Close the Loop Process

At PoP, most of our funds for school builds come from individual donors, not big companies, and part of PoP's services to thank you for helping us raise the money for a school is to have a plaque mounted with a dedication to the donor.  

We also send a picture of the finished build with the plaque to the donor to show them what their donation made possible.  This is called the "Close the Loop" Process.  Unfortunately, there are 10 schools in Laos (out of ~42) that are built but we do not have pictures showing the plaque mounted, and some of these schools were built many months ago.  Some have a plaque mounted but no picture was taken, some plaques have not been mounted and are either at our office or at the school, and some plaques have not been ordered yet.  One of my current tasks at work is to complete the "Close the Loop" process for these 10 schools that are long overdue to be updated.

Once I figured out where all the plaques were and if we needed to mount them or just take pictures, I talked to Phanh who is on the construction team.  I calculated that to do 10 schools it would take me 5 weeks - aka 10 weeks since everything is on Lao time.  However, when I told Phanh what we had to do, he was jumped right on board and told me we could start going to schools the next day!  Even though I had a ton of other work to do, I knew that I needed to jump on his enthusiasm and take advantage of him wanting to drive me on his motor bike around the Laos country side.  Everything is also dependent on the weather here so even if we planned to go somewhere, if it was raining we wouldn't be able to go because most roads are dirt and turn into mudslides when it rains.

On Tuesday Phanh and I would set out on his motor bike to visit 5 schools! One school was for his construction work, and 4 would be for me to take pictures.  I picked my outfit very strategically as I knew I would be on the back of a motor bike for the whole day, going as long as 90 minutes continuously.  I decided on my loosest pair of skinny jeans, sneakers, PoP t-shirt, windbreaker, and backpack with lots of hand sanitizer and snacks.  At the office, Phanh made the point that the PoP camera we were going to use to take pictures was already in the field, so I would be using my iPhone to take these pictures - woops, didn't plan that one very well.  He then picked out the motor bike that looked like a motorized dirt bike with HUGE tires and very uncomfortable seat. I then realized there would be more off-roading than I originally anticipated. Luckily, there are PoP helmets that we can borrow for trips so I found the smallest possible one to use that still had an intact chin-strap.


One funny thing about riding on the back of motor bikes here is you have to find the balance of touching and not touching. It is not appropriate to hold on to someone's waist unless you are dating, and even then it is seen as too much. So that means that you have to sit as far back on the motor cycle as possible, either balance or hold onto the sides of the motor bike, and position your legs so you are not touching the person driving. I have gotten the hang of it around town, even sitting side saddle when wearing a skirt, but speeding down their highways (more like just a main road in the US) or on a dirt road is very difficult.  See the metal grate at the back of the bike - I had to sit half on that, half on the bike seat, and holding onto the sides of the metal grate. When we set off, I was leaning forward so much so I wouldn't fall of the back of the bike when Phanh accelerated that our helmets kept hitting and making a loud noise.  That was a clear sign that I was sitting too close to him, but every bump that we hit in the road lurched me forward so it had to attempt to use my arm strength to stay as far back as possible. Everytime I tried to adjust myself with my legs the whole motor bike swayed.

Tuesday we went to Houay Khang school, Houay Khang Dormitory, Hadmad, and Pak Seung. We also went to one of the schools that is about 60% done. Phanh had to get a few forms signed and see what materials the contractors needed.

Finished school

School that is 60% done

Cute girls who were too young to be in school but were just
hanging out.

Wednesday we went to the village Na, which was Phanh's village! Getting to Na was rough.  First of all, that morning when I was doing my P90X regiment I noticed that my hands were really sore but I couldn't think about why.  As soon as I hopped on the motor bike to get to Na I realized why - I was had a death grip on the metal grate under my butt the whole first day. Duhhh.  Also, Phanh had warned me that the road to Na was bad.  I should have realized that if someone from Laos says a road is bad, it is 10 times worse than I could imagine.  My teeth were chattering so much I wish I had a mouthguard in and I was definitely not even trying to stay far away from Phanh anymore since I really thought I would get thrown off the bike. Half way through the ride he turned to me and laughingly said "Are you scared?"  I wasn't scared in the way that my heart was beating super fast or anything, but I was holding onto the bike with all my strength and leaning much closer to him so our helmets were hitting again and my chin was basically over his shoulder.

