Onward to Laos

Goodbye, Thailand. Hello, Laos. Well, we are back to driving on the right. There might be a motorbike in our future. The money is crazy. We have bills valued at 100,000 kips. That’s $12.00 USD. It’s difficult to hand someone a bill with the number 10,000 and think in terms of $1.20. Anyway, we are truly back to small town, Asia. It’s a slow-paced, beautiful town with friendly folks, and story-book scenery. The Mekong and the Khan Rivers converge here. There is a picturesque bamboo bridge across the Khan that makes for an interesting stroll. Nagas are mythical serpent-like creatures that are said to live in the Mekong. We are told not to swim in the river (and, don’t worry, we wouldn’t) because they might eat us. Seriously, we were warned! River-side restaurants are the perfect place to people watch and catch a glimpse of the long boats traveling up and down the river. The night market goes on for blocks and blocks. The coconut pancakes are more like cookies than a breakfast item. They were our first buy! The pancake cook taught us ‘Kab-chai-la-la’ as the Lao word for Thank You. We’ve eaten a lot more than pancakes. Lao seems to be famous for its sausages. Fish abounds and there isn’t much beef to be found. It’s predominantly vegetarian, fish, chicken and pork. Surprising to us, the food isn’t very spicy. That’s quite a change from Thai.

We’ve spent a lot of time walking, visiting more temples, observing the monks, and noticing all of the young boys dressed as little-boy monks. We got some questions answered about that today at Big Brother. We have volunteered at Big Brother several days. It is the coolest place where high school kids come to practice their English for 4 hours a day. Actually, Big Brother is a lot more than that. The organization has brought reading to Laos. We are just volunteering with the speaking park. I sit with 2 -5 teenage boys and we just talk about whatever! I learned today that these young monks I mentioned earlier are called ‘novice monks’ and after a few years, they must make a commitment to move forward into monkhood or return to their homes. I learned so much more from my teenagers today, too. These are the guys that gave George serious warning about the Nagas and to never swim in the Mekong. We played games, discussed religion, politics, sports, family, and we laughed a lot. Many had stories of hardship and sacrifice coming into the city from the countryside where there was no access to high school. Most live in a dormitory away from family and aspire to get into the local university. Such are the hopes and dreams of many around the world, it seems. It so reminds me of my immigrant students back home.

We have an untold story that we’ve decided to tell afterall. Check back very soon.