Did You Know. . .

that if your friend has bad b.o. and you wear her shirt, you will catch the disease and you will also have bad b.o.?

It's true! One of my friends, Noy, who apparently has b.o. wanted to borrow Bet's shirt. Bet said no way! because she knows that you can "catch" b.o. from someone the same way you catch a cold. B.o. is little germs that hang out in your armpit making you smell bad. Some of the germs get stuck on your shirt. If you share your shirt with someone, the germs will jump from the shirt onto the new clean smelling armpit and she will be infected forever!

Did you know. . . that Lao people (and also some Americans I'm sure too) believe some weird things?

Braces

I had braces when I was maybe 12 years old. I was happy to get them off before I was 14. (I am sooo thankful now that I did have them to get rid of my ugly buck teeth.) I do not know anyone in the States who likes having braces - especially people over 20.

I went to some fashion show thing with one of my friend's the other night. (Some French perfume company is selling their perfume in Laos and her friend was in charge of finding models to show how beautiful the models are because they use the perfume.) Anyway, half of the models had braces. And they were sure proud of it! I know it is a status thing - if you're rich enough to afford braces, you're . . . rich . . . and beautiful. (?)

Some of my students have had braces. When they have them they only wear them for a month or so. So I am pretty sure it is only a status thing and it doesn't actually do anything to correct their teeth - although there is a great need here for teeth correction!

Just one of the many things that I do not understand about Laos - why braces are beautiful.

PS - This friend has a car. Or her dad has a nice Hilux truck or something. Riding in cars is heavenly! It wasn't suffocatingly hot. I wasn't inhaling dust. I didn't have nasty helmet hair. It was so so comfortable in the air conditioning. I'm usually a pretty impatient driver but I would have been happy to wait for hours at stoplights just to sit in the comfortably clean truck.

Purse Snatchers

I feel like this year the Father has been protecting us from some scary and potentially harmful things.

Julia, Sone, Noui, Noui's friend, Sone's friend and I went to a friend's house for dinner tonight. We left kinda late - 9ish (anything after 8:30 is kinda late here) to go back home. On the way home I got a flat tire. All of the mechanics were closed already. Noui decided it would be best if Julia would drop of Noui's friend at home, come back to pick me up and Noui would drive my bike slowly home. Sone and Sone's friend would also go home. The plan worked well - Noui and I waited a while for Julia to return for us. Sone wanted to come back and drive my bike but Julia said she didn't want Sone driving back to Noui and I alone. Noui drove my bike because she's skinnier than me so it isn't as hard on the tire. :) I rode with Julia.

We were driving maybe 10 mph because of my flat tire on the far right side of the road - Noui in front Julia and I following. My purse was on my left shoulder - exposed to the traffic. Suddenly, I felt someone grabbing my purse. I held on tightly for what seemed like 3 minutes. I was wondering why they wouldn't give up and go (even though it was probably only 5 seconds). So as they were trying to take my purse, Julia noticed them kicking the bike. Noui looked back because she heard Julia screaming bloody murder. Julia and I fell off of the bike and the boys continued on their way -without my purse. Thankfully no other cars were coming at the time so we didn't get run over. I helped get Julia out from under the bike and Noui came back to help. Before we got to the side of the road 4 12 year old boys came and asked if we were OK. And shortly after 2 other men stopped to help us too. Julia's leg was pretty scratched up and my knee is a little bruised and scratched but else we are OK.

Right after seeing a horrible side of people - wanting to steal someones purse and make them fall off of their bike so they can't chase them down, we saw the nicest, most helpful side of most Lao people - running over to make sure we're safe. The boys were all talking about what the bad guys looked like and where they went and if they could chase them and find them - of course they couldn't, but they were all so nice and caring towards us. One of the guys who stopped to help us said he would escort us home - so he did all the way to our front gate. So kind and caring.

When we got home the nice guy was talking to us for a while. On the drive home, he told me that I should wear a jacket when I drive over my purse (even though its 100 degrees), we should look in our rear view mirrors, we shouldn't put our phone in our purse so that we can call someone if something bad happens. When we stopped to talk at our gate he told Noui to tell me the same stuff again. When Sone came out he told her to tell me the same stuff again. I know he's only doing it to be nice, but I really did understand the first time.