When we got to Na, I took my pictures and Phanh went to go say hi to the teachers since this is where he grew up and went to primary school.  I noticed two little girls were squatting on the side of the school and when I got closer I saw that one of them had a cut on her leg that was bleeding and she was using dirty scraps of paper on the ground to try to clean it.  Of course I was horrified and I figured I must have something in my bag to help this little girl so she doesn't get an infection.  After rummaging and realizing this was my only option, I extracted a sanitary pad and put water on it to help her clean up.  So embarrassing. After I cleaned the cut up she stuck a little piece of paper to the cut like a bandaid.  I guess my handy work wasn't needed.

The little girl in green had the cut. 

Once we were done at the school we stopped at Phanh's house to say hi to his family.  Driving through his village everyone was just staring at us probably thinking "Why does Phanh have a white girl on his bike?! Are they getting married?!"  Since that is all people ask me when the meet me 1) how old are you 2) are you married.  I got to meet Phanh's dad, brother, sister-in-law, and grandpa. His grandpa was so cute I couldn't help putting a picture of him here. He is 96 and still able to get around!  I didn't want to be too awkward by going in front of him to take a picture so I snagged one when no one was looking.

This week, depending on weather, we will go to a few more villages.  Can't wait!

Spaghetti Sauce!

I have some very exciting news! I moved into my coworker Andrea’s house this past week and so now I have a kitchen, a washing machine, more space, a wonderful roomie, and I will save a little bit of money!

This morning was the first weekend morning that I had free (after the film crew left) so I did a lot of cleaning and then decided to go on an adventure for grocery shopping.  I had one goal. Find ingredients to make tomato sauce from scratch.  I realize that tomato sauce is not the most difficult food item to make. I myself have followed Pete’s Famous Tomato Sauce recipe (aka my Dad’s) and made tomato sauce basically from scratch using various kinds of canned tomatoes.  However, in my defense,

1) I wanted to start off making something I’ve made before and so I would know I made poison by mistake

2) I wanted a comfort food and tomato sauce is super duper expensive here compared to everything else.  It’s about 50,000 kip ($6 USD) for one jar of tomato sauce, and not even a big jar, which doesn’t help me because I can go through one jar in one meal.  To put in perspective, if you go out for fried rice with chicken or pad thai or any other basic Lao dish, you pay $15,000 kip ($2 USD) and that’s for a full meal.

3) Going to the market here is a challenge because I don’t speak the language, everything is bought by kilo’s, I wasn’t sure if I could find most of the ingredients I needed so I might need to improvise.

The guy here was trying to take a nap but also use a long
stick with a bag on the end to swat flies away from his meat

With my stomach doing a happy jig and my mind determined, I set off.  Oh, and another few things I forgot to mention - my bike has a flat tire so I will be walking the approximate 3 mile roundtrip with my backpack, and I will be going to Phousi Market, the largest outdoor market in Louang Prabang.  Just to make things fun. 

When I arrived at the market, I first went to find my veggies.  I walked up and down the vegetable stalls trying to find my tomatoes, garlic, onion, carrots, and eggplant. At the time I went, around 1:30 in the afternoon, I had two things to look out for. 1) look for veggies that look fresh and don’t have flies all over them and 2) find a stall that the owner is not sleeping. I kid you not, half the people were having siesta time.

Interesting place to buy suits

Spices galore!

Got garlic?

I went to four different stalls and got some great items for great prices. 

5 skinny eggplants (1 kilo) for 8,000 kip ($1 USD)

~20 medium tomatoes (2 kilo) for 20,000 kip ($2.50 USD)

4 huge carrots (1 kilo) for 12,000 kip ($1.50 USD)

3 onions and 1 huge garlic – I forget how much I paid for these

Stand where I bought my 20+ tomatoes

I then lugged these veggies and a few other things I bought (like peanuts for trail mix) home, turning this shopping trip a workout as well. When I got home, I promptly started making a mess in the kitchen. Who knew that if you put tomatoes in boiling water for 10 seconds then in cold water, the skin peels off! Super awesome tip I got from the internet. As we only have 1 pot to cook in and our oven is a toaster over, I cooked for the next 3 hours, between prepping the tomatoes/onion/etc, to boiling the water, to roasting the eggplant.  But, it was all worth it in the end!

Yummmmmm

Film Crew Visit to Laos

Recently, Pencils of Promise hired a film company, Deltree, to come to Laos to create a short film to be featured at their annual Gala in October.  It is not a documentary, but more an artistic piece of work to show how the education of youth can impact their communities and to demonstrate the PoP mission that “Everyone has a promise”.

