golden stupa that is on the Lao official stamps. It was a really hot and bright day!

information and technology

Last week I went along on a field trip to a small town 30 minutes from the city. There in the village temple community room the self employment project was having a meeting with all the farmers with disabilities from that village who had received ducks or chicken from the project to start their own business. Some had enough to sustain their own family and few had turned it into a business. I arrived a little after the meeting started. Some of the farmers were too shy to introduce themselves and how their achievements or struggles with the raising of ducks and chicken. I am not sure if they were shy just because they were shy to speak in a group of people or if my presence had any affect on it. One younger farmer was successful in expanding his farming into a business. He was invited to talk about how he had been successful in taking care of the animals. He talked about making sure to take regular care and keep watch for any abnormal behavior such as eating or drinking too much or too little. He encouraged using medication in any of these situations. He also raised the chicken coops above water and instructed to have a light for the chickens at night as light would keep a way the mosquitoes. It appeared to me that the other farmers had never thought of the fact that mosquitoes would be a problem for the chicken. What took me by surprise was when he encouraged everyone to search Thai websites on farming techniques as Thailand has developed and studied many methods to improve farming of livestock. This was not exactly surprising as it is very easy to get internet connection through phones and this was a village just right outside the capital city. But I came to the realization of how real the information sharing that has come along globalization is. Everyone can have access to this kind of vast access to information and technology in a developing country. Development work has changed and will change continually as more people get access and learn to use the available information. Just a small connection from real life to theory. :D

Visa

Today I made a trip across the boarder to renew my visa. In the morning I got pictures for the visa. 15 000 kip with beautiful edited pictures. Good thing they added lipstick as I totally forgot to put any make up on today ;). Biked to the bus station with no idea what bus to take. I bought a ticket to Nong Khai for 15 000 kip. After that I saw that there would have been buses just for going to the bridge. The bus was a Thai bus. On the bus a row ahead of me was sitting a Dutch woman who was a Buddhist nun who started to talk to me and tell about how she has been living in Thailand in the temple as a nun for seven years and has been trying to become a Bhikkhuni which is an ordained female monk. But after she had to leave back home for medical reasons and returned to Thailand she found out she could not legally be ordained in Thailand. There fore she had to disrobe organge monks' clothing into the white nun clothing. According to her it is only possible to be ordained as female monk in Sri Lanka and Taiwan. At the border we got out of the bus, walked to the departure gates and walked back to the bus. The bus crossed over the bridge and through a beautiful loop switched sides from driving on the right side to the left. Across the river we got off and went through immigration. At this point I had got a traveling friend as an Australian older gentleman was doing this for the first time as well but because I knew the language the wanted to stick with me. Once in Thailand we walked across the road and went back out of Thailand. Found a bus that rides over the bridge back to Laos. In Laos I go to apply for a visa on arrival and try to hand some euros as I assume it will be acceptable as it was at the airport. He signals for me to go exchange. I take the money around the corner and get Lao kip. Then back in line an elderly Thai woman is having trouble getting a visa and making the officials annoyed. Finally they tell her to move so I can come. Now he says Thai baht or US dollars. And I am like "um.... I just went and exchanged kip...." Then he calculated it and I was good to go and wait for the visa. We had to wait around a closed window. That would periodically open up with a couple passports. Finally all the waiting and being confused was over with and the next task was getting back to down town Vientiane. All the taxi drivers were trying to convince us to pay a bunch of money when all I wanted was a cheap bus. On the bus the new Australian friend was very talkative. At one point I started talking about the weather in Finland and the foreign guy in front of me turns around and says with a Finnish accent, " Have you heard what the weather was like this summer?" I found out that they were two Finnish JAMK students from Jyväskylä doing their practical training in Khon Kean Thailand for five months. What a small world. When I got back I biked straight to work for a few hours. What I did not really think through very well was the fact that the sun was hot during noon and I had no sunscreen. With red patches of sunburn on my arms I finally got home after work and realized I was locked out as I gave the keys to Jared and he was sleeping. It was an exciting day and I learned some interesting things.

fruit

The other day I had a variety of fruit.

more food

Sunday night meal. The market is the best place to get excellent, tasty, cheap and authentic Lao food. This was our meal.

Spider

This little spider decided to visit my bathroom. She was afraid of me so eventually I just chased her up to the roof while I took a shower. The next morning she was gone. And was later found on someone else's folded pants.