Blood
This is a recollection of some events that occured during this past week. It will talk about two accidents. Sensitive readers please stop reading when i say now.
Now.
Accident number one:
This accident really was kind of compulsory. It is the one thing that happens to every single traveller to set foot in South East Asia. Jossan you probably already know what I am talking about. This accident leaves a trace of band-aid ankles and the smell of anticeptics follow in it's victims' footsteps as loyal as a dog.
Of course I am talking about the motorbike burn. Burning your ankle on the pipping hot exhautionpipe (or what it's called) and get a nice oval, runny wound.
This injury is so common people who have it just nod sympathetically to eachother, saying:
"Mororbike?"
"Mmm..."
Nevertheless it hurts the same.
This happened to me Sunday.
Accident number two:
Never trust Lao ladders.
I was helping out building the mudbrick house and Onkeaw asked me to do a bit of the roof. I looked at the ladder. Before I climbed up I specifically remember thinking: "That doesn't look safe." It took five minutes before the thing broke. I hit two steps and cut myslef on two rusty needles. Then I hit the ground.
This accident wasn't all bad though; I got the day off work (it is all volunteery but my concience gave me the day off), also I got to call my mum and third I learned a new word tetanus (stelkramp) and I also learned I have 30 years of protection against it. Sweet.
So blood. But at least I got some attention and sympathy and a good story to take home with me. Stay with me for that story.
Houa's (the girl I'm teching to read and write in the mornings) dad is the village witchdoctor, or shaman if you prefer. I new this from before, since he offered my friend Deon some treatment for his motorbikeburn earlier. So I tried to hide my burn when I went up to Houa's on Monday. No use. He saw it and he wouldn't budge until he let me treat it. So I said okay. Pleased; he spat out his cigarette, bent down, started singing in H'mong and then he spat in my wound three times. After this little performance he stod up and coughed very loudly. I went home and cleaned my wound four times.
Besides this it has been a very good week. I am really enjoying my time at the farm especially the time I spend with my friends up in Phoudindaeng village. I spend a lot of time with the girls up there chatting and sewing and it really feel like the people start to recognise and accept me being there. It is a lot of Sabaidee and Soughdi and smiles and they are all so wonderful people. The teaching has also improved dramatically eventhough I feel Iearn so much more than I teach. The things I learn here is for life and I am truly grateful.
A typical good day was yesterday (Friday). I got up at seven and went for a walk before it got to hot. I did my laundry in the buckets by the river and then I had a lovely fruit salad with some people who are staying at the farm. Chatting away. At 10 I went for a class with Houa and then I spent two hours sewing with the girls in the village. I had lunch at the farm and the spent an hour reading and naping in the shadow. After this Cameron and I sat down and planned class before heading up to the school and conducting a very enjoyable class. Dinner I had with Mr. Thi and the family and the workers on the farm; always delicious Lao food and then I taught English to the girls who work in the kitchen before going to bed. The perfect day at the farm. Now you know what I'm up to these days.
Right now I'm in Nong Khai, Thailand for a Visa run. It is nice to get a break from the farm and see something new too. I will be back on the farm Tuesday.
Love you and miss you and it is nice to hear it's spring back home...
By the way, Jossan; ja sjutton va uppat man var den dar kvallen! Sa himla roligt vi hade. Just det.. Andrew kommer och halsar pa pa farmen nasta vecka, ska bli kul att se honom igen.. Puss
Tomato faced
Funny things happen in Laos.
I had an interesting episode happen to me this morning for example. I was out jogging and as usual people stop and stare at me; I mean why shouldn't they? I am a sweaty, weird westener, who is supposebly out jogging for the fun of it. Really shouldn't I save my energy for some real work instead of running around in shorts; showing half my leg and with a face as red as a tomato. It must be the hight of luxury to them; to get exhausted for the fun in it, all the labourers whom I pass on my little jog would probably use the little freetime they have to get some much needed rest. Well that's how I reasoned about the staring.
But anywhay there I was running down the road and at a distance I saw this woman come towards me. She stares, nothing unusual in that; then she starts smiling ( not a very nice smile) and grabs her breasts and starts to bounce them up and down. After this little display she laughs, points at me and yells something in lao which can only be interpreted as: "Get a bra!"
I guess I know why the labourers were staring. For everyone's information I was in fact wearing a very trusted sportsbra, but I guess it has seen it's days of glory; it is a tiny bit worn.
Another not so funny, but indeed very fun thing was the two tours I was taken on this weekend.
