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.
10.30.2011
10.23.2011
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!
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!
10.19.2011
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.
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.
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.
10.18.2011
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!
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!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)