Lao PDR. Lao, please don't rush. (Unless you're driving)

When we visited here 3 years ago we were amazed that the couple we stayed with could fit so much into their schedule. I am starting to understand the other side of the mirror, so to speak. It has been a busy 2 weeks! I can’t believe we have only been here 2 weeks as of this past Wed.

Were to begin… well, we are still waiting to move into our apartment. Hopefully either the end of this week or sometime next. The bathroom plumbing apparently has major leaks. J tried to fix them but without his tools it’s a more difficult chore. Not to mention, the quality of things such as tools here is debatable. He bought a hammer, attempted to pull out a nail using the pry end and it broke. He promptly took it back to the hardware store were the man told him a hammer isn’t used to pull out nail and tried to sell him a crowbar. Joel asked him, then what is this end for (holding up the pry end with the slot for pulling a nail.) and the man just said.. No you can’t use a hammer for pulling out nails. He double checked with his wife who muttered a grumpy “bo dai” (no can) sooo… as you can imagine a plumbing problem can become quite the saga in the land they listen to rice grow..but the place is awesome, in a great location and about $300 USD per month LESS than the average rent here.

We are both teaching. Joel has pre-intermediate students (mostly adults) and I have elementary kids. It’s rather comical, I suppose the school thought since I am female I’d be good with children.. so never mind teaching English, learning to deal with a classroom of kids is my challenge! J is doing really well, he’s really picked up this teaching thing quickly. He says it’s because he has more experience standing in front of large groups of people he’s more relaxed. But, thanks to teaching and a contact there I found part time work with a Media company here. So, I start next week working for them, it will be a combo of office work and from home work. They are a music label so I will be mostly assisting with the design of the album covers. They brought two Americans on board to rethink the way the CD covers are designed. If you have ever looked at a Lao/Thai CD cover you know why they can use some outside input. :P I am pretty excited about it.

We have been going to meet friends of friends to get started knowing more people here. It’s really hard to make new friends, so we are grateful that people are introducing us to theirs. We met one nice kid at a café we go to a few times a week.. J started talking to him more because he remembers that we go there often and has started to befriend us. He works there 7 days a week with his wife. Very nice guy. That’s another thing I will like about my new job, is that at the school there are definite student – teacher roles and the teachers don’t/can’t really hang out with the students. So, at least at the Media company if I want to eventually ask people to come join us for dinner or the like, I can.

This week we start Lao classes everyday for 2 hours a day 4 days a week. I think this will be really helpful! It’s allot of what we already know but review will be good. The school we work for is paying for it (they also teach Lao) so we don’t even have to spend money on it. Cha-Ching.

Other exciting news is a couple from China just arrived. They are going to be teaching Chinese at the school apparently. It is estimated 300,000 Chinese are here. So a few of our friends are signing up to (learn Chinese. Two of our friends here already speak Chinese and another want to learn so I think they will have a nice little class. As for us, learning Lao is enough right now. Hmm, actually I’ve been playing around with learning a few greetings in Khammu which is a hill tribe language here…but it’s only a spoken language (don’t quote me on that) as they use Lao to write. So, if you write a word in Khammu you spell it in Lao script. For you Lao learners, it means Sa-Bai-Dii become Sa-Mai-Lut (hello) but it’s still written with the Lao alphabet. Figure it’s just nice to be able to say hello at least.. We’ve met a few people that are Khammu. (And it’s not as tongue twisting as Hmong.. we’ve got one friend here fluent in Hmong but you lose me with all the x’s. mhennxtubx or whatever..)

But so far everything is good.

One challenge we are having is driving. Driving is NUTS here. You figure you have thousands of people now driving cars and scooters that 3 years ago only had bicycles. We bought two scooters but I’m starting to chicken out of driving. You see accidents daily. When it’s rush hour sometimes you literally have to bang on the side of a car/truck to get it to stop cutting you off. 4 way stops? You’re joking. Everything thinks they have the right of way. Even J who has been driving real motorcycles (verses these 110cc things) for years says it’s the worst driving conditions he’s ever dealt with. This coming from Mr. Wheeler. The worst ones are some of the other foreigners who are making big dollars, living tax free and driving around in six figure Mercedes or Hummers (yes, they have made it to Laos) who don’t even bother to notice they share a road. Every man for himself. We often use the expression it’s like the Wild West here. In more ways than one.

But we do absolutely LOVE it. The local people, the culture, the food, the teaching…I’d like to think we are getting better with the language. Even if it’s something as simple as trying to explain that yes, a hammer was designed to pull out nails. :)


Love you all lots!

