Latte Please!

This is the newest addition to our kitchen - an espresso machine! Julia got me this because she loves me! She knows how much I like coffee.

I said that I wanted to get an espresso machine (because there aren't a ton of cafes in Savan) and just because I love lattes. I also have lots of meetings with the girls and most of them also enjoy coffee - so I thought it would be easy to make coffee at home instead of always going to a cafe. I said I would get one if it was around $100, but I hadn't been to Thailand yet to check them out. (Little did I know that they are a bit more than $100!)

I forgot a few things up in Vientiane that I wanted Julia to send down on the bus to me. She sent them down Friday night, so early Saturday morning, I went to the bus station to pick up my 3 boxes.

When I opened them I was surprised with this beauty! Julia's so good with analogies and such. She had been having a hard time with me leaving and she said this espresso machine is like our friendship - our friendship will continue to be deep and rich but it will be in smaller doses now. How true!

She also left a sweet note! How love is costly and she wants to love extravagantly! We are so very different - we give and receive love in different ways, but this is definitely a way I feel loved - she knows of my love of coffee too.

I've been thinking of loving extravagantly - I'm so often so stingy with my love. Or it's easy to love certain people, but I want to love everyone extravagantly - even those who I don't like all too much. And when I think of the ultimate gift of love on the cross and how costly that was, it makes me want to love others freely and extravagantly too!

New Friends

Almost everywhere I go, as a foreigner in Asia, I get asked to take a picture with someone. These are pictures from Julia and my trip to Xieng Khouang. These are only a quarter or so of the pictures we took with random people on the trip. 

 Notice my jacket and how cold I look? The weather was wondrously chilly!

Plain of Jars

Because I didn't write at all last year, I'm using some of my old pictures for now.

These are from Lao New Year, which is in April. For Lao New Year, Julia and I went to Xieng Khouang, a province up north in the mountains. In Xieng Khouang, there is a plain of jars that are made from stone. Some of the jars are 6 or more feet tall and 6 or more feet across. They're huge!

No one really knows what these are from. Some legends say that giants used to live here and they made the jars to keep their rice whiskey in. Another one is that they were made to collect rain water to use during the dry season. Who knows?

The weather was so nice and cool up in the mountains!! It was a high of only 70 or so for a couple of days. In Vientiane the temperature was right at a hundred, so it was a welcome relief! 

 The road getting there was very dusty though! :P April is towards the end of dry season, so there was dust everywhere! Not so fun.

New House

I flew (for $60 round trip!!) to Savan (my new city) last weekend and found a house pretty quickly! It's less than 2 km from school, which will hopefully be great for having students over.

We live on the edge of town - across from beautiful rice fields.

We have a pink house!

One of the three bedrooms.

Nice spacious kitchen with lots of cupboards!

A little gaudy entertainment center/bookshelf/doorway to the kitchen.

Nice big living room/dining room.

And it has two bathrooms. He will clean the house for us and add a few things that we need. We move in the end of September. :) I'm excited to be in Savan and start teaching!

What a blessing it was to find the house so quickly and from a landlord who seems to be on top of things. The original price was $400 a month, but after my boss talked to him he lowered it to $350. Not bad for three people.

Trees in the Temple

After spending a month in Phnom Phen, the capital of Cambodia. we headed to Angkor Wat, which is a bunch of Hindu temples built between 900 and 1200. 

This temple was my favorite. It was kinda forgotten about for a couple hundred years, so when these trees began to grow, no one was around to pull them out or to kill them, so they kept growing and growing. And now there are huge trees growing on top of, in, through, between, under . . . the temple and doors and windows. Pretty cool, huh? 

Friendly Fishies

These are fish that eat the dead skin our your feet. It feels a little funny at first, but it's kinda fun once you get used to it. Most were pretty little, but some were a little large for my preference. They have no teeth, so they can't bite. That's what the sign said, but now that I think of it, I'm not sure how they eat the dead skin without teeth. . .

A New Year

So I decided that I should write on here again . . . I'm afraid to write again because if I start now again I feel like I'll have to continue writing regularly. When I hadn't written for 6 months, I feel like I don't really need to anymore. But I'll write something now and see if I keep it up this year!

This is the beginning of my fourth year in Laos! I never thought I would still be here, but I am and I love it most of the time. 

I'm currently in Phnom Phen helping new teachers get their TESOL certificate. I'll be here for about a month and then head to Laos. I'm also moving to a new city this year - Savannakhet or Savan for short. So there will be some new adventures in a new city and at a new school!

