Dirty Americans

Today in one of my classes we were learning about "You should . . ." "You're supposed to . . ." "You shouldn't . . ." ect. and our unit is about different cultures or customs around the world. I made a little paper for my students to write true or false if the sentence was true or false for them / Lao people in general.

For example:
1. You shouldn't put your feet on the table.
2. You should shower two or three times every day.

For both of these, almost everyone said true. I then told them to write what they thought I / an American would answer.

For number one, they said true. I told them false, it is OK to put your feet on the table (coffee table).

For number two, they said false. I said yes, we do not shower two or three times every day. One student asked me how many times we do shower. I asked him what he thought.

He said, "I think Americans only shower one time a week. The weather is very cold. It is too cold to shower a lot."

I laughed and told him we all shower every morning. He continued by saying that in some parts of America it really is too cold to shower every day. Again, I assured him that every American (at least almost everyone) showers every morning.

It is warmer to shower in -20 degree weather in Iowa than it is in 60 degree weather in Laos. There is no insulation and our shower is in a big room in our kitchen with walls that don't reach the ceiling. So all of the steam and warmness from our hot water scatters away into the kitchen. In Iowa we have nice hot water and heat and even little heaters to make the bathroom extra warm. Also, the warmer you want your water here, the less water pressure you get. So, if I want a hot shower, I only get a little trickle of water. Just ask Danae, she hasn't been loving her showers here too much.

But I've been loving having her here! We've just had lots of time to chat and catch up. I've heard lots about her boyfriend and life in general. It's been great! :)

What Time is It?

For every hour in America, there are 60 different times:

8:00
8:08
8:23
8:45
8:53
. . .

There are only four times for each hour in Laos.

Before 8:00
8:00
After 8:00
8:30

The other day I was eating lunch with some students. I had to go to class at 1:00. I asked one of them what time it was. She said before 1:00. So I thought I had to go to class. It was only 12:37. I had plenty before I had to go to class.

Danae comes in 3 days!! :-) :-) :-)

Surprise Visit

Our bathroom consists of a room with a toilet and a sink and a tiled room with a shower and our washing machine. There's no enclosure, just a biggish room with a shower and our washing machine. The walls of our bathroom don't go up to the ceiling and the bathroom is right in the kitchen. So every morning and evening (Lao people and now I shower two or three times a day) I can have a little chat with my roomies while I'm showering and they're cooking breakfast or dinner.

Tonight, one of my boy students gave me a surprise visit. I was in the shower and heard Julia say something from the living room, so I couldn't really understand. Then a few seconds later, I heard my student say, "Hello, Teacher." It was a little weird talking to him while I was showering. :-S Thankfully he went and waited in the living room.

Lao Clothes

The days when I wear clothes like this to school are the days when I get told how beautiful I am. We (foreigners) say "Pretty plus pretty equals pretty." A pretty flowery shirt and a skirt with lots of pretty butterflies on it makes you really pretty. I used to try to steer away from clashing like this. . . but this time I didn't even think much of wearing these together.

Beebee again

Last week, after sleeping at our house for only one night, we lost Beebee. She is small enough to crawl under the gate. We think she escaped when we were at school and then someone found her and cut off part of her tail hair so that we wouldn't recognize her. Unfortunately, Julia and Nuyie found her two days later. So she's back. And annoying as ever.

The other day Julia, Sone and Nuyie were gone. When they left they left Beebee in the house. One of my stiudents was over and informed me that Beebee had puked. In the house. I came from the kitchen and saw poop and puke. I was not happy. I had to clean up the stupid dog's puke and poop. While I was cleaning it up I was gagging. My student heard me gagging and she threw up too. Gross. So I still hate dogs, prolly more now than I did before.

My Dog: Bebee

We have a dog. I never thought I would have a pet, but we do. And now, it's actually really cute because it is a puppy! But soon enough it will be a dog. :( We have decided not to let Bebee have too much interaction with our other dog neighbors - we do not want Lao dog behaviors to rub off on Bebee. (I think we are the only house in our whole neighborhood, besides Kenton, the other foreigner, who doesn't have a dog or two or six.) Hopefully he can stay a nice dog. Well, kind of nice - we want him to be mean enough to scare away the bad guys. Which is why we got the dog. . .