We decided that the bad guys wanted to steal my purse and we were an easy target because we were driving so slowly and I wasn't wearing a jacket to protect my purse. They kicked the bike so that we would fall down and not follow them. We must have been pulling pretty hard because the straps broke. :( Part of their little scheme worked - we fell down. Sometimes though, they will kick the bike out from under you and then when you fall they will steal your bike. They were pretty gutsy trying to do it to two big foreigners like us.

I do feel so protected though - I'm so glad it was me and Julia and not some of our small Lao friends. I'm thankful no cars were coming when we fell in the middle of the road. I'm thankful they didn't steal my purse - I remembered afterwards that I had just gone to the ATM and had $250 in my purse - usually I have like $30. I'm thankful that we didn't get hurt - Julia's leg is scraped but it could have been so much worse! I'm thankful to see the hearts of most Lao people - so ready to come and help and make sure you arrive home safely.

With all of these robbers and thieves I think I have learned every Lao word for thief, robber, person who steals. . . I thought I had kinda forgotten them since it had been a while since I had used them, but I'll be using them this week again.

Every time I drive home alone at night everyone asks if I'm afraid. I always say, "No, I'm a big person." Kinda as a joke but kinda serious too - I'm not really afraid. I always thought no one would try to steal anything from a big fat foreigner twice the size of the average Lao person. I also thought no one would ever try and break into our house. So I've gotta stop thinking nothing bad will happen to me. And next time, even when it is a sweltering 100 degrees, I will wear a jacket over my purse.

Getting Dumber

I know that I am getting dumber by living here. I think it is because over half of the words I speak are words a second grader could understand. If I speak in Lao I speak at a 4 year old level. When I teach English I speak at a 6 year old level.

I frequently speak incorrectly so that my students will understand. - The book, do you know where is it?

I don't use correct past tense verbs of irregular verbs. - Yesterday I go to the market and I buy some shoes.

I only know the easiest word of all synonyms. - I am happy today. I do not say - I am ecstatic today. or I am jovial. I don't even remember these words when someone says them to me.

I never use contractions. - I do not like to eat fish. I can not go with you.

When I read for pleasure (I wrote fun but decided to try to use a big word like pleasure) I sometimes don't know what words mean. I have seen them before and used to know, but have since forgotten.

When I talk to Americans who do understand the English language well, I cannot remember words that I want to say. If she is another English teacher sometimes we will work together for a few seconds to see if we can think of the word we want. Sometimes we just give up.

Lily

After the death of our old dog, Beebee, my housemates and I voted 3 to 1 to get a new puppy. I was NOT happy about this decision. But I was told I would have no responsibility for it. So, we got a new dog, Lily. We got the dog a week before Lao New Year, which is the biggest holiday in Laos. All of my housemates were going somewhere. I was going to be home alone. Before they bought the dog I asked what the plans were for taking care of it over New Years. She would go home with Nuyie. The morning that everyone was leaving, Nuyie decided she did not want to take the dog home with her. We tried to find friends to take care of Lily, but couldn't. Me, being the wonderfully nice person that I am said I would take care of her. (There wasn't much choice.)

She is a much better dog than Beebee, probably because she had some decent disciplining the first week when she was home with her strict owner - me. Some people think I hate all animals and enjoy torturing them. I do NOT! But, if she jumps on me, she gets hit. If she tries to come in the house, she gets spanked. If she eats our shoes, she gets hit. If she is a good dog, I pet her. A lot. (Even though I think it's gross.) And by golly, she's learning. She really is a better dog than Beebee ever was. And she really has learned that she should not jump on people, come in the house or eat our shoes or laundry or she'll get hit. When she gets disciplined for doing something wrong, she learns quickly.

Keys Part II

Sometime in April, after going to my office to do some work and being locked out again, I threw a bit of a hissy fit.

I called 2 teachers to open the door for me - both of whom did not answer. As I was contemplating what to do next, a teacher came and opened the door. I started grabbing my papers, books, folders and pens and moved them to the empty desk in the other office. As I was making my trips back and forth, the teacher, Por, asked me what I was doing. I told her that I cannot work in the office if I do not have a key. She told me many times, "You should ask (important/boss) Teacher Savahn first." I told her many times, "If I do not have a key, I cannot work in the office." "I think she will give you a key. I will ask her to give you a key." I said, "You will ask her now?" She said, "Yes." So, after being in the new office for a total of 2 minutes, she convinced me she would ask the boss if I could have a key and I would move back to the old office before the boss found out I had moved and got mad at me.