I was so pumped! Not only was a film crew coming to Laos, but I was assigned as the point person for Deltree and I would help organize what village we would film, who would be in the film, and any other logistics.  I’ve never worked on a film before and so I was excited for the challenge! I collaborated with my Laos managers to narrow our options down to two good schools/villages for the film (Hat Khang and Boum Lao) and also pre-select a few students who would not be camera shy.  This was no small feat as there are 40+ schools in Laos, all varying distances from our office and all with vastly different settings (mountain views vs river views vs rice field views, thatch houses vs cement houses, dirt roads vs paved roads, etc). And as we had no idea what the film crew was envisioning, we had to come up with a few different options.

Deltree had two people come (Ben and Abby) and we also had Lauren join us from the New York office to help guide the PoP vision for the film. After brainstorming ideas on Thursday, we headed to the field Friday morning to scout schools, villages, and start working with the kids.  Specifically, to see if the kids followed instructions well and if they would get shy with people watching, we worked with about 30 kids and asked them to do various silly tasks.

1) sit with a notebook and when we said HIT1 you write in the notebook, HIT2 you look up at this tree and smile (or think of something sad), HIT3 you continue writing

2) run to a water bottle excited because its an iPhone! Yell to your friends that you found an iPhone!

3) run to a water bottle and you’re sad because its your dog that was hit by a car

Pretty morbid I know, but these different tasks would show if the kids could follow instructions and whether or not they understood what we were trying to accomplish.  The hardest part was that Deltree had to communicate to one of the Laos PoP Staff their vision, then the staff had to translate to Lao for the kids. Much more difficult than the director being able to explain what he wants directly to the actors.  After visiting both pre-selected villages, interviewing the kids and seeing the school, Deltree decided to do all filming in the Hat Khang village and have three main actors.  Luni, Phanh, and Suk were the three main kids to act and they were ages 10-13.

Once we decided on the village and the students, we had to come up with a story board.  Like I explained above, the overall point of the movie is to showcase PoP’s main belief of “Everyone has a Promise” and how the educated kids can help their communities in the future, even in very small ways.  After several hours in the PoP office on Saturday, we decided to focus on small lessons in the classroom that are based off of the government curriculum actually taught in school, and how those lessons translate to their everyday lives.  For example, one lesson would be reading and writing in Lao, and they can use that knowledge to read a prescription for their grandfather as many elders do not know how to read and write.  We came up with a list of about 15 different school lessons and how that lesson could be shown in the village.  It was a fun challenge as we wanted it to be as real and plausible as possible, and had to piece together the information that various staff members contributed.

We started filming on Sunday and filmed every day through Wednesday.  We soon found out that we needed the same light every one of those days, and as sunset and sunrise have the best lighting, we were up at 4:30 and at the village before sunrise. We also had to stay through sunset, so these were some pretty long, hot days in the sun.  On the plus side, I saw amazing views of the mountains and early morning village life in Laos. 

Boys throwing their fishing net in the river and then hitting the water to get the fish to swim into their net

During the filming process, it was really interesting to see how a film crew works and how intense it was for a such a small film and what it must be like for a crazy big Hollywood film.  To see Ben (the director) think through what shot he wants to see, Abby working with the kids despite the language barrier, and the local kids and village members dropping their day to day work to be involved in the film - priceless.  

Ben working with the man we used as the father in the film

Ben working with Luni during a scene that had her writing in her notebook

The beginning days of planning and organizing were really fun for me, but the time in the field was more difficult and boring than I was anticipating.  Once my initial curiosity and amazement wore off, I got bored. Mostly because I didn’t really have a role once we were filming and so there was a lot of sitting around for 12-14 hours.  I was given the task of sound, which initially sounded really cool (no pun intended) and I was pumped about it at first, but since this movie was mostly going to just have background music and not too much dialogue and we were running short of working batteries, I could only do sound when they weren’t filming.  Aka - a few minutes of sound for a full day of filming. I did get to wear headphones and carry around the stick with the fuzzy microphone at the end – but obviously I did not learn the professional lingo.

Overall, I’m glad I was involved to see what goes into producing a film like this, and I cannot wait to see the final film! We are hoping that when we get a downloaded version of the final film after the Gala, to go back into the village to showcase the film on a projector for the whole village to see.  The three little kids who were the stars of the film had to do 20+ takes on any one scene and were getting worn out by the end of filming, so I hope that when they see the final product that they will be glad they participated and proud of what they accomplished.