Friday I rode the bus for 9 hours to go to Savhannakhet with my student. At about 5 in the afternoon Julia called and told me that someone stole our computers. She had been in Sonexay's room (on the main floor right by our living room which is where our computers were) with Sonexay, sitting and talking. The gate and the front door were shut, not locked, but shut. Many times we leave our front door open if we're home and sometimes even the gate. So they were in Sone's room right by the living room and didn't hear anything. They came out a while later and mine and Julia's computers were gone. :(

We don't really know how it could have happened, we always hear the gate open. And Sone has a window thing between her room and the living room. He didn't take our cords or Julia's nice camera or wallet that were sitting on the couches too. We don't understand and we're kinda upset, but oh well I guess.

We've heard that it might be a recycling guy - someone who comes around collecting plastics to recycle. It would be really wierd if he came in our house though. . . So, we don't know. One of our teammates had a computer stolen a few years ago too. And he got his back when the person sold it to a computer shop in his neighborhood. So, we're hopeful we can find ours back too! Or else I'll have to get a new one. :( :(

But tonight I'm pretty happy with Bebee. He's kinda whiney right now, but I spose he prolly misses his mom and siblings. Even though he lives at my house I will not be the one feeding him or walking him or anything else really to take care of him. I am happy that he will eat left over people food and I've never seen a Lao person walking a dog, so they are a little easier to take care of though. I'll put up a picture of her sometime, but don't ever let me go on and on talking about how cute or fun or great she is!

Millionaire

The other day I was on my way to the hospital to visit my friends' friend's brother who was in a motorbike accident and had a broken leg. On the way one of my students, Seeva, called and asked if he could come to my house. My friend, who was riding on the back of my bike, talked to him and told him we were going to the hospital.

We were at the hospital visiting the brother and my students were telling me that Seeva had a $1,000 dollar bill and he wanted to know if it was real. I was sorry to burst his bubble but told them that we only have hundred dollar bills, so it was not real. They weren't sure if I understood or was telling the truth, so Seeva had to come to the hospital to show me the bill.

Seeva and his friend looked carefully around for people who might want to run off with a thousand dollar bill, he dug deep into his backpack and pulled out a folder. Inside the folder was a book with the bill tucked inside. He showed me a million American dollar bill. I laughed when I saw it. I had to tell him almost a million times that it is not real. I do not have a million dollars, my parents don't even have a million dollars. It is too much money! They were a little sad to lose so much money.

Flirty Foreigner

Today I ate lunch with with some Lao friends after class. After lunch we were walking back to my office and we walked beside the classrooms where I teach. Some of my students were in the classroom so I smiled and waved at them.

My friend said that next time I should smile and blow a kiss. It was during lunch hour so there weren't many students around and they weren't having class, so as we walked past the next classroom, I tried smiling and blowing a kiss, thinking there wouldn't be many students inside. The room was full of monks. (Monks are celibate and not even supposed to give or take things from women.) I apologized many times but they probably think I'm a very disrespectful foreigner. :S We had a good laugh about it though.

Grilled Bananas

I'm horrible at writing on here. . .

I feel like last year I had all these new exciting things to write about but now they're not so new anymore, so then I don't write about them or anything really.

Yesterday I was walking back to my office after eating lunch with some students. I met some students on their way to class. One student had a small bag of grilled bananas. He didn't say anything to me but just smiled and held out the bag for me to take a banana. So I took one and said thank you. But he said nothing, just smiled and walked away.

Last year I was also more OK with things not being OK. The school knew we were going to come teach here three months ago, but they don't have our visas yet - no big deal! That's just how things go in Laos. The students graduate with a degree even if they can't speak 3 words of English - that's OK, we live in a poor country and English is a hard language to learn.

But this year I'm much more easily annoyed. If they knew we were coming three months ago, how do they not have our visas ready yet? It's not that hard - just sign the papers. We're teaching here for free, can't they at least have our papers ready for us? How can students graduate if they can't speak in English? If they didn't learn anything in 5 years at University did they really earn their degree? Of course not! Send them back to Year 1 so they can actually learn something.

A lot of this is true - students really shouldn't graduate if they can't speak English but it is important for me to remember that I'm only a guest here and nothing I want to do will change anything, so I guess actually, it isn't that big of a deal.