Anyway, long story short, I got the key 8 minutes after moving moving out of my office with no key. It was probably not the most culturally appropriate way to go about getting what I wanted. But desperate times call for desperate measures. And it worked and we are all happy. Me especially so.

Coffee

I love coffee. I love coffee shops. I love any excuse to go to a coffee shop. Lao people don't really like coffee and it just isn't in their culture to go to coffee shops. So I never go to coffee shops with Lao friends. There is a new coffee shop out by Dong Dok. The other night I was at my friends' apartment. They brought up the new coffee shop that they had seen. We started talking about coffee and I was telling them how delicious it is and how it's different than Lao coffee. They had never had a latte or a cappuccino or anything, so we decided they should try some.

Lattes are my personal favorite, but I told them they might like cappuccinos because they are sweeter. They all got cappuccinos and they liked them (honestly, I think)! The coffee shop is run by Koreans. So we also tried some Korean food - I think kimbabchi and something else. One was a sushi thing and the other was Korean Ramen noodle soup. Lao people eat Ramen noodle soup all the time. I think Korean noodle soup is better than Lao noodle soup. I think my friends liked the Korean food more than the coffee. . . but maybe we can come back again soon to drink coffee together! I was happy to go with them! :)

My Phone

Cell phones in Laos are different than in the States. You pay as you go. When I run out of money, I go to a little shop and ask for Beeline money. You can buy between 5,000 kip and 50,000 kip (60 cents and 6 dollars). I usually get the $6 one. You scratch off the silver stuff that's on lottery tickets and enter the number into your phone. And I have plenty of money to call and text again. Anyway, all these different companies have different promotions if you buy their phone number - free money, free internet. . . I don't really understand it.

So, when the Lao people see a good deal for Beeline, they buy a new Beeline phone number. Not the number to use for money, but a new actual phone number. Then the next week when they see ETL has a special they will buy a new ETL phone number. You can also pay $20 to buy a "beautiful" number. A beautiful number has many of the same numbers and many 0s (I think). So my number, 7806 2207, is not beautiful and was only $1. But a number like 7778 8889 is beautiful and would be $20.

Most Lao people have 3 or 4 different phone numbers that they sometimes use. If there is a deal on their ETL number, they will currently be using their ETL number, but next week when Unitel had something good, they will use their Unitel number.

As a result, this is what my phone book looks like:

Bangon
Beeklor
Bouasone
Bouasone 1
Bouasavahn
Bouathand
Boua
Boua 1
Boua New
Boua 2
Bouaphone
Bouaphone ?
Bountang
Bountang 1
Bountang New
Bounthaphone
Bounmy
Bounmy 2 ?
Bounmy New

This gets a little confusing when I have to call 3 numbers to try to get a hold of my student or friend.

Little House on the Prairie

I feel a little like Laura Ingalls Wilder. And it isn't as fun as I thought it would be. For some odd reason, I used to think (when I was in 3rd grade reading all of her books) it would be fun to go foraging for berries out in the woods and collecting water from the river and all of the other hard stuff people had to do just to live. Sometimes, more recently, I thought it would be adventurous to live in a little hut in a little village in Africa. I have decided a while back, but especially since living in Laos that I LOVE the comforts of America! I love my air-conditioner. I love my hot showers. These are my two favorite necessities to be comfortable.

Today, I feel happy to take a shower at all - even if it's a bucket shower and it's cold. We haven't had running water for 3 days. There's something wrong with a pipe from the city. Supposedly it came 3 nights ago, but our valve from the city was shut off because we were messing with it and didn't know the right way to have it open. (They do not use righty-tighty, lefty-loosey here.) So we didn't get water. Maybe it will come tonight? Thankfully our American friends/neighbors have neighbors just a few streets over. I showered at their place Sunday afternoon and Monday night.

I really felt like Laura today because we collected rain water. It started pouring rain this afternoon, so we got some buckets and bins and put them outside under the run off to collect the water. We're using this water for flushing toilets, not for showering. When we went to our friends' to shower, we took a 5 gallon Culligan jug along to fill with water.

We haven't done wash in a week - hopefully we can go to a friend's tomorrow and do a couple of loads.

We've heard that others are having water problems. One of Julia's students who lives  roads over hasn't had water AT ALL in over 2 weeks! A foreign family with 3 kids who live in another village haven't had water in 3 days.

