I’ve learned a lot over the last few weeks. I’ve been too
busy to record them for the world to see. I’ve grown to love Lao people even
more and I understand a little better all the terrible things they’ve been
through. I’ve seen a lot of the terrible things they’re still going through. I’ve
seen a lot of things that good people are trying to do to help, and the way
that some of those things are resisted or retarded (slowed, prevented… I couldn’t
think of a better word) by misunderstanding or corruption.
This is not a political blog, and this is all the politics
you will ever read on it: communism is stupid.
Well, now that that’s out of the way, lets see if I can
remember all of the crazy adventures I’ve had over the last few weeks.
The weekend after Elder Gong came, I went with a few friends
to a waterfall outside the city, and I learned how Lao people party on the
weekend. It’s pretty similar to the way most Americans do it: loud music, a
river, and beer. (more beer than I’ve ever seen in one place in my entire
life). It was pretty rainy, so we didn’t stay very long.
That night the Luangrath’s invited me to have dinner with
them and another couple downtown. We walked down and met up with them, looked
at some of the booths that were set up to sell touristy things, and I was
introduced to roti (paratha) perhaps the greatest thing to ever be invented. It
uses dough kind-of like a crepe, but way better. After flipping it around, the
cook fills it with bananas and egg and whatever other goodness you want, fries
it in approximately 1 kilogram of butter, and tops it off with sweetened
condensed milk. Just don’t think about the calories.
On Monday during English class, I had the idea to ask if
anyone in the class worked for the ministry of energy and mines. I knew that
they were all government people, but it turns out they all worked for the
hospital (stay tuned for more about the hospital). There were two students who
had spouses that worked under that ministry. One was out of the country, and
the other said that she would have to talk to her husband first. She called
back later in the afternoon saying that I would be welcome to go and visit her
husband’s workplace—which I thought was at the ministry of energy and mines.
So, I show up at the ministry in the morning and nobody has
any idea who I’m talking about. After a
few phone calls and quite a long time on google earth (there’s not really such
thing as street addresses in Laos… just neighborhoods), I finally found out
where the office was. As I arrived at a pretty big and new building, I was
still thinking that I was just meeting with some employee to discuss his work
to see if it would be something I might be interested in someday. Once I got to
the fifth floor and called to let him know I was there, he told me to wait just
a few minutes. Shortly thereafter, a secretary came out and asked if I was
there to see Mr. Duangsy and sat me down in a nice waiting area with water and
magazines (and tea of course). It turns out that Mr. Duangsy, the husband of
someone in Sis. Luangrath’s English class, is the deputy managing director of
Electricitie du Laos. So I sat and talked with the big man (about 5’3”ish) for
fifteen minutes or so about his job and the industry of energy in Laos (because
his company is in charge of it all). When I asked why he decided to be an
electrical engineer, he said that he was appointed to study it in the Soviet
Union, he didn’t actually choose it (thankfully he likes the industry anyway).
Home again to take a few pictures for the LDS casting
website.
Laundry the next day: we do it a little different in Laos.
By this time I really started to realize that I only had
about a week left in Laos, so instead of spending the extra time reading and
looking over English lessons at home or at the church, I started just walking
around downtown with no particular destination taking pictures of the cool
things I saw.
During the last week, I was invited to visit a few of the
schools in the provinces that the Church will be building wells and bathrooms
for. I’ll let the pictures explain themselves. The first school didn’t have any
water or bathrooms, and the second (which hadn’t been used for a few years) had
two toilets but no running water because the well had broken. We had lunch all
together at the branch president’s house, stopped in to look at a weaving
factory, and headed back home in time for English classes.
A few days later we got to have a tour of the hospital that
all the students work at in order to discuss how the Church can help there.
Again, I’ll let the pictures explain themselves. When we walked into the room they told me was
the eye surgery room, it smelled like a moldy old-person basement. I’m really
grateful I didn’t have to go to the doctor in Laos. But then again, if I ever
had to I could have just crossed over into Thailand. Not everybody can do that.
The last English classes were a little sad, but not really.
I only had a few hours in the evenings to get to know everyone, and I was only
here for a month. Besides, now they ‘like’ everything I do on facebook within
minutes!
For my last Saturday, I went with the same group of friends
from the weekend before (plus phon from school) to the Lao culture park, where
I sat in a real vine swinging back and forth. Then we went to the Buddha park
which has the largest reclining Buddha in Laos (maybe the world… I don’t
remember if I heard that or not). Before everyone was ready Phon and I went
back to That Luang and took some pictures there. It was a really hot day, so
while I was the crazy tourist taking pictures of everything, everyone else
stopped after a few minutes and sat in the shade with cool drinks.
The last Sunday in Laos was a little sadder than the last
English classes. I was the concluding speaker (not a full talk, just a short
testimony) and I helped translate the other talks. Lunch after church was
fantastic as usual, including a full horse-feed bucket of papaya salad. I was
treated to a farewell dinner, and met up with a friend-of-a-friend who works
for Phu Bia mining in the park for a few minutes before coming home to attempt
stuffing all of my stuff in the three small bags I have.
Monday I went to the Lao National Museum, where all the
really strong anti-American propaganda isn’t translated into English, and
learned about some Lao history as well as learning about how terrible the “American
imperialists and their puppets” are. (no photography allowed)
The rest of the morning was returning my fantastic
motorcycle (which I completely forgot to take a picture of) and buying a few
last-minute things (most importantly a Lao-style machete). I was at the pick-up
place for my bus to Chiang Mai a few hours early, and was still almost forgotten.
So that’s how the trip to Laos ended. I’ve been in Thailand
for a few days now. Chances are that I’ll write about it right now because I
still have at least 4 hours left on this train, but I think I’ll wait a day to
post it for dramatic effect.
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