September 11

This will be a short post, but I needed to get out my overwhelming feelings about 9/11 right now.  As I'm sure everyone reading this post does, every year around 9/11 I remember where I was, what I was doing, and how scared I was that something had happened to my family.  In the face of all sadness, confusion, and pain, communities come together to support each other and provide shoulders to cry on.  I have felt it many times, and especially in the days, months, and years to come after 9/11.  However, as I was only in 7th grade at the time of the terrorist attacks I did not have the same overwhelming feelings of disbelief, vulnerability, and anger as I'm sure my parents, aunts, uncles, and teachers had.  I'm not sure if its that I'm older or that I'm away from home in a country that did not feel the impact of the attacks (or most likely, a combination of both), but when I was looking at pictures and reading stories on social media this morning at work, I started crying in a way that is uncontrollable. Specifically the pictures of individuals who were caught on the top floors of the buildings and jumping to their death, were moving me to tears in a way they haven't in the past.  As I wasn't directly impacted by losing a loved one and I don't remember getting emotional in the past around this time of year, I surprised myself with these emotions.

9/11 has come and gone and there has been no mention of it in Laos. I wish I was surrounded by the tight-knit community that was formed by these attacks so that I could feel the support that is still reverberating through American culture today, 13 years later. I've thought about all the 9/11 monuments and memorials that have been built, moments of silence conducted across the country, the individuals who lost their lives, the survivors, and everyone who knew people impacted. It is a very overwhelming day, that I think has just been exemplified because I don't have the emotional support and outlets that I would if I was in the US.  If I'm up to it, I will talk to my American coworkers today at lunch about this and see if they have had similar feelings.

Kouang Si Falls

Last weekend the new programs intern Matt joined us in Laos! Right away we went on a little day trip to the Kuang Si falls.

Downtown we found a tuk tuk, which is basically a little covered truck that you sit in the back. This was the first time I had to negotiate for a price in Laos, as food you don't really have to haggle for. I had been told that you should try to get the price to a little over half of what they originally offer. For example, if you are buying something at the market and they say 50,000 kip you should try to get it to about 30,000 kip.  I'm not going to lie, I was a little nervous because I had absolutely no idea how much a tuk tuk ride was, or even how far the Kuang Si falls were from the city.  I just hoped I wouldn't pay a ton of money for a 5 minute drive! The first drivers that asked us "Tuk tuk?" we accepted and started negotiating the price.  They first offered 200,000 kip (about $25 USD) for the two of us.  I was able to get it down to 170,000 (about $21), aka I was horrible. After settling the price we were on our way!

It turned out to be into a long enough trip for Matt and I to look at each other more than once and ask, where is he taking us?  We were able to see wonderful views of the countryside and some pretty crazy motor bike driving on our way.  For example, young babies on motor bikes with their siblings or parents without a helmet and no way to hold on.  So not appropriate by American standards.  45 minutes later we arrived at Kouang Si Waterfall, and our wonderful tuk tuk driver told us to be back in 2 hours and he will be waiting for us to take us back to the city.  When he said 2 hours, Matt and I looked at each other and were thinking the same thing - what the heck are we going to do for 2 hours? 

But on the bright side, $21 got us a 45 minute round trip ride and 2 hours of fun at the waterfalls - not too shabby!  As it has rained just the night before and it is during rainy season, the water was a murky brown color and overflowing into the surrounding picnic and walking areas.  Supposedly, not during rainy season, the water is a bright turquoise blue and people go swimming, so we'll have to come back to see it at that time of year as well. 



However we didn't let that stop us.  We kept walking up on the side to the big water fall at the end of the trail. The trails were very clean and well marked, with just a few sections that the water over took the path.  But over all, it was a very nice natural park. 

 

As you can see below, once we reached the biggest waterfall at the end of the trail, the bridge was completely covered in swift moving water. We went to the farthest dry part we could and saw a few guys go out right below the water falls.  I had no intention of doing the same thing, but I asked Matt if he was thinking about it and he was game, so I started getting excited and we took the trek out.  Holding onto the railings and feeling our way out with bare feet, the water gushing around our knees, we made it out to the end of the walkway.  One of the guys in the first picture was nice enough to watch us undertake the same challenge and take our picture.

