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.

Lao culture lesson 2: food

This is the most important lesson everyone visiting or living in Laos should know. In Laos it is all about eating together. Food doesn't taste good unless you share it with someone. This is why it is polite to always offer to share if you are eating or drinking anything. Even if it is just a little bit of food or a glass of Pepsi (water really doesn't count). Lao people are happy to share their food or let you taste it but if it looks like there is not much or you are not hungry the polite thing to say is thank you and good appetite *khoop chai, soen seab *or as I would like to use Finnish letters for this khoop chai söön sääp. It is very impolite to say something about the food being gross. As in any culture food is important and by tasting everything you are also accepting the culture. For Lao people it is important to have some food that is spicy and salty to give it enough flavor to feel satisfied with the meal. If you can eat spicy everyone will be happy. The only boundaries I have regarding foods are based on health risks such as eating raw meat. So be adventurous. At my work for lunch everyone brings one dish of food and their own sticky rice. We all share eat together and have a big variety of food every day. This often includes one or two types of grilled meat or sausage, a dip of some sort and main dishes made usually mixed with, herbs, vegetables, and possibly meat. People will often eat something during a hang out. The most common food for a hang out would be the papaya salad, fruit, grilled special or some type of seeds. *grilled special can be chicken wing (the very tip), small intestines,tongue sides, gizzards, chicken feet, anything else that is usually left over. Here is a picture of the office staff having a snack meal after work. Some spicy salads and grilled goods. Some technical eating words I have learned. I am not sure if there are words for this in English so please tell me if there are. To dip sticky rice in to a dip, paste you call it jim (English j)If you scoop up some food with the rice it is called khui. Scooping food with a spoon onto your own dish is called tak (a as in always and k is unaspirated)And finally to scoop up some food with liquid from a dish and straight to your mouth is to sod (o as in over). All I can say is food is the universal tool for friendship.

Sunday bike ride

Lao culture lesson 1: birth celebration

With a group of staff we made a home visit to one of the workers who had recently had an addition to the family. In Laos it is a cultural custom that people make visits to a home to welcome the new baby. Traditionally the mother will be laying in a heated bed, but this family did not follow this tradition as modern medical knowledge has shown that it is more harmful than helpful to the mother's health. The Lao custom which was explained to me is to go to the home, see the child and have a good time hanging out. This includes drinking beer and playing games. Soon the gambling and drinking started and continued for four hours. I sat around talking to the mother and the father, eating fruits and sunflower seeds. The baby was 12 days old. I asked if the baby had eaten anything yet. The mother said she would only breast feed the child until it was six months old. That was good to hear as often in Laos (especially in the countryside) mothers will feed their babies very early on. Around noon some food was ready. It was Laab (meat salad with herbs) made from raw meat. I opted out to wait for the cooked version. There were exceptionally many flies due to the new animal farming in the neighbor house. I attempted to grab the rice for the meal from the very bottom where no one else had touched as I did not want my rice to be contaminated from the raw meat. As time passed and I watched the games I ate sunflower seed and the pile of seed shells grew. At the end of the visit we went back to the office. With only a couple hours time I helped one of the project officers set up a Google account and explained how to use the Google calendar of events I had created on Friday. ____// Note: to understand this post you have to know how Lao people eat. Here we eat with our hands. The sticky glutenous rice is kept in a bamboo basket where everyone grabs from as we eat. The rice is used as a base to grab the food be it meat or vegetables. All foods are shared and the process goes on until everyone is full and happy.

Visiting the Museum

Last week I went with the ID division to take the students at the school for the disabled to two museums. The Lao National History Museum and the revolutionary hero's museum. We first picked up the kids with a small truck that has a roof and seats on the back. The excited bunch were so happy to be on the truck that they laughed and sang to their heart's content. It was an exceptionally hot day. We first went to the national museum where there is a large collection of old war time vehicles and weapons. Pictures described the history of Laos. How the French invaded Laos and colonized it. How the American imperialists invaded with the permission of the king and how the issara (freedom) fighters finally thought many hardships were able to win over the country. Kaysone Phomvihane's museum was very impressive. There was much about Lao resources, life, fight for freedom and current history of the lao people such as what production and how it is sustaining and developing. Outside both museums there were large revolutionary monuments for decorations.