Even though there's plenty of things that bother me, I do love living here!! :) And the good far outweighs the bad!

Welcome Back!

I got back to Laos yesterday, and I'm so happy to be back! Flying went pretty good. And we were greeted by plenty of smiling faces. Our land lady came in her car to pick us up with Sone, 2 American teachers and some Lao friends were at the airport too. I was looking forward to coming back, but I think it's better than I was expecting. :)

I saw other friends and students yesterday afternoon/evening too. We cooked Lao supper together. Papaya salad, sticky rice and spring rolls. As good as the ones I made with family were last week, these were much better! My tongue has also gotten used to not spicy American food. Before, I could eat pretty spicy Lao food, but last night we had 3 chilies in the papaya salad and it was almost too much. Hopefully I'll get used to it again soon.

I think it will take a little getting used to the Lao driving again too. I had forgotten how different it is to drive here.

And it's still hot! They said yesterday was hotter than it has been lately, so hopefully that means it will cool off a little soon. And it's rainy season, which I don't think I mind too much. I was going to go for a run this morning, but it is raining. . . so it if does this every morning, it might get a little old.

Some of my students told me that school started already. They've been going to school this week, but the teacher hasn't been coming and won't come until next week or the next even. I asked them if they will go to school tomorrow. They said yes. I asked them if the teacher will come to school tomorrow. They said no. Why do they keep going to school if they know that their teacher will not be there? That's just the way it is. There are still plenty of things here that I do not understand and will probably never understand. But that's OK because it's so great to be back! (Even though I still do miss family an friends in the States.)

Coming Home

I fly home tomorrow afternoon (Sunday). As the time to go home has been getting closer, I've been getting a little more sad to leave. I will miss so many people here! But I am SUPER excited to see everyone back home!It's been a fun week of spending time with some of my favorite people over here before I leave for two months.  I've eaten at my favorite restaurant ever two times this week - Taj Mahal - an Indian restaurant. Unfortunately I don't think there are any Indian restaurants in Sioux Falls or Sioux City. :(  I also went to the sauna two times- it's great! I thought it would be too hot to enjoy, but it's wonderful! And my skin is so soft after smearing yogurt, tamarind and other stuff on it. And I'm happy I'm coming back in 2 months to see them again. Can't wait to see family and friends in 2 days!! :)

Bamboo Hunt

I leave in less than 2 weeks!! I am so excited to go home and see Noah, Brayden, family and friends. . . but I'll sure miss lots of stuff about Laos. But it's only for two months and I'll be back! :)

This weekend 4 students and I went to another student's house a little bit outside of Vientiane. It was fun! And I love these students!! :)

They love taking photos! The 2 boys on the left are my students and the girl is also my student.

Many pictures!

We ate some steamed frogs for lunch. Not my fave. If they were fried, they would be OK, anything fried is OK to eat. Steamed is not the best. . .

We went hunting for bamboo out in the forest. The girl in the middle in the gray is holding the bamboo shoot. All Lao people love bamboo! Bamboo soup is a special food to make for special people. They seem to think I'm a pretty special foreigner so I often get bamboo soup cooked for me. Unfortunately, it isn't my fave. :(

Now the boy in the hat is holding the bamboo. We're gonna play catch with it. Hunting for bamboo wasn't as exciting as it sounds. :) There's plenty of bamboo all over so we didn't have to go inside the forest really. One of the boys dug it up with like a pitch fork thing. We just watched.

It rained all weekend, the 3 days before we went. It actually spat (?) a little all day. There was water everywhere! This is behind the kid's house, on the way to the forest by some rice fields.

This is a river that I think came from the 3 days of rain. It may always be there, but if so, it's usually much smaller. They found crabs to make crab sauce to eat with rice. I've never eaten it.

Looking for more crabs and anything else we can find.

Walking home.

Cute hat!

More fun pics.

I'm a little too tall.

Playing cards is illegal I've been told a few times. If the police see you, they can throw you in jail. We went to the temple to play cards. Apparently if you play cards when someone dies, when someone is born or in a temple, the police can't arrest you. So we were safe! :) 

I also almost peed in the monk's bathroom, which I think would be one of the most unforgivable Buddhist sins! I asked where the bathroom was. My students pointed to the bathroom. I went in the bathroom. They came running in yelling, "You can't go in here! It's for the monks!" after they just pointed me in this direction. Thankfully they caught me before I went. :)

A message from my student

My students frequently text me. Many times they say, "Teacher, what are you doing now?" or "Teacher, have you eaten dinner yet?" Tonight, I got this text from one of my students.