Here we are!

Just a quick post...we are sitting in the computer lab of the school we are teaching at, looking at a bilingual Lao / English keyboard but so some reason Google is in Chinese. :P

Well...we made it. No photos as yet (we just got here last night). I (Kelly) started work today so actually, I haven't even really had a chance to think about "being here". Tommorow we go look at a little apartment, so we'll see. Taking our time, our friends say take as long as we need to find something afforable and safe.

Hope everyone is well!
Photos and proper updates soon!

sabaidee

Rice Field - Vang Vieng Laos
The French have an expression: "the Vietnamese plant the rice, the Cambodians watch it grow and the Lao listen to it grow...."

This afternoon we were talking to people and I realized how my brain is already going into "sabaidee" mode versus "sawatdee kaa" and that I am really looking forward to being able to communicate with people easier. Altho, we still need to learn Thai. Well, J at least more than me. I plead the skirt. It's interesting however that Sabai is a common expression in both languages. Things can be "sabai sabai" easy easy.. or relaxed.. In Lao you would say, Sabai bo? ( OK, right?) and in Thai it's similar.. Sabai mai? (Good, right?) Muunii puak khoi bpen sabai sabai. Today we are both sabai..

If you were peering into our apartment on this cloudy Sunday afternoon we probably look as mellow sabai..as you get. Me, researching teaching kids English and J putting the beloved motorcy on CL. (no, that is not a typo..around here a scooter is simply called a "motorcy" who knows what happened to the ..cle ending.) We probably should be packing but I figure we could pack this place up in a day easy. So, what's the point right now. We're turning Thai... or Scarlet O'Hara.. I'll think about that..tomorrow..

You see allot of people just sleeping in the afternoon. The truck drivers even carry hammocks with them and put up a hammock UNDER their trailer. At the moment, it sounds like a good idea...a nap that is. *yawn* The hum of the ceiling fan cancels out the noise from the neighbors and the artifical breeze provides some comfort to sleep to.

In the meantime..

If anyone has any useful advice on teaching a roomful of 6-13 year old I am ALL ears. It's a little mortifying to me actually. Kids. In multiple numbers. Time to really put that TESOL training in use. : P What was it... all the verbs in a Mr. Bean episode? Time to review the mind mapped notes..

As for this little blog, I think we'll try to keep it going. Thanks Frank : )

Changes..

It has been almost a month since I updated this. Today's updates I grudgingly removed a few links. (Sorry guys, please understand. ) Time sure flies.

So, you may have heard. We are moving again. We are really excited about this, but of course it's bitter sweet. I've loved our time here in Nong Khai.. but eagerly await getting to know and learn the language and culture better that we love so much.

I am undecided about keeping this blog up. Thoughts and advice from our friends in China welcome. (??)

So, we move in 2 weeks. I don't have a date to tell anyone because I don't really know either. Work for us starts the 3rd week in August so sometime before then. :P We don't have a place of our own yet either so we will be staying with our friends. Me, being the nester, finds this difficult because we had just 3 weeks ago bought a few furnishings for our house here in NK.. now I have no idea if they will come with or not. (Also makes trying to pack a nightmare! LOL!) Same for our scooter.. apparently, it's looking like we can't bring it. Anyone in Thailand need a 2 month old scooter? (Ugh!)

But the positives far far outweigh the negatives... and even though, yes, we'll miss our little Thailand home, our friends and other things you might take for granted.. we couldn't be happier.
Happy as a water buffalo in mud you might say. : D

Our love to all!
J + K

(photos are from our trip there last week...)

Bonus: Photos from Itchy Bog

Today Blogger is behaving. So, in addition to a blog, here are some photos from Itchy Bog. : )


Our neighbor, the chef (for real) making frog. Saep!

Party at the Construction site. Want to sing along? 212

We couldn't have found a better parking spot?! (Yes, the black one is ours)

Sunset over the Mekong, view from our favorite restaurant. (Your looking at Laos)

Our favorite restaurant. OK, it's just a public sala on the river we picnic often at. Perfect for bringing a meal of Khao Nio, Ping Gai, Tom Mak Hung and Bia Chang. : D

Those are some clean ears.

