Duncan here. I'm writing this from the 2nd floor balcony of our guest house, looking across the street at a Wat (temple) with orange-robed monks and novices sweeping up.
We've had a great couple of days here in Luang Prabang, and have been able to meet many local men, women, and children. Staying in one place for a while and getting to know the lay of the land really helps. First of all, we've been meeting people through soccer, the international language. Three nights ago Belle and Jesse went to the National Stadium outside Luang Prabang. The stadium is the same as a 3rd class, run down college stadium with a soccer field mostly faded grass with patches of dirt, a running track with holes here and there, and stands for 1,000 with paint peeling. But it's one of the few open areas of land around here so there are a few hundred people -- kids to adults -- who show up to use the space to play volleyball, soccer, and to run. All the activities take place on top of the others, but there is no tension. The runners run through the soccer game, and the soccer balls roll through the volleyball. Everyone shares.
Three nights ago went to the stadium. Jesse played soccer with lots of kids, and Belle joined in and met many students from 8 to 18. Two nights ago Jesse and I traveled to a nearby high school and joined 10 high school and college students in a game of footsal on their rutted dusty field. A couple of the men spoke 50 words of broken English, but that was enough.
Last night we went back to the National Stadium for 90 minutes. It was a blast. I joined a men's soccer game for an hour -- a fast game and lots of laughs. Jesse had 15 young Lao running around him playing keepaway. They thought his small soccer ball was awesome. Belle ran, worked out, and played some soccer. Made some good friends. They have invited us to come back at 4pm today, and we will.
Another fun local experience yesterday involved traveling to a local village in the countryside with Big Brother Mouse, a Laotian non-profit quite like CLiF. We spent 2.5 hours at the small U-shaped school and its dusty square. We sat in small classrooms with massively cute elementary school kids who were singing, drawing, practicing their letters, playing games, and then selecting a new book to keep. We will post some great photos soon. Jesse and I also played a hacky-sack game using a rattan ball with many of the boys.
The final local experience has involved going to the Big Brother Mouse offices here in Luang Prabang and spending 2 hours at a time speaking with high school and college students and helping them practice their very limited English. Educational opportunities in Laos are very different than in the US. To say the least. For example, this morning I was speaking with five young men. The one who spoke the best English (still very limited) was a 2nd-year college student. He is studying law. He told me that in his province when he grew up (he's around 21) there was no library in his primary school, in his high school, or in his entire province (an area sightly smaller than Vermont). Throughout his schooling he never had a single text book. His teachers, who were often fresh out of college, wrote everything on the board and the students copied it all in their notebooks and tried to figure it out.
The upshot? This morning, over the course of two hours, I taught two college students and three high school students, using very simple English and lots of drawings, the concepts of gravity, space, friction, plate tectonics, planets, stars, light years, and many other very important topics. Everyone we meet is so incredibly eager and anxious to learn, and they soak everything up like dry sponges. Sometimes it's hard to eat dinner in peace because waiters come up and shyly ask questions to practice their English. They just haven't had the same opportunities we take for granted. It's quite something to have a college student ask you: "Why people not fall off earth?" "Are many earths?" "What make earthquake?"
We'll be visiting two more Wats this afternoon, and then head back to the stadium to play soccer with our Lao friends.
Best wishes from the People's Democratic Republic of Lao where the hammer and sickle of Russia hangs beside the Lao national flag.
Enjoy the snow for us!
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