I have a few more responsibilities this year as team leader. I'm excited for it, but also a little worried. We've been going over expectations and such for this year this past week; and while it's good, it also reminds me of what being a leader means. Being a leader means being a servant. As a sinner, I'm a pretty selfish person - I like to do things my way on my time. But that isn't usually the most loving way of doing things. And I wanna love people more than I wanna be selfish, I just don't always do it like I want to. 

But I also know that JC works best through our weaknesses. I don't need to try to be nice and kind and patient, I just need to rest in him and rely on his strength. In him, I can be the best, most servant like leader ever! - by relying on JC's power and not mine. 

key

Here's an interesting fact about Lao. key = poop (or crap or anything nasty) The Lao language makes sense in so many ways, and this is one of the best!

So you can just add the word key (crap) with another word and it means the nasty form or another way it can be associated with the word. Here are some examples for you.

Ta = eye.  key ta = the crap in your eye.

dang = nose.    key dang = can you guess? snot!

key nyuea = trash because trash is dirty gross.

key head (hua) = dandruff


It can also be used as an adjective to describe something/someone bad.

lazy = key kan

ugly = key lai

lie = key tua

naughty = key duh

Listening

We have some Vietnamese students who are practicing teaching at my school this month. Last week they observed me, this week and next, I will observe them. They're doing a great job teaching; it is just pretty boring to sit and listen in class for 3 hours every day. I'm not and never was the most diligent student.

One thing I don't understand though is how my students listen so much better to their directions than to mine. First of all, the Vietnamese have a different accent than I do and than Lao people do. I'm now used to the Lao accent, but not to the Vietnamese accent. I struggle to understand what they're saying sometimes. 

I also do a pretty thorough job of giving instructions. (Or at least I thought.) I want people to understand so I go through them carefully, slowly, step by step. After giving them I check to see if they understand and then I'll probably give them again just for good measure. 

Often after I give instructions, and I'm pretty sure everyone understands or at least they should after hearing them 7 times, my students sit there and wait for me to do something else - to explain again or I don't know what. But with these Vietnamese teachers, as I'm still trying to figure out what they are trying to get my students to do, my students are half finished with the task already! They jump out of their seats and are doing whatever the teacher told them to do before I even know what they're supposed to do. Maybe I need to try to mumble some mumble jumble and then my students will be able to decipher my instructions quickly. 

I can also never get my students to hurry to do anything - especially when I want them to write on the board and pass the marker to the next student. I think it takes each student a minute to write two words. I've tried everything to encourage them to go quickly but nothing has worked! 

Not for these Vietnamese teachers - my students are running and racing all over the classroom to write on the board or to finish anything quickly. 

I definitely need to learn a few pointers from these student teachers.

Cows

This is a picture from when Grandma was here. It was fun to see the things that she found interesting. After being here for two and a half years, the "weird" things become normal. Having to stop for cows in the road is not an unnormal thing. But Grandma thought it was.

Party!

Our neighbors are throwing a huge party to do something with the monks and ancestors and stuff. They asked a while ago if their guests could park by our house and walk through our yard. They came over yesterday to ask for my and Julia's names. Sone told us that they're probably going to give us an invitation and an envelope which means that we need to pay them money to go to their party. They usually use invitations like this at a wedding - the wedding present that I give in the invitation is money to help pay for the rental of the hotel and the food that I ate while I was at the wedding.

So, we need to to this party of our neighbors that we don't really want to go to; but will go to because we want to be good neighbors. But we also have to pay to go to this party that we don't want to go to. We didn't ask them to throw this party. And then we will be forced to drink beer at this party that we don't want to go to and don't want to pay to go to. They better have good food. :) And Lao parties have the LOUDEST music ever!

We're already making plans for what we'll be busy with Saturday afternoon so that we only need to stay an hour or so. :)

Maybe we can throw a party next month and send out invitations so that everyone has to pay to come to our party. . .

Back to School

We started teaching again on the 7th. It's great being back in the classroom and seeing students and teachers again.

I have forgotten almost all of my students names :( which means I need to relearn them all again! :( Hopefully I'll catch on a little quicker this time.

Also enjoying the cool weather and not sweating as I'm teaching!

You're Fat

Lao people are very honest with telling others about their appearances. I have been told dozens of times, "Teacher, you are fat." or "Today you are fat." or "Teacher, you have a big stomach, I think you are four months pregnant." While I enjoy hearing that I'm looking nice and thin much more than looking big and fat, I do appreciate their honesty.

If someone has many zits, they will tell them that they have lots of pimples. If someone has dark skin, which is considered a bad thing here, they will make sure they know they have dark skin. They are also pretty quick to compliment people on their beauty or nice white skin or perfectly shaped body. (Also, what they say is true. I could lose a few pounds. The person with a lot of zits really does have many zits.)

In America, we would NEVER tell someone they were fat. Even if that someone was complaining about being fat, we would reply with, "Nooo! You're not fat at all!" Even if he or she was.

