Sabaidee Pi May!
Load up your guns.Secure your camera in plastic. Put on dark clothes. Get your hair out of your face. Regress 10 years. Put on a smile and practice your laugh. It's Lao New Year!
What do you do for lao new year?
- We play!
But what do you do really?
- We play!
I didn't get it before; but now I do. Lao New Year is play. It's three days of play. It is smearing sot in eachothers faces, laughing, throwing chalk in eachothers hair, eating good food, swimming in the river, playing rattanball, hanging out, drinking beer lao, drinking laolao. But above all it is a giant waterfight! And everybody is a target, it is being wet for three days and it is hilarious!
First day was yesterday and wow. Top five days of this jerney for sure. Started with some games with the kids in the village and continued with a wonderful picknick in the grass outside the school. All local specialites, and, wish granted Jackson, I'll tell you abut them. There was bbqed fish, fresh from the Nam Song, stuffed with lemongrass, there was papaya salad with cold white noodles, there was cold green stirfried spicy lao greens and morning glory (my favourite) there was delicious bamboo soup, there was sticky rice, there was pumpkin and bananas filled with coconut for dessert. Mmmmm..... the Lao fod at it's best!
The the waterfight begun and what a fight. I got at least 15 liters of water poored over my head or splashed all over me. The waterthrowing is to wash all the bad spirits off and I assure you; there is not one little bad spirit left in me. But to be sure we continued the day by throwing ourselves in the river and floating down to some bars where the party was on. We did some Lao dancing (which we learnt Friday night when we watched the local beauty pageant for Miss Vang Vieng Lao New Year) and we swung from the swings and swam in the river. All great fun!
Today it continues and I have already been splashed twice on my way into town. It looks like a promising day!
Besides these festivities I had a busy week. I have started a project with some of my Hmong friends and we are trying to start a small shop, selling Hmong handicrafts and giving embrodery classes to foreigners staying at the farm. It is a way to easen their lives a little since for two hours of sewing classes they can charge as much as they get for a bag they spend two weeks sewing. Also it is a way for the girls to strengthen their possition in th comunity and also it is a project which aim to give the Hmong a sense of pride for their traditional handicraft. The shop will be managed by the girls who cannot afford to go to school but it is a project which involves all the girls in the village. This week we have mostly spent in front of the computer trying to copy down the traditional Hmong patterns into readable instructions to be thaught. It is a very interessting project and we have fun doing it. Hopefully the shop and the classes will be up and running by the time I leave Vang Vieng.
Times is passing very fast at the moment. Is it the same back home?
Enjoy your tea and cookies,
Love you
What do you do for lao new year?
- We play!
But what do you do really?
- We play!
I didn't get it before; but now I do. Lao New Year is play. It's three days of play. It is smearing sot in eachothers faces, laughing, throwing chalk in eachothers hair, eating good food, swimming in the river, playing rattanball, hanging out, drinking beer lao, drinking laolao. But above all it is a giant waterfight! And everybody is a target, it is being wet for three days and it is hilarious!
First day was yesterday and wow. Top five days of this jerney for sure. Started with some games with the kids in the village and continued with a wonderful picknick in the grass outside the school. All local specialites, and, wish granted Jackson, I'll tell you abut them. There was bbqed fish, fresh from the Nam Song, stuffed with lemongrass, there was papaya salad with cold white noodles, there was cold green stirfried spicy lao greens and morning glory (my favourite) there was delicious bamboo soup, there was sticky rice, there was pumpkin and bananas filled with coconut for dessert. Mmmmm..... the Lao fod at it's best!
The the waterfight begun and what a fight. I got at least 15 liters of water poored over my head or splashed all over me. The waterthrowing is to wash all the bad spirits off and I assure you; there is not one little bad spirit left in me. But to be sure we continued the day by throwing ourselves in the river and floating down to some bars where the party was on. We did some Lao dancing (which we learnt Friday night when we watched the local beauty pageant for Miss Vang Vieng Lao New Year) and we swung from the swings and swam in the river. All great fun!
Today it continues and I have already been splashed twice on my way into town. It looks like a promising day!
Besides these festivities I had a busy week. I have started a project with some of my Hmong friends and we are trying to start a small shop, selling Hmong handicrafts and giving embrodery classes to foreigners staying at the farm. It is a way to easen their lives a little since for two hours of sewing classes they can charge as much as they get for a bag they spend two weeks sewing. Also it is a way for the girls to strengthen their possition in th comunity and also it is a project which aim to give the Hmong a sense of pride for their traditional handicraft. The shop will be managed by the girls who cannot afford to go to school but it is a project which involves all the girls in the village. This week we have mostly spent in front of the computer trying to copy down the traditional Hmong patterns into readable instructions to be thaught. It is a very interessting project and we have fun doing it. Hopefully the shop and the classes will be up and running by the time I leave Vang Vieng.
Times is passing very fast at the moment. Is it the same back home?
Enjoy your tea and cookies,
Love you
Kommentarer
Postat av: Pappa
va kul allt låter...här hemma lyser solen starkt och i morgon ska vi krossa HBK...pusspusspuss
Postat av: Ellinor
Det är helt galet kul att läsa om vad du har för dig! Saknar dig min söta- hoppas att vi ses i sommar! PussoKram
Postat av: Jossan
Har forsokt kommentera dina inlagg hur manga ganger som helst de senaste veckorna, men det ar alltid nat fel, far se om det funkar nu...
Wow, vad kul att du far va dar nar det ar nyar. Tyckte att det vietnamesiska var over the top men det dar later ju annu sanslosare, och klart roligare.
Och vad spannande det dar projektet later! Men du har inte sa manga dagar/veckor kvar i Laos nu va? Kanns det svarare och svarare att slita sig ifran tillvaron dar?
Puss
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