"Teacher, on this evening there was an accident with my dog. A car hit a my dog and now i am cooking the grilled dog. Have you ever eaten dog?"

Driving Test

In Laos, like many other countries, you (being Lao people) need to take a driver's test to get your driver's license. There are two options for this test. 

Option #1: Pay 150,000 kip ($20) to sign up to take the test. 

Option #2: Pay 200,000 kip ($25) to sign up to take the test.

Option #1: After registering, they will give you a number for when you can take the test. Go to the place and drive your motorbike in some small circles and figure eights. If you do not put your foot down to balance yourself, congratulations, you pass! If you put your foot down to balance yourself, sorry, you do not pass. Try again. 

Option #2: After registering, they will give you a number for when you can take the test. Go to the place and drive your motorbike in some small circles and figure eights. If you do not put your foot down to balance yourself, congratulations, you pass! If you put your foot down to balance yourself, sorry, you do not pass. Try again. Oh, wait, you paid the higher price? Never mind! Congratulations! You also passed!

activities

Here are some photos about some recent activities happening here.

 Last weekend I stayed at my student's house. We visited the Lao zoo. Here are two students and Kai's sister by the peacock. I haven't been to a zoo in a long time; the animals are so fun to see!

 We ate at a restaurant by the river.

 Some students went down by the river in Vientiane one night. We ate dinner, walked around and took pictures by this statue.

 More time with neighborkids. Some of them love reading our books. They're written in English and Lao.

I saw my first movie in a movie theater last night. We watched Sabaidee Lao Wedding. There are two earlier movies in the sequence. I've seen the other two movies, but they don't have subtitles in English, so I understood only a little. This one had subtitles so it was a bit more enjoyable. It cost the same for 6 people to go to the movie as it costs for one person in the States. :)

As we were leaving, I left my Pepsi bottle in the pop holder on the chair. Lao people throw garbage almost anywhere. In America, the movie theater is one of the few places where it is OK to leave your garbage behind you. So I didn't think anything of leaving it there. But my student said right away, "You can't do that, you need to take it out and throw it away." Some things I just don't understand . . .

The Zoo

Lately I feel like I live in a zoo. We have more animals in our yard and near our house than I would have thought possible. We have ants all over almost everywhere. In the kitchen, on the floor, in my bed sometimes. But they're not that bad. We have dogs and cats. Lately, we've had chickens and chicks, and even a rooster in our yard. I don't know how the chickens can get through our gate. . .

We've always had geckos (little lizards) which I like. We've always had toukays (bigger lizards - maybe 10 inches long?). One night I came downstairs to pee in the middle of the night. There was a big toukay on the wall in our living room. I was a little surprised!

It is rainy season now, which is GREAT! I love the rain! But it's also (I think) bringing frogs and toads to our house. They're always by our gate, so when I go at night to lock the gate, I can't see them until they start hopping. Yuck. Thankfully we don't have any big gross bugs - like cockroaches.

We still have the cats and dogs. And kittens which are actually a little cute.

I think tomorrow I'm going to the Lao Zoo! I've wanted to go for a while. It's about 2 hours away from Vientiane.

Speaking of animals, I hope this doesn't bother anyone too much. I went to my friend's house the other day. When I arrived, her nephew shoved a long stick with a small lizard hanging on the end by a string in my face. The string was tied around his neck, and I thought he was dead. But then the nephew tried to make the lizard walk on the ground and climb the tree, which it could actually do, so it was still alive. I asked my friend, and she said when she was young she always used to tie lizards to the end of strings to play with them for a couple of hours. Kinda mean, but the little boy was sure having fun!

Sick

Today I was feeling a little sick. I texted my class president and a few others in the class to tell them there would be no class at 10:00 because I'm not feeling the best. I laid on the couch to take a little nap. One of my students who I see outside of class texted me and said, "Yes! After school I will go." I am often confused by the texts I receive from my students. So, I first thought, No, please don't come to my house, I want to sleep. But then thought, maybe she didn't understand . . .