I think we often worry too much about wanting to appear perfect or at least good enough. At home, I wanna suck in my 4-month looking pregnant belly so that I seem like I'm nice and trim and fit and that I work out every day.

When Lao people tell me that I'm fat, I feel like they're really saying that even though I'm not perfectly shaped with a rockin' body, they still love me just how I am. They wouldn't love me any more or any less if I was thinner than I am now.

So, even though I don't really like being told I'm fat, it's true, (relatively) but it doesn't matter. They love me just how I am, even though I'm not perfect.

Takraw

At the University Games, I saw many new sports. I think there were 4 different kinds of boxing and this awesome sport called Takraw.

It's like volleyball with 3 people but they use their feet and head instead of their hands. Also notice how they like do a flip every time they kick it over the net.

Sorry, the quality of the video isn't the best and I couldn't find any from the games this year so it's kinda old.

http://youtu.be/7L9xlSls8T0

Tall Asians

This past week Laos hosted the ASEAN (Association of South East Asian Nations) University Games. A big sporting event for university students. I watched more sports in this week than I have in the last 3 years of my life. But it was fun.

I saw many tall Asian men. The average height of my university boy students is probably 5'4". I think I've only ever had 2 or 3 students who have been taller than me. (5'8") I didn't think tall Lao men existed. But I was wrong!

I saw quite a few Indonesians and Thai people who were over 6 feet- some even 6'4" or 5". And coming from the Dutch heritage that I do, and knowing the many tall Dutch boys that I do, I like tall boys. I guess in NW Iowa 6'3" isn't even that tall. But here in Laos it's like a giant!

At the games, I was introduced me to a male volleyball player for Laos who was 6'4"! I'm still in awe that there are actually tall people in Laos! And it's nice to be around "normal" sized people. :)

Helmets III

So I paid my 250,000 kip and left the office.

Ty and Hong go to find the guy to unlock my bike. He is nowhere to be found. Some other police guys call him but he doesn't answer and doesn't come. He musta been really tired and was taking a long nap. He arrived a little after 3 but he couldn't find the key either. After a little more looking they found it and unlocked my bike.

I'm usually pretty easy going or at least good at hiding my feelings at the appropriate times. While sitting at the police station I was not so good at hiding my anger and frustration. Ty and Hong kept trying to tell me how fun it was and how lucky I was to be able to see the police station in LPB - I hadn't ever seen it in Vientiane. They tried hard to cheer me up. Even though it didn't work very well at the time, I now have a good story to tell. 

Moral of the story - wear your helmet - even when it's a bad one. :P

So after losing lots of money and lots of time, we were on the road headed for the waterfall at 3:30. And it was beautiful. The road there was also gorgeous.

 These are Lao swimsuits - normal clothes.

We jumped off of part of the fall into the water.


Even though it was a pretty frustrating day, it was still good and our whole trip was lots of fun!

Helmets II

When we arrive at the big police office at 11:30, they lock up my bike and tell us to come back tomorrow to pick it up. Ty and Hong tell them that we're going home tomorrow so we can't. We need it back today. The police say we can come back after lunch.

After a little lunch of noodle salad we head back to the police station. The cops come back at 2:00 after a nice nap. Hong and I are going to enter the office to talk to the guy. He tells us that we can't enter the office until we have on a Lao skirt.

Lao people usually wear Lao skirts whenever they go to an office or school or such place. I think it's great for them to wear traditional Lao skirts, but we're traveling! Do they expect every Lao girl to keep a Lao skirt in her back pocket just in case something like this happens and she needs to wear a skirt to enter an office?

Thankfully I had one along because I visited Ty's school and Lao people always wear Lao skirts to school. Ty also had one along for some random reason. So we went to the guesthouse to change into our appropriate clothing. I asked Ty and Hong what we would do if we didn't have any along. They said go buy one. They were kinda kidding. . . but I don't know what our other option would have been - borrow one from the neighbor lady would probably be OK too I guess.

We returned wearing our Lao skirts and sat down at a desk with two other little Lao kids who made some driving mistake. When we sat down, I saw my lady write:

 30,000 ($4) for not wearing my helmet

20,000 ($3) for not having my drivers license

200,000 ($24) for running away from the police

I almost threw a hissy fit right in the police office. How can I need to pay 200,000 for running away from the police?! I "ran away" from them 40 feet because I didn't know if I was the person who was making the mistake or not. My understanding from Ty was that if we waste time we do not waste money. If we waste money we do not waste time. Since we had already wasted over 5 hours - from 9:00 to 2:30 - I figured we wouldn't waste any money.