Way to Work

My bike ride to work takes about 45 minutes. I go through half of the city passing by hundreds of shops. The traffic in the morning is quite bad. There are mopeds and cars going in every direction and coming from every direction. I have to be careful when mopeds come closely from behind and on both sides. Sometimes it is impossible to get across the road. Here is a picture of the very last bit before the office. It the only part that is a dirt road and has a lot of pot holes but it reminds me of the country side.

Monsoon in Vientiane

Its dreadfully hot and humid this time of the year. The temperature is between 29 and 39 depending on if you are in the sun or if it is raining. The rainy season reminds me that I am in the tropics. Many nights there is thunder and it rains heavily. Fruits are in season. Mangoes are cheap at the moment and soon other fruits will be cheaper as well. Outside the cicadas sing giving the real rain forest feel even in the middle of the capital city. My room does not have an air conditioner but luckily my body adjusts easily to sleeping in heat. The house I am living in is a traditional style Lao house. The first floor has cement walls and the second floor is completely wooden. The walls have cracks that may let mosquitoes in so I am planning on getting a mosquito net. Meanwhile I will have the fan blowing at me and wear mosquito repellent at night. On Sunday my Lao friend took me on a bike ride to find my work place for Monday. Turns out the Google map address is not updated and they had moved even further away. The bike ride in the hot sun took all in all three hours. When I got home I was completely wet from sweat and saw the sloppy work I had done with my application of sunscreen. On Monday I wanted to be at work by 8 so I left home at 7. It took me 45 minutes to bike there. The traffic is quite crazy and gets worse during traffic hours (saw it in full on the way back home). I had a good first day with so much information about the organization that I felt a bit overwhelmed but I was happy. I am sure I will learn so much from here. The organization is very relaxed and is willing to give me so many opportunities in every sector. On my ride home I stopped at three different road side vendors to buy snacks that together became my dinner. Below: Patuxay, my sun burn and mangoes

How to get to Laos:

Exit house at 7:45 am. Enter generous friend's car and ride to train station. Enter train going to Tampere. Get distracted by free wifi. At Tampere switch trains to Helsinki. Get off at Tikkurila. Walk straight to city bus going to Vantaa Airport. Check-in luggage. Find spot to use free wifi. Board plane to Frankfurt. Listen to excited Finnish group go on a trip. Arrive in Frankfurt. Be disappointed with lack of free wifi. Finally find an outlet to charge laptop for plane ride. Buy Milka chocolate as a gift. Look at expensive 3€ water. Be thirsty. Realize two minutes before boarding that you are sitting right next to a water fountain. Sit next to someone nice to talk to (Thai Lufthansa worker). Practise your Thai. Watch a movie. Try to finish assignment. Sleep in 30 positions. Wake up for breakfast. After landing enter natural sauna. Have polite new Thai friend offer you their phone to let you call for your ride. Get into trouble in immigration for not having a location of stay in Thailand. Finally get through by being clueless and a warning. Find luggage and go outside and sit in sauna. Family friend picks up with home made fresh spring rolls. Takes straight to noodle shop for more food. On the way home pick up sweet coconut rice for mango dessert. Enjoy it despite being full. Required taste test on Thai style lasagna when you can no longer eat anything. Sit and nap in the heat trying to digest four hours of food for the next six hours. Eat more spring roles when friend comes over. Go out to a shopping mall to buy some essentials and have sticky rice mango boat ice-cream at Swensen's. Come back home. Remember chocolate gift. Realize it is not a bar, but melted liquid chocolate. Say good bye to friend. Take shower. Sleep. Wake up five hours later to get into taxi. Sit around at airport talking to nice Thai lady who offers fruit and water. Go though security and forget your bag. Have to go through it all over again to get the bag. Have airport worker quiz you on the contents of your bag. Wait around for plane to board. Make sure to look presentable. Be impressed by a meal offered on a 50 minute international flight. Land in lovely Laos. Get though immigration fast due to getting visa prior to departure. Get bag and wait in humid heat for ride. Have phoe-noodle soup and arrive at new home. And that is how you get to Laos if you are me.