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.