The first one was with Mr. Thi; he took me and Cameron to see the northern villages and the schools over there. It was all very nice and we got some watermelons and mandarins an Mr. Thi filled us in on the agricultural facts of this area. This time of year is watermelon and cucumber season, in the fall the farmers will grow rice and then they move on to vegetables during the winter; all in the same plot of land. As anyone can figure out this is exhausting the soil, which is already short of minerals due to the slash and burn technique the farmers use to clear the land. It is actually quite sad to see the ruining of this land; but it is hard to stop it since the poverty and lack of education prevents any sustainable farming from emerging. I mean it is easy to see things longterm when you have a nice dinner waiting for you at home; it is hard to convince a starving farmer to see further than the next meal. You have to understand them.
The other tour was with a friend I made at the farm Sankeawor; he took me on a tour of the western villages on his motorbike and we had a nice time exploring caves and sightseen. Sankeawor is a really nice guy, and he is trying to learn the trade of organinc farming from Mr. This to start up his own farm. He showed me the plot of land he bought for it and painted his visions on the sandy ground.
Also I met up with Andrea and her friends again this weekend. They passed the farm on tubes along the Nam Song River and I went with the along the river for an hour or so and the we had Indian food in town. Very nice indeed and it's cool to talk to someone who actually now you from back home, and with whom you have common friends. I enjoyed it!
Teaching is good too. This week Cameron and I will go through basic construction of questions and the use of What, Where, When, Who, Why and How. It will be interesting I hope.
My morning classes are improving aswell; Houa is starting to put letters together but often she will go wrong in the end. She will go C-o-w.. coowww.. Giraffe! A bit frustrating really; but with some time she can do it.
That's it for me,
Ihope you are all well and alive and enjoying life!
The story of a charming day
This is the story of what turned out to be the most wonderful birthday.
After the dog eating and the online up dating I had a very pleasant phonecall and talked to my wonderful family for 16 minutes. Cheered up I went for my meeting with Andrea and she gave me a beautiful birthday card and a ring that looked like a flower; very pretty. We had a nice chat and lunch in Vang Vieng 'town'.
I went back to the farm and everyone was so kind and greeted me with buns and mangoes, hugs and flowers. Not too bad.
Time for class and at the end Tia Lee (one of the students in the older group) stands up and wishes me a happy birthday and then the hole class sang for me and Houa gave me the most beautiful flowers (she could seriously work for Lidingo Greenhouse; Lotta are you interested?). I got another bunch of hugs and kisses and was floating on little clouds all the way back to the farm.
Once I got there I found another happy surprise: Mr. Thi had prepared a small birthday feast for me with Laotian fish and vegetables and lettuse. All my friends at the farm joined and we had a wonderful evening.. I even got a bottle of wine (long time no see) from Deon and Nick mmmm.... We played drinking games and enjoyed some music from Rachel (who has the most amazing voice).
It was wicked fun; as Nick would say, and I was so happy to have so many of the people I know from the farm stay to celebrate my birthday with me.
I finally got around to uploading some pictures so please enjoy!
Of course I missed you all so much... but I decided I'm celebrating again when I get home and you are all invited. It will be an evening to remember i promise!
Love you all and think about you all the time!
By the way... I feel much better; if anyone is worried. Next week I have been at the farm a month and I have to do a visa run to Thailand.. I will spend that time thinking about what I will do for the rest of my time here.. but I kind of miss travelling. Right now I think I might stay for another month; to make it two months and then I will spend the next few weeks travelling through northern Laos and Thailand and maybe catch a cheap Air Asia flight to Singapore.. Time will tell... Asia is my playground. I feel good!
Kram och Krokusar
Amazon Sue
An unexpected visitor; and a very poisonous one.. but our own amazon Sue Tchau and her partners in crime Cam and Ni took care of it. Wepons used: Shoes and stones.
Dog for Breakfast
My birthday breakfast.. treated to me by oua, Ohm, Ye and Yeng... Delicious dog. Mmmm...
My Birthday Party
My amazing friends at the farm threw me a wonderful birthday party. Mr. Thi had us eat wonderful Laotian fish and nudles in letteuse and with that we had a few Beer Lao, one or to Lao Bia and a descent amount of Hibeerscus (Beer Lao + Hibiscus tea; a farm special). It was a lovely evening that I wont forget for as long as I live. There was live music from Rachel-with-the-wonderful-voice and Korean and Laotian drinking games (0-0-7-Bah!) and a lot of laughs!
Happy Birthday!
The older kid's class on my birthday. they were wonderful and gave me flowers and sang happy birthday. I couldn't ask for a better present!
Building the Seed Bank
So this is a testament of my days of hard labour. The seed bank is now close to completion but it needs three weeks of drying before we can coat it with limestone and tapoika. Then it will be finished and the seed saving may begin! Thank you everyone who donated a little something to this project; every little helps!