It turned out that that walk under the waterfalls was just our first challenge of the day. There was another bridge (not under water) that led to the other side of the falls (Matt is standing on it on the right).  Being the adventurers that we are, we went to see what was on the other side and there was a faded wooden sign on a tree saying "To The Top".  I looked at Matt and asked if he wanted to try, secretly hoping he would not accept.  After looking at the steep incline, with a stream of water coming down, and path covered in mud, Matt said yes.  Later he told me that he had had no intention of climbing it, but because of the way I asked him (apparently I challenged him), he wanted to take it.  Grand.  We started off walking up the path, and the path got muddier and more steep, and more difficult to tell where we were supposed to go.  If anyone has ever hiked with me before, you will know that slipping is one of my greatest fears (not just with hiking but with anything), so all I could think about this whole time was the trip down and how horrible it was going to be.  I stupidly voiced these opinions to Matt and he was also nervous about that, which did not help.  We took a break at this point, deciding whether or not to continue climbing, since now it was like rock climbing through a stream without a harness.  Luckily, exactly then, three people were coming down and said we were very close to the top. However, when I asked what the view was like, they said you couldn't see too much because the water was so swollen that you couldn't get to the edge of the waterfall.  They did give us great advice though and said that walking in the water itself, instead of the mud covered rocks around it, and going barefoot was easier.  The thought of walking barefoot scared me,  but we did keep hiking to the top. They were right, unfortunately, about having no view.

We only stayed at the top a few minutes, and then we started the perilous journey down. As my shoes were slipping and sliding everywhere, and I did not want to catapult down the side of the mountain, I quickly put my fears aside about walking barefoot.  I took off my shoes, tied the laces together and slung them around my neck.  I would never walk barefoot even in the Boston Common, and here I am walking barefoot in the jungle of Lao. Who wooda thunk. 

We got down safely, with just a few small slips, and JUST in time to meet our tuk tuk driver.  I guess we really needed the whole 2 hours! I'm hoping my next trip will be a little bit more relaxing and involving swimming in crystal blue water.



Boat Racing Festival

Sabaidee!

First, I just want to come out and say I have failed at posting a picture every day, which was my goal a few weeks back. I have come to realize that the internet is sooooooo slow at my guest house, that it can take several hours to upload pictures/video if its acting pokie, so it just not feasible to post very often. I am actually at my office right now posting this next post because it has a video in it and it never actually downloaded last night even after I stayed up past my bedtime letting it load. So here it is!

Last weekend was Boun Suang Heua, or the Boat Racing Festival, which happens on the Day of the Commemoration of the Dead. The Lao traditionally observe Buddhist lent, which usually lasts three months from late July to late October, depending on the lunar calendar. During these months, Buddhists abstain from drinking alcohol, eating meat and smoking cigarettes to honour the months that the Buddha fasted under the Bodhi tree before reaching enlightenment. The end of lent is marked with celebrations and traditional boat racing in the nation’s many rivers.

To start off the weekend, we went to the PoP Construction Manager's house for breakfast on Saturday. We had a breakfast of champions consisting of eel, frog, chicken, rice, and of course, beer.

Breakfast lasted half the day, as everything is on "Lao time" - aka it starts at least an hour late and no one is in a rush. Coming from the North East where everything is go, go, go and prompt, this is a part of the Lao culture that is very frustrating to me.

Sunday was boat racing day.  It started first thing in the morning, probably about 6 am when the sun rises.  I was not a spectator at 6am, 8am, or 10am. I got to the Nam Khan river around 2pm, and the crowd and boats were going strong! Part of the reason I was so late was that I couldn't get to the river because of the crowds! I was actually told to leave because I had my bike with me and I wasn't allowed to walk it through the crowds (at least that's the gist I got when the policemen were laughing at me and shaking their heads when I tried to mime me walking my bike down the street).

The traditional racing boats are carved using one single tree. The boats belong to a village and are usually kept in a shelter on temple grounds and come out only once a year for the race. Several days before the race the boats are cleaned and presented with offerings because they are considered sacred items.  The boats can hold about 50 paddlers! They are SUPER long but only about as wide as a canoe.

The starting point is two kilometers upstream and the competition is between two boats at a time. The loser is eliminated. A lot of people bed on the different villages boats so this is a huge gambling day!

Starting line - a man on the top of the big boat will wave 2 flags to start the race

And they're off...

Everyone was sitting and standing all along the steep river banks even though there was no easy way to get down to the river. People were finding any possible way to see the race, and that meant a lot of the time sitting amidst the trash people were strewing about. One thing that was super disappointing was the lack of garbage cans. People would just throw their trash anywhere, and not even try to do it discretely. And then people were just sitting and walking in it - I couldn't bring myself to do the same and I stuck to the road.

Here is a short video of the boat racing!

While the boat racing has become a focus of entertainment, athletics and commerce, the Boat Festival is really an homage to water divinities and the Nagas, who are protector of the country.  However, I asked many people (coworkers, random people I talked to while watching) if there was any religious significance to the boat racing festival, and they did not know. This could have been a language barrier, or the historical meaning of the festival has been lost and the partying lives on, as has occurred with some US holidays as well.