What’s to update since the last blog? We’ve been pretty busy. Last week we were super excited to have a visit from Jeff + Meli, our friends in Thailand’s south. They are working in Krabi with deaf population, but they took a break and came up to “Itchy Bog” for a week. Hopefully, they weren’t too bored. It is a pretty slow pace around these parts. They did get to try their hands at construction for a few days., promptly followed by a Thai Massage at our local shop. (J and I have worked it into our budget as a bi-weekly thing.) After they left, it rained. Of course, it is rainy season here but still.. when one depends on sun and dryness to dry their drawers .. you don’t really want non-stop rain for 3 days. But I can’t complain.. it seems like you friends in the NE have had more than your fair share.

Today I stayed home to work and wait for the Internet folks. First they said 11. Now they say 5. But in between this they told us, NO, in fact you can’t get any of the higher speeds out here in the boonies. So at 5 they are coming “to check the static on the line.” Jeff and Meli know our internet sagas well… the people were supposed to come LAST week. : ) At least I know now.. it is what it is. Which means video skype is sketchy at best. Sorry. We are bummed too. But the good news is (TESOL class kicking in) the GOOD NEWS is we DO have internet. Right? And I CAN work. Working just involves starting an upload then going and doing laundry.

Speaking of clean. Poor J had been trying to get a haircut but everyplace he went they said ‘puu ying” only. Women only. He’s not much on having hair so for him to deal with the ½ inch he had was making him miserable. (“It’s soooo hot!”…ehh…..yeah… I don’t want to hear it..hahaha.) So a friend who is a barber took him to get his hair cut. (We thought the friend was going to do it.. OK.. miscommunication in foreign language happens, allot) so they went for their boy bonding experience. Here in Thailand you get the works.. hot shave, cut, neck massage and ear cleaning. How fun! Did any of you ever see the Anthony Bourdain episode of him in China when they did that? Yeah. Long fuzzy wires. Scoops. Hot oil. Fire (to burn those pesky ear hairs of course.) All this while having a towel over you face so you can’t see what’s going on. (and you only later find o;ut by watching them do it to someone else.) J is good with many things.. eating the frog our neighbor fried for us.. chicken feet for lunch at construction (today) but THIS.. this is what he finally called “WEIRD”.

Enough about ears. : )

We have really been enjoying ourselves and making some great friends. Yesterday I got to spend some time with a woman who has been here 7 years.. originally from Ohio. She suggested another friend as a tutor..so we are going to try to wrangle him in. (For those of you in our study group back home you know ALL about getting people teach you.) He is technically not part of the construction team so has o support himself as he travels, so we are hoping he wants a pair of falang as students. If not, I hate the thought of paying a stranger to learn Thai.. but it may come to that. Of course, it’s really most difficult because it is not the language of our heart. Some people here understand that, one friend even is trying to get us to study Lao with them in a language intensive. We are so up in the air. We had dinner with some friends and it was SO much easier trying to navigate conversation in Lao. However, you *really* do need to know Thai to read more books etc. Especially J. But, talking with people everyday Lao is fine. Normally I can switch pronouns around enough to stumble through. Change to “baw” to “mai” and add “kaa”. But we need to at least learn to READ Thai. So that’s the very long winded answer to “How’s the language coming?” One Lao friend called us a “kon Lao” because we made sticky rice. Sometimes, it’s the smallest bits of encouragement that make you smile the most. I think people are warming up to us finally, that we are real people. We drink beer, make jokes, make mistakes, get tonsonia and have lizards in our house just like everyone else. ; )

What else? We are hoping to go to Burma/Mynmar in December. Did anyone else get that letter read? We are wondering if it is just a Southeast Asia thing. I feel kinda bad because our Thai neighbors want to go to but apparently it is difficult for Thai natives to cross over. Then again, who knows if we will be going. We just filled out the ap. We aren’t even sure what city it is in. We think Yangoon.

We miss everyone tons. Family. Friends. Our study group. We wish it wasn’t so far + expensive to get here so you could all come visit. (We’ve been told we are NK’s version of Starbucks in the AM. ; ) )

Our love,

The Kids

(just noticed i am 33 today. who would have thought.)

Today's Thai Culture Tip

It is not considered in good manners to eat watermelon with a spoon. A few of us were sitting on our front porch eating watermelon that had been sliced into fat juicy wedges and devouring it with a our metal rice spoons. One friend told us however, this time it was OK, but it's actually considered very lazy to eat this way. Really it should be cut, cubed and seeded. I can only imagine the look on some faces if we were to dig our mouths in and spit the seeds out..

But then Thailand is the country that gives you this:
(thank you Wikipedia Commons)
A beautiful skill indeed. Something to learn when I have ALLOT more time. ; )