Shopping

Last Saturday our Lao friends, Jiam and Mon, took Julia and I to do some shopping. We figured it would be much easier to have them translate for us, and maybe not have to pay the foreigner price for everything.  And they were VERY helpful!

Our first item we needed was a sinh.  Sinhs are traditional Lao skirts. All the women wear them to work. Girls wear them as part of their uniform to school. So we need some for teaching, because we will wear them every day as a teacher. I am also going to a wedding on Thursday (tomorrow) so I needed to find a sinh that is appropriate for a wedding. We really wanted Mon and Jiam to help us pick ones that are stylish. Julia pointed to one that she liked and Jiam laughed and said, "That looks like my mom's!" The sinhs are really beautiful, but sometimes we (in our American views) think their tops don't always match. So, it was helpful to have some Lao girls our age along to help us find sinhs that are appropriate for teachers but don't make us look like grandmas! We also went to a tailor shop to get fitted. My sinh should be finished, we just need to pick it up. I'll post a picture when I have it!

I also needed to purchase a motorbike helmet. I need one when I ride on others' motorbikes and will need one soon when I have my own to drive!

Mon & Jiam drinking some cold tasty drink out of a bag! We decided we needed a break from all our busy shopping!

Our final buy was a bike! They all have baskets on the front! Which is something I was most looking forward to!  We have already ridden to the market and come home with our watermelon and bananas safely in our baskets! :)  The baskets are the best! There is also a bell which goes off frequently as we go over the bumps and holes in the road. I feel so much more free since having a bike! We can bike anywhere we want now! And it's wonderful to feel the breeze in our face! :) Sounds so cheesy, but it is true! It's also a bit of an adventure to drive right with all the cars and motorbikes. It's nice being small and able to squeeze along the side when we need to turn. It's a little scary at times, but so far we've been safe! And we are very cautious bike riders.

trying out my new bike!

Jiam taking off all of the packaging

When we went to get fitted for our sinhs, we rode through the campus of the university where I will be teaching!  It's so green with trees and grass and flowers! It will be awesome to teach there! We had a busy but good Saturday and got everything accomplished that we needed to! :) And so appreciated the help from our Lao friends!

Sunday we were going to go on a bike ride, and my tire was flat. Ugh! So, we walked our bikes the mile(ish) to where we bought our bikes, thinking they could fix them. They don't fix bikes, but saw the nail in the tire and directed us to a bike shop that repairs tires. We walked our bikes up to the bike shop. We still know very little Lao and no words or phrases that have anything to do with a flat tire. There were a bunch of friendly old men hanging out in front of the bike shop. By pointing to my flat tire, we found out we were at the right place! They were very helpful and the tire repair man started patching the hole right away. They old guys knew some English, so we had some fun laughs trying to talk a little with them. My tire was quickly patched for less than fifty cents and we were on our way. It was a good reminder that things often don't go as planned in Laos. What we thought would be a 30 minute errand turned into an almost two hour event. But thankfully my tire is holding air, we chatted with some friendly old men, and now we know where the bike repair shop is if we ever need to use it again! (Although I sure hope not too often)