Khoj a: gnu xau pi:!
Hurra! Hurra!
I did not get a cake this morning but my laotian friends, Huya, Yeng, He and Ohm insisted that we must celebrate. They wanted to take me out for a really delicous and special birthday breakfast. And who am I to say no? As it turned out; the delicious birthday feast consisted of a nice cours made with chili, mint leaves, lettuce and dog. So instead of birthday cake, I had birthday fried dog. I guess you have to take new custums with a pinch of salt, a smile and a big shrug; as if saying: "you never try, you never know." Now I know, and for all of you who don't know (yet) dog is actually quite tasty (I don't know where you are on your culinary jerney through China, Andrew, but don't hesitate!).
Well, after that I headed into town for a bit of Internet and calls to dear ones and over here I got a birthday bun from Deon, an aussi friend I made at the farm. Very nice and more cake like indeed. Also yesterday i bumped into Andrea! The first friend I met from back home since I strarted this trip, a very nice conincidence, and I'll meet up with her a little later on for a chat and lunch.
I decided I needed to have one more night of immature teenage drinking before I turned old and twenty so we went out a bunch of us friday. We had an absolutely crazy night and a lot of laughs and I've basically spent the rest of the weekend recovering. I hardly even made it out of bed saturday but I actually left the farm for a little bit sunday to play a bit of frisbee with two Canadian friends and a big bunch of local kids. They had never seen a frisbee before (the kids- not the Canadians) and at first they couldn't through it nowhere. So Lawrence showed them how to do it and they nodded and after about two minutes they were all better than me. I just stood there watching as they threw a 50 meter perfect pass across the field. Quite impressive actually.
Oh, I just got a birthday kiss from Patrice. This day is getting better... haha
What else have I done? Hm, a lot of sewing with my friends in the village. I am getting pretty good at it. Also we had a good game of football with the students. I really miss playing and we had a really good time under the blazing sun. It was pretty fun to see them play because thay all had different tactics concerning their choice of shoes or lack there of. Only a small privilaged number had trainers, most of the others choose barefoot but some thought it better to play with one shoe or sock on their good foot. To get a better touch with the ball I guess. it all looked pretty funny anyway but they had some skills I have to admit.
Now I will call my beloved family and have them wish me a happy birthday! It will sure be good to hear their voices.
Love to you all, my wonderful friends.
I miss you today...
The sun also rises
A few days ago I didn't think I would last another week in Vang Vieng. Now I know differently.
I spoke to Mr. Thi the other day and explained to him how I felt and as the truly amazing man he is he said that I could leave at whatever time I pleased and that no one would hold it against me. After realizing that i was free to leave, I of course became reluctant to do so (reversed psychology I guess). I begun to realize that every day I stay at the farm is my own choice, taken there and then. Not the choice of a confused past self who didn't know what she wanted, only what she thought she should expect of herself (does that make sence). Everyday I stay at the farm I do because I want to. And right now, amazingly enough I think it is what I want.
I have held classes for the more advanced students this week and I feel like I have been doing a good job. I help out with the little kids and am undergoing some coaching (30 3-7 year olds with various knowledge of English is a handfull I tell you). What I am beginning to realize though is that the important thing is to give them a chance to hear English and work up an interest. Also this is a unique opportunity because in the clasroom are kids from different ethnic minorities in Laos. Equal education and communal classes are rare in this country where discrimination and resettling of ethnic minorities are common. Most of the kids in the class are H'mong children, the village where the school is placed was moved here from the mountains ten years ago so that the goverment could keep the H'mong under control. The village is extremely poor and some of the kids can not afford going to school (One month of school costs one dollar).
In the mornings I have started teaching a H'mong girl, Huya, reading and writing. Se is very smart and speaks good English but she never had the chance to go to school and therefore she can't read or write. It is all very rewarding as she is making fast progress and with every new letter she learns I feel better about staying in Vang Vieng. As an exchange she is teaching me H'mong embrodery, which is really fun indeed.
Yesterday she told me she wanted to show me something so she took me to a house in the village. I heard terrible screams from in there so I felt a little reluctant to enter but she urged me so I came with here. In there they were preforming a kind of ceremony, I guess in our custums it would be equal to a baptism. When a baby is one month old (after one month the survival rate for infants is much higher) it is custum to slaughter a pig and the ceremony that follows involves hymns, dancing and making imprints on the backs of the parents and the siblings with pig's blood. And this is what Huya showed me. And as a teacher I followed up our lesson by having her learn b- b- blood, a bit morbid maybe, but what do you do?