I am realizing all of the many things I take for granted with not having water! I would have never thought I use water for as many little things as I do. :( Hopefully it will come soon! But thankfully we have friends in other parts of town so we can shower at their houses.

Hot

It is hot here! I sometimes hear people complaining of being lazy cuz of the hot weather or not feeling well because of the oppressive heat. I always thought, oh suck it up and quit complaining, it's not that bad. Actually, it is that bad.

Last year our hot season was unreasonably cool. I think this year our hot season is unreasonably hot. This week it is supposed to be 40 C. Which is the same as 104 F. I heard that earlier it was 116 F with the heat index. And it sure feels like it. :P

One of the worst things is walking ten minutes to my classroom and arriving with sweat dripping down my face. I try to walk as slowly as the Lao people do, but somehow I keep ending up passing them left and right. I also use an umbrella when I walk anywhere outside now. They always think it's because I'm afraid of dark skin. Actually I'm afraid of sweating. But the umbrella only helps so much.

I have AC in my bedroom, which is on now as I'm typing this and doing lesson planning at 2:00 in the afternoon.

And it makes me sad how wonderful cold showers feel. They are so refreshing. But it should not be that hot in the house that cold showers feel that good.

Rainy season is beginning. I love the rain! It takes the humidity out of the air. Keep coming rain!

Bi Mai from my Students

Each week my students have to write something in a notebook to practice writing. I give them topics that they can write about. They can use my topics or write about anything they want. They each must write 6 sentences. They can write more. Here is what one of my best students wrote this week. I told them to write about what they did for Bi Mai - Lao New Years - April 13-15. 

I know it's kinda long, but it gives a good idea of what Lao people do for Lao New Year. There are some mistakes - I just copied what she wrote.

Now, I'd like to tell you about many things that I did for Lao New Year.

For Lao New Year ago, I had many things that I had to do as the day before Lao New Year my aunt took me to her house and then we cleaned house all day. On the first day of The Lao New Year, my aunt and I had to get up very early. Because our cousins who lived in Bangkok of Thailand - came to visit us with their friends (11 people) and also other our cousins were from different provice, too. So we had to prepair many kinds of food for them as grilled about twenty chickens and ducks, made Lao noodles with its sauce, tata meat (mince - meat dish) that we all called as "larp" in Laos, soup. . . for them. In the afternoon, we made Baci (Lao ceremony) for our grand-mother. On the second day, I got up quite late around 6:00 a.m. Because that day I didn't have to many works. But in the afternoon, my younger sister and I made the special water and then we went to watering Buddha image (Pour water to Buddha). Every year we went to watering Buddha image for nine temples. I go to temple to give arm (alms). We went to nine temples because we believed that number 9 is the lucky number for Lao people. If you watering the Buddh 9 temples in my custumn believed you will have good luck and got many good things came in to your own and I believed that. After that, we brought the special water to pour water at our parents and elderly peopeo around our village. We did like this every year and after pour special water for them already - They will wish us to be a rich person in the future, to get a good luck good husband, good health. . . Finally, we came back home to took a bath and took a nap. On the third day or last day of Lao New Year, I got up very early at The same time as the first day. Because of that day, there were alt of our friends that came to visit us. So we made many kinds of food for them. Our friends came from different villages, some of them were from province and Some of Them were fom ThaiLand. But after 2:30 P.M, all of my aunt's family and their friends (all guests) went to see rockets at the festival that near the market of the village. Especially my aunt's husband - he made a rocket for this festival (Sometime he made ohly one or two rockets per year). He did like this every year because he believed that if he made the rocket for heaven or angels. He'll be a good luck person of the year (rich and rich). For me, but after, they went to see the rocket. I had to wash a lot of dishes, cleaned on the floor untill every were clean. Fortunately, my younger sister came to help me. At 7:30 p.m, we came back home for taking a bath and then I had dinner and went bed. And I slept until 7:00 am the next morning. I knew, I got up late - but it's because of I was so tired. However I was so tired, but I very happy, too. 

Spelling Bee

Last week Friday the US Embassy put on a Spelling Bee for 40 students in Vientiane. Some of my students and Julia's students participated. None of our students won, but it was fun to watch. Some of the words on the list for them to study included loquacious, tempestuous and curmudgeon. While helping my students study I learned a few new vocab words. And tried to learn how to spell some new words, unfortunately I can't remember the correct spelling or some of them -including loquacious. Thankfully for me there's spell check.