I had been kinda sleeping on the couch and I heard our gate open and a motorbike come in a little after ten. I got up to let them in. It was only two girls. They brought me yogurt/milk stuff and some fruit and bread. It was really sweet! Then we just sat around on the couches and talked. Then one of them gave me a massage so I wouldn't feel sore. :) And we sat and talked more. I fell asleep for a little bit and it was totally fine. They were just checking on me to make sure I was doing ok. It was actually pretty nice having them here. It would have been nice to sleep, but it was super sweet of them! I feel like in the States people like to be left alone when they're sick, but not in Laos. I've also gotten tons of texts from my students checking on me and hoping that I feel better soon! I only have a small headache and stomachache.

Then a few hours after they left, they called to check on me again. She thinks that I should go to the doctor and she will take me now if I want to go. I assured her I was fine!

A nee men nyang?

On Friday night, the Faculty of Letters had their party at our house. (This is all the teachers but Steph, Linda and I). Kids were decorating eggs and cookies. Our little neighbor girl, Walisa, was in the house checking things out. On the table there were some gooey, sticky, delicious looking brownies. I didn't know who had brought them, so I said to the Lao girls that were in the house with me, "a nee men nyang?" or "what is this?" Walisa heard me ask and she said, "key" or "poop." Key is actually closer to a more impolite word for poop. I thought they looked delicious, but I guess if you don't know what it is, it kinda looks like "key." The older girls right away said to Walisa, "shhh! Don't say that, it's not polite!" I told Kenton, who brought the brownies that Walisa thought they looked like poop.

I think Walisa is pretty afraid of Western food. We always let her try any tasty food we have, but she usually doesn't like it. She's had cookie dough and frosting and cheese; and she hasn't liked any of them.  Now, when we ask if she wants to try, she usually says "no."

She usually likes chocolate, so I convinced her to try the brownies. She ate a little and she said it was "sep" or delicious. But a few seconds later I heard her gagging. I think it was probably more from the idea of eating poop than what it actually tasted like. :)

I don't think she'll ever trust us again if we offer her some American gooey food!

Happy Easter!

On Saturday we had an Easter party for the Faculty of Education students. Linda, Steph and I are the teachers in the FOE department.

 The party started at 2:00, which usually means people show up at 3:00. I asked some of my girls to come a little early to cook spring rolls. I told them to come around noon, they showed up at 11:00. I cannot figure out Lao time! I was so thankful they came to help cook food!

 They are so creative! Their eggs were beautiful!

 We made over a hundred spring rolls. We have to wrap the veggies and such in rice paper. Mine are looking a little more beautiful every time I make them. And they taste delicious! Here we are sitting on the floor rolling them up!

 Decorating the eggs. We had nice cloudy coolish weather!

 Eating the spring rolls and fruit.

 We had an Easter egg hunt too. She found the most eggs!

 Looking in all of the trees for the candy-filled eggs.

 All of the eggs were found!

 We also did egg on the spoon relay races.

 And a fun game where we sing a song and they walk around. When they song stops, Steph yells two body parts that they have to touch to each other, like knee to elbow. Here they are doing shoulder to ear. It's a really fun game to play and maybe more fun to watch!

Lao people love to pose for the camera!

Linda also told the Easter story in English and had a student read in Lao. Most of them seemed to understand pretty well.

It's always lots of fun to have students over! Lao people are SO helpful! Some came three hours early to help! And some stayed to wash all of the dishes, sweep the floor and clean everything up!

Egg Facials

Last week three of my students came our house to do our nails. I swear, every single Lao girl can paint beautiful butterflies, flowers, and other beautiful designs on their fingernails! So they did my nails with cute little flowers. And then they decided we should do facials with egg, tomato and lemon. 

 After putting the egg mixture on our face, they stick toilet paper on too.

Our faces were radiant when we finished!

We have been having many annoying cats and dogs in our yard lately! I think most of you know I am not a huge fan of any animals, especially cats and dogs! Ewww!! I have tried shoving them away with my feet (which is probably terribly mean here) and throwing rocks in their direction, I don't really wanna hurt them, I just want them to leave. The cats kept rubbing against our legs when we were sitting outside. Yuck! The dogs only come in when the gate is open, but the cats are small enough that they can squeeze in even when the gate is shut! Hopefully we can figure something out to keep them out!

