First Village Visits

Sabaidii!
This week I traveled out to four villages in the Luang Prabang province to help with the Back to School Campaign project. Our goal was to ask about 20-30 students questions like what they want to be when they grow up and why they enjoy going to school, ask their parents how they feel about their kids going to school, and take pictures of all the students and parents. The pictures and responses would be used in the Back to School Campaign that the New York office is leading.  Since I cannot speak Lao fluently (aka at all), I was in charge of taking the pictures and my coworker, Bounlam, was in charge of interviewing.

After piling into the van with our driver Ai Mai, our notebooks and camera, we headed off.  Pencils of Promise (PoP) has built more than 40 schools in Laos, and they are all public schools.  PoP focuses on public schools so that if we ever leave Laos or any other country we are currently working in, the schools will still be used by the government and villages.  We will either add onto preexisting schools (ie build a preschool where there is already a primary school), build replacements for government schools that have gone into disrepair, or build brand new schools in villages that did not have a school previously. Here is the first school we visited - it is a preschool that Pencils of Promise built to complement the preexisting primary school (right next door). 

 

After introducing us and explaining why we were there, Bounlam started interviewing all the students. 

 

As Bounlam interviewed students, I was taking both informal and formal pictures as the students waited.

 

Some students were getting antsy!

At two of the villages, the schools were right on the main paved road, so we did not see too much of the villages. However, two of them, we had to go on dirt roads to get there, and they were right in the middle of the village.  There was a lot of poverty, and most of the adults were out at the farms, so we saw mostly children taking care of younger children, animals roaming freely, and houses made out of a combination of cement and thatch. Despite the poverty, at one of the villages we had to wait 2 hours because they were not informed we were coming - during our wait, we were offered fruit and bottled water and a place to sit. It was so thoughtful and generous, especially because it was so hot out!

  Here are 2 pictures of the villages.

The last village school we visited was actually the first school that PoP ever built.  It was in dedication to Adam Braun's (founder and CEO) grandmother and the students have seen many people in and out of their village since 2008 when the first school was built. When we showed up, there were no parents and no students in uniforms, but there were a few kids waiting at the school like they were expecting us.  We had awhile before people would come for the interviews, so Bounlam, Ai Mai, and I were just waiting around and pacing in front of the school. I kept stealing glances to the side of the school where the children were hiding but sneaking glances at me and giggling.

The kids hiding behind the side of the school

I sat on the edge of the stoop and started taking pictures of the scenery, my feet, the pink umbrella the kids were holding, selfies - basically anything but the children themselves because I could tell they were shy. 

 

Then the two littlest kids started going out in front of me where I was taking scenic pictures, so I snapped a few shots and turned the camera around to show them what I was doing. This got them excited, and they started running out in front of me for long enough for me to take a picture, then they would turn around and run back to me to see their work of art.

 

Soon more and more kids were coming to the school for the interviews, and while we waited we took pictures, mostly making funny pictures and doing action shots.

 

I took at least 50 pictures of the children before we even went into the classroom!  This was by far the most fun I had on the 2 day trip, and it was so great to see the kids warm up to me, starting with just a few, and ending up with 20+ students gathering around the camera to see what pictures were being captured.  I'm excited to keep visiting the villages and schools, and I'm hoping soon I'll know enough Lao to ask the kids some questions on my own!