Also I have been helping out at the farm; constructing a mud brick house. This type of construction has been worked out locally, using local materials and techniques. The construction of this house has many reasons; one is to show the locals new ways of construction which will be cheaper, more sustainable and also entirely ecological. This house is also going to work as a seedbank, to store local seeds in case of disesses and also in case of a bad year of draught or flooding. The climate is changing in Vang Vieng and crops are no longer as reliable as they have been. Also the availiablitiy of local seeds is important since the farmers tend to buy cheep seeds from China and Japan which are not suited for the Laotian soil.
I will send you all an e-mail about this because right now the farm is conducting a fund raser to collect money for this project. I hope you can consider it and maybe pass it on to people who might be interested. This is a very good and important project (I can assure you of that, I am building the seedbank with my own hands). Take a few minutes and read it through anyways!
As maybe you have notised the sun has gone up over Vang Vieng. I am still a little shaky and uncertain about myself and my being here; but I am making progress and I am taking each day as it comes. I have decided I will stay at least one month and after that sit down and think about what I wanted to do. I feel free again which is wonderful and I feel that I am glad to be where I am.
Thank you so much for all your e-mails and comments and encouraging texts. It is so much easier to be away when you have something like that, like you, to come home to.
Love grows with distance, or at least it becomes more visable...
Tack for att ni finns.
Like losing the map and the torch, eller helt enkelt botten
I am having second thoughts about the hole teaching and volunteering project. This might seem like it is out of the blue but it does not feel good right now and for the first time in this trip I don't feel very happy. I am actually panicking over the responsability dropped on me and I have started to think I am not up for the challenge. I know I have not been here for very long, and I am going to give it some more time, but I have a hard time seeing I will last three months here. I feel totally out of place and absolutely like I am being here at the wrong time in my life. I feel very young and inexperienced, everyone here are at least 5 years older than me and I feel like I have taken on too much. I migh break down under the feeling of letting everybody who depended on my being here down, but I don't now what else to do. I don't like being a quitter but I don't like crying myself to sleep either.
I know, I know.. give it some time, it will turn around.... but in my heart I know this is not the place I am supposed to be. I don't know where that place may be though, and I don't know where I am going.. I will try and stick it out for a little longer though. And then... we'll see...
So there you go. I have poored my heart out in an electronic diary and posted it on the Internet for the world to see.
Maybe I will be embarressed by this entry later, but I don't think it is a bad thing to admit to faliur or not being super happy all the time. Life is not black and white.
I feel really lost right now and I am taking life by the hour. I know you won't judge me though and that is comforting.
I will try not to despite myself too much. I am only human, I think I might have thought too highly of myself and what I could handle. Right now I desperatelly need to think a bit of Me, a thing that is really hard, and makes you feel really bad while surrounded by all this poverty. I feel like a spoilt little kid who has been given a chance to help but who is too small and too scared (and maybe to egoistic) to be up to the challenge. Please don't comment on this... I am just trying to pin my feelings down, it helps.
Break down and move on. That is what I am doing and I seriously believe that you have to feel bad sometimes to be able to appriciate being happy. I will learn from this.
Som Fia skrev: Det ar mycket lattare att lyfta nar man har en botten att skjuta fran ifran.
Kloka ord.
I hope I didn't bring you down now. I will get back to you when I know what is happening.
Love you all so much!
ABC
Some trivia for those who don't know: Lao does not have latin letters. Well; I knew that when signing up but I have to say that i proved to be a bit of a challenge. Not that I don't like challenges. Partly it is a challenge for me to teach the alphabet (or will be, since I have not yet held a class, still watch and learn the deal, we take over next week) and also because I am trying to learn a little lao (so far I know, hello, how are you, thank you and I can count to five, impressive huh?)
The kids are a dream though. Yesterday, after class we had a little ceremony, saying good bye to the Korean volonteers who will be leaving today and also to welcome me and Cameron. The kids tied white strings around our arms and thanked us for wanting to come and teach us. It was all very nice!
Also I went exploring along with some friends who stay at the farm. We rented bikes in the village and went to see a cave some 10 km away. It was a real amazing cave, huge and with sparkelling walls and stalaktites and stalagmites. We had a good time exploring it and a laugh playing with the flashed of our cameras in the darkness. Then we went outside and swum in the marvelles lagoon which formed at the foot of the mountain. The water was beautifully turqouise and cold and we jumbed from trees and swung in the swings that hung from its' branches. A really nice day.
Today I will hopefully sit down with Cameron an the Korean coordinator and plan some lessons and work on a new corriculum for the following weeks. We also discussed opeing up English classes in some of the villages close to Vang Vieng. Plenty of work to be done, but that is the way I like it!
