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!