But then a nice old policeman came in and lectured us all about being good drivers and good people. So then I thought, maybe that's their plan - make us think we need to pay lots of money, but then make us feel bad for being bad people and breaking the rules and then tell us to be good people and obey the rules but then not pay any money.

But then he says, "Pay up." So I paid my 250,000 kip.

Helmets

I wear a helmet every time I ride on my motorbike. I wear it to protect my brains but even more so to protect my lungs and eyes from the dust. 

When I went to Luang Prabang with Ty and Hong, I made a big mistake. We rented motorbikes and they give you crappy helmets to wear. Sometimes Lao people wear helmets, sometimes they don't. 

This is me not so happily wearing my (crappy) helmet after I learned my long and expensive lesson. :(

 We were going to visit a waterfall 25 kilometers away and ride motorbikes to get there. Before we left, Ty told me about 6 times to wear my helmet. I was not going to wear a crappy helmet because the visor kept falling down making it hard to see and then the wind would catch under the visor and blow it off of my head and then I would be choked by the chin strap. It was more dangerous to be fiddling with the helmet every 12 seconds than to just take it off. So I made the mistake of not wearing it.

Two minutes after leaving the guesthouse, we drive past a police box on the side of the road. I was a little nervous, because I knew I was breaking the rules not wearing a helmet, but I looked and saw 17 other people in the same intersection not wearing a helmet, so I figured I was safe. I hear a little police whistle and slow down a little and ask Hong who is riding with me if I should stop. She doesn't say anything, so we continue. I kinda slow down again to check if I should stop or not and continue again. The policeman hops on his bike and chases us down all of 40 feet. We go back to the little police box with him. This is at 9:00.

I know I was in the wrong in not wearing my helmet - I made a mistake - but how am I supposed to know I'm the one he wants to stop just by blowing a little referee whistle at me? There were 20 other people in the same intersection also not wearing a helmet, but I was the one they went after. 

 Before we even arrive at the box, Hong and Ty whip out their phones and call their friends and friends of friends and cousin's boyfriend's uncle's teacher all of whom are cops in LPB. Ty and Hong won't give any information to the cops until they call their friends. One cop tells them that it's 300,000 kip which is $36. It sounds really cheap, but 300,000 kip is a TON of money here!

Ty's friend comes and talks to the cop and says 100,000 - 12 dollars - is OK. I say super! Let's pay and go and continue on our way! This is at 10:30 or so. Ty's other friend says that since we already wasted our time we shouldn't have to pay any money. I tell her many times it's OK. Let's just pay and be done! But she listens to her friend so we wait.

Waiting around for the police and Ty and Hong to decide what to do. At 11:30 the police tell us we have to go to the big police office. We all drive to the BIG office.

This is kinda a long story so I'll stop here and continue next time. :)

Food

Noui sure got her fill of Western food on our little trip. We had McDonalds and KFC and Dairy Queen and donuts and more! All of these foods taste so much better in Thailand than in the States!

She was pretty sick of them after the 2nd time. 

 While walking down the street with Sone, she tells me how delicious the bushes look. (Remember that Lao people eat many plants.)
Sone - Those bushes look so good to eat!
Me - Can you eat them?
Sone - I don't know, but they just look delicious don't they?
Me - Um. Yeah.
Sone - They just look so soft and like they would taste so good.
Me - . . .
Sone - I just wish I could try them to see how good they would taste!
This continued for a few minutes. . . :)

I prefer my ice cream and fries.

Twilight

While in Bangkok we watched Twilight 4 part 2. I don't even remember the name of it. Twilight is kinda cheesy, but it's always fun to go watch a movie!

Lao people litter everywhere. Sone said something about throwing trash outside. Julia said the correct word is litter. But I think Sone had it more correct sometimes - they really do throw their house trash on the side of the road sometimes or at least that's what it looks like.

In the States you cannot litter somewhere outside where the wind can blow the trash away and there is no one around who will clean up after you. The opposite of this is true in Laos. As long as no one will be around to clean up your trash, you can litter.

For example, one of the most common places to leave trash in the States is in a movie theater - they pay people to come and clean up your trash. (Yes, I know it's still better to throw it in the trash on my own, but I'm not perfect.) But in Laos, that is one place where it is not acceptable to leave trash. I left my water bottle in the holder by my seat and as we were leaving the theater, Noui picked it up and gave me a little scolding.

But she sees no problem with throwing trash outside of the bus window or anywhere that's outside really.

I would be more likely (I wouldn't) to leave some trash on the floor in a mall or inside a bus or any building. Someone will come around and sweep the floor so it won't end up outside. But Lao people would be more likely to throw it outside than to leave it on a bus or in a mall. But it's OK to throw it outside.

I haven't figured out why they think this way yet.