Today I have been away two months and I can feel it. I will let my birthday mark the half way point of this jerney. By the way my flight home is booked for the 3rd of June. Just so you know. I got to get of this heavily overprized Internet now, before it renders me benkrupt.
Love and kisses och jag hoppas ni far se bade sol och krokusar snart!
Paradise is a creek and whatever you can do...
As soon as I arrived I was greated by Mr. T the owner and a really increadible and nice man. He showed me my room and explained some things to me. I came to like him at first gaze.
The orgaic farm turned out to be so much more than a farm, it also works as a hostel with loads of young people coming and going, so you are never lonely. It's also a wonderful restaurant and it serves all kinds of nice foods, from mulberry shakes to fried tempura leaves and pumpkin soup. Yum!
There are also loads of animals, dogs, cats, pigs, chickens, gees and goats (who just had kids and I get to help feeding them, they are lovely!). So you're never short of love, they are really cuddely all of them.
I got to come with and help out in class Friday, with the volonteers who are leaving today and the kids are real sweathearts all of them. The younger class is for kids between the age of five up to ten or older and with them you mostly play games and try to talk as much as possible. The older kids are really skilled and they do grammar and follow a textbook. Since lao does not have latin letters there is a lot of practising in using the alphabet.
As it turnes out I am not the only teacher for the three months to come; I am sharing the load with an Aussi named Cameron. A real relief actually, he is older than me so he has more experience and can guide me a little bit.
All in all it seems like I will really like it here and I am glad to begin lessons on Monday and see what i can contribute with.
Miss you guys though as I try to settle in at this new place. I hung some pictures on the wall, and put my small pile of clothes on the desk and then I was done. I will let my birthday mark the half point of this trip and it is soon, it is not long til I'll see you again!
Sunny kisses to you my friends!
The snoring senora and the corner of colours
The days in Hanoi were spent well. Making preparations for Laos and walking around, hanging out with Andrew and drinking a bit too much cheap beer. On Andrews recomendation we checked into Vietnam's only hostel. A very good choice, eventhough the Italian senora who slept in the bed next to mine snored like half the Viet Minh and wanted me to help her put on her far to small body (you know, like a crossing between a modern corsette and a bathingsuit) in the morning. But she was nice anyway.
The hostel had a kitchen and after a lucky coincident we managed to come across some flour and baking soda and we had a blast baking scones and making American pancakes. Mmm.. something that you don't eat with sticks, it has been some time. Also made me a bit sentimental, scones taste like Sunday mornings with my dad (degen var heeelt perfekt!) and afternoons of studying geografy and history with Naomi. That is a taste I miss.
Tuesday we went to the best corner in the hole of Hanoi. The Bia Hoi corner. Bia Hoi is a freshly brewed beer, every place makes their own, it is crazy cheap (2000 dong/ glas, 1 kr, 10 cent) and everybody is sitting around on plastic chairs drinking it. It is very important which colour your chair is; because the colour determens which "bar" you are bying from. Everything is quite a bit confusing, since everybody wants to by eachother beer (just because you can) but then you can't because his chair is blue and yours is red. After a while this gets very amusing.
At 12 o'clock sharp the bars close, meaning if you don't move; your chair will. Usually they try and persue the reluctant guests by screaming "Boli! Boli! Boli!", which with a little imagination translates into "Police! Police! Police!".
We were a bunch of people, who unlike Cinderella, preferred to stay out a little later than 12 o'clock so we went to a really nice bar/club (don't ask me what it was called or where it was) and had a blast. A really nice night.
Yesterday the hostel had a barbeque and we all gathered in the roof top bar for Happy Hour beers and my first hamburger since I don't know when (actually I do now when, it was on New Years day with Bengan and Bea, hung over at McDonald's). We had a good time and I spent the night hanging out with Andrew and two Swedes from Akersberga. Turned in pretty early though, had to be up at 4.30 to get the bus to the airport.
So as February turns into March that marks the end of my Vietnamese adventures and the begining of my Lao ones. So far Laos is poor, dry, relaxed and disturbingly hot. But I have only been here a couple of hours. I did find time to make my way to the National Museum though which was quite an experience, you really can tell this is a communist country. Hello propaganda! But very interessting indeed.
I called home today too. I miss my mum and my dad. I guess I am really tired from sleeping only five hours (I seriously do not function without sleep) but I am a bit down today. Tomorrow begins the new adventure and I am a bit nerveuse, what if I suck as an English teacher!?
I guess I will feel better tomorrow after some sleep and some food.
Love you guys and miss you to pieces!