More Bi Mai Lao

After coming back from Khammouan, we went to Dong Dok's (my school) party. Bi Mai is hard to explain. The best way I can think of is a nation-wide water fight. Everyone is throwing water, pouring water, spraying with squirt guns or using the hose. 

 Khampor, my teacher friend, and I at Dong Dok's party. We are dancing and we are wet.

 At a restaurant in Vang Viang with Yui. We went tubing down the river and kayaking down the river.

 At Vieng Phone's (my old student/friend). We went to the beach of the river near her house. We are in the water/swimming with our clothes on. The weather is hot, so being wet is nice!

 Eating fried grasshoppers and crickets. They taste like anything else that is fried - just greasy.

 It's time to harvest the rice! When I went to Vieng Phone's house in January, they planted the rice, and now it's time to harvest. It was hot. I was happy to sit in the shade with her baby sister and cousin.

Riding in the wagon behind the plow on the way back from the farm.

It's fun to see VP's family and friends, but I am so thankful for my fans, running water, washing machine, and comfy couch.

Khammouan

For Lao New Year, Julia and I went to Khammouan province. Khammouan is 6 hours south of Vientiane by bus. We visited some of her students who live there. It was a quick trip. We got there Saturday evening and left Monday morning. Sunday we went swimming, saw a cave and visited some temples.

 We went swimming on the river. Some boys were playing with the boats, so we asked if we could use them for a while. It was nice and refreshing to go swimming! Lao people always swim in whatever clothes they are wearing. It feels a little weird to go swimming in jeans... but that's how they do it here!

 We rode in the back of a pickup all day! The sun and the breeze felt so nice!

 Uno is a great game to play! Easy to explain and understand and doesn't require much speaking. This is the tiniest banana I have ever seen!

 We visited a statue of some guy who helped do something important for Laos. The student's couldn't even remember much about him, so I don't know how important he was. . .

 Here are the students worshiping at one of the temples. It's so hard to see them worshiping like this. It's hard to understand how they can worship a statue like this. Thankfully my God is living and breathing and moving.

We had a little picnic by the river. It was a fun trip! Her students were so sweet and fun to be with! We came home for two days and then we went to Vang Viang with one of my friends and then I went to another friend's village. I'll put up pictures of that soon!

Happy Lao New Year!

April 14, 15 and 16 is Bi Mai Lao, or Lao New Year. This is the biggest holiday in Laos. We don't have school next week. And the parties have already started! There is lots of water throwing to represent washing away of the bad things and also a blessing for good luck, good health, a good boyfriend, a lot of money, a good... for the next year. There are also many bacis or ceremonies for Buddha. And lots of drinking beer. Every year, many people are killed from drinking and driving. But it is a fun time of parties with students and friends!

On Thursday, I had 3 parties for my different classes. Today we decided to throw a party for our neighbor kids. We've accumulated a few more kids over the last week. :) The water blessing turned into a water fight pretty quickly, which we were planning on. And it sure felt good cuz it's been hot this week!

 We bought some buckets and water guns for our party.

 They also like to add flour or baby powder for an extra blessing. They look pretty blessed!

 At a party that Julia's students had. Lots of water!

 More water throwing.

 Sorry these aren't in order. This is at our neighborhood party. They started using the hose.

 This was a party for my students from last semester. Also lots of fawning of Lao dancing. Which is walking very slowly in a circle and moving your hands in beautiful, fancy circles. My hands are not beautiful when I fawn. : (

Some students came over to my house to cook dinner. They came over last week Thursday for a movie, and they asked to come again this week. Eating some yummy food on our floor. Good thing we just bought more dishes... but we still didn't have enough silverware... good thing they can use chopsticks.

We think we're going to Khammuane tomorrow, which is a province 6 or 8 hours south by bus. I just realized that sounds kinda weird, that we don't know for sure if we're going on a significant trip tomorrow... but this is Laos! We'll probably stay until Monday. Julia has a student who lives in Khammuane, so we'll stay at her house and see a cave maybe? After Monday, I think I'll go to Vieng Phone's house again. And go to a few more parties. : ) But it is really a fun time to spend with friends and students!