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.
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.
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!
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.
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| Finished school |
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| School that is 60% done |
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| 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.
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| The little girl in green had the cut. |
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