Sa bai dee! Today Mr. Kamsavat – The manager of the Green Earth Centre – drove us to a quite fancy government building. There we got to meet the Governor of Lao Ngam (Mr. Khamlai). Who could only speak Lao. Luckily Mr. Kamsavat speaks English pretty good, so he was able to translate for us. We were then invited to see the Governor’s farm. We got there and it was very beautiful. There were so many beautiful crops, and we got a two papaya and two passion fruits straight from the farm! Yum! We also got to feed the tilapia (a type of fish) that lived there, and eat sugar cane. It was, sugary (of course), but I really liked it.

After that we went to the police station, since we needed to register that we were in the town. It as nice to have a little excursion! La garn for now!

*Word of the day: bpaa (pronounced: paw), it means fish!

Today was a fun filled weekend. At about 1:00, My Mom’s coworkers K’tae and Pouton picked us up at drove us to “Tad Lo” where we saw a very beautiful waterfall.

We didn’t expect the water to be flowing very strongly since its not rainy season. But it was actually a pretty raging waterfall nonetheless. After that they drove us to another waterfall where we saw, Elephants!!!

It was amazing actually seeing them in a natural habitat. For lots of people to see Elephant’s they would have to go to a zoo where the animal doesn’t even belong. It was amazing to see the bond they had with the Lao people. I even got to feed one banana and papaya.

After that we went to a little coffee shop and I got a coconut milkshake, it was very delicious. It was amazing seeing the waterfall, and how free the elephants were. A once in a lifetime experience.

*Word of the day: makphav (pronounced: mak-pa), it means coconut

 

Our first day at the Green Earth Centre! We had a very relaxing weekend, just getting to know the area. We biked to GEC on our new bicycles.

We had a big tour of the GEC when we got there. The Green Earth Centre sits on about 100 acres of land. We got to see different plants they had, which included: Cardamom, Passion Fruit, Coconuts, Avocado, Banana, Kasava, Taro, Mushrooms, Cabbage, Mao Berry, Hot pepper, Black Pepper, Squash, Pineapple, Mango, Papaya and they also grow a nut called Sasha Inshi. If you have any questions about any of the plants, let me know! I would be happy to answer them.

 

 

After the tour, I had some time to catch up on schoolwork before we biked home at about 4:00 pm. We found a really nice restaurant that was very close to our house, so we ate there. I got noodle soup and Mom got a veggie and rice stir fry, it was delicious! I will keep you updated on our status in Lao Ngam. La garn!

Word of the Day: Nie (pronounced: neye), it means big/large.

We set off for Laos Ngam this afternoon. It was about a two hour drive, but I must of been pretty tired because I slept the whole way! When I woke up, we were in the town. Our first stop was at the Green Earth Centre (GEC), which is the place Mom will be working. It was beautiful. Everything was very green and luscious. The next stop was, our new house! I was very excited to see where I was going to live for the rest of the year.

I was pleasantly surprised to see how ngam the house was. When we arrived, our landlord was there. He did a Lao house blessing ceremony for us.

As soon as we pulled into the driveway, a whole bunch of our neighbours ran to greet us. There was a bunch of kids too and even a few that were my age. I look forward to making some new friends soon!

*Word Of the Day: Nao (pronounced: now), it means cold.

This morning we arrived via night bus bright and early in Pakse. It was a bit bumpy falling asleep the last night, but I managed to get a few hours in. We got picked up by another Touk-Touk (lots of Touk-Touk riding going on over here) and drove to our hotel. It was a really nice place, the people who ran it, luckily, spoke English pretty well! There was even a cute little cafe in the lobby of the building.

Our room was equally nice and quite modern. For the majority of the day we were exhausted from not getting very much sleep. So we mostly relaxed.

In the afternoon, we met up with the other volunteers that were in Vientiane with us for the past two weeks. They had come to Pakse a few days earlier, so were already settled into their houses. We wandered down the market, to see if we could find anything. In Pakse (just like Vientiane) they also were holding a festival for Buddhist lent. It was a bit smaller then the celebration in Vientiane (hence it is a lot smaller), but equally as nice.

There was a little performance going on, and even a cute bouncy castle/slide for the kids (see above). After walking around for a while, we decided to head down to the river where people were lighting the sky with lanterns, unfortunately one of the lanterns strayed a little to close to a tree, and well, this happened.

Luckily, it was small. So it soon burned-out. It was an eventful night and tomorrow we set off for Lao Ngam.

*Word of the Day: Ngam (pronounced: Nam), it means beautiful.

Hi, sorry I haven’t been posting lately. Its been a bit much with school work. I am going to continue with the 23rd even though it is now the 30th, because I really want to share all the things I have been doing. Thank you for following the blog still, I hope that posts will be more consistent in the future. 🙂

Today, for our last day in Vientiane, we decided we needed to check out the “COPE” (Cooperative Orthotic and Prosthetic Enterprise) centre  here in the city.

the COPE centre is a rehabilitation centre dedicated to helping amputees in Laos. Mainly the victims of UXOs (Unexploded Ordnances, or bombs), but also people who have been in other accidents or were born with missing limbs. At the COPE centre there is a building that is a place where visitors can go and learn about the mission of COPE. And how UXOs are affecting Laos.

 

 

A bit more about UXOs is in the mid 60s, Laos was bombed by American forces. Some of the landmines didn’t go off though, so they are still a hazard in the present day. Normal people who are just trying to cook for their family, could accidentally set off a landmine. Its a terrible thought. But the good news is that there are people working to clear the UXOs.

Its a terrible part in history. But I think it was important to see. My favourite part was watching videos of all the amputees getting their new prosthesis. It was heart warming to see their faces light up as they could walk again, or run again or have two hands again.

After we left the COPE centre, we needed to stop by the Cuso office one last time to get our bus tickets for the night bus we would be traveling to Pakse on. So we caught a Touk-Touk, only problem was, the Touk-Touk driver had no idea where the office was. So we had to bring up a google maps to tell him the street it was on, and then he got it. It was all quite a process! Luckily we made it to the office and got our tickets, then we walked back to the apartment to pack up for leaving Vientiane.

I felt sad leaving Vientiane, it almost became a temporary home for me. But who knows, maybe one day I’ll go back there! So we took another Touk-Touk to the bus stop and got on the night bus.

After that it was a long 12-hour drive on the night bus, but we each got a sleeping compartment, so we got to relax and stretch out a bit. Again sorry for keeping you waiting for this post. We are having lots of fun on our adventure.

*Word of the Day: Lang (pronounced how it looks), it means night, which I thought would be fitting since I just talked about the night bus.

Festival Day! This morning we went to a festival near the Mekong River in Vientiane. Tomorrow we set out for a city called Pakse, where we will be staying for one day before we drive to our actual house in Lao Ngam. It will be hard leaving the kitties in Vientiane, but it is exciting knowing we are going to be able to settle into our new home.

We took a Touk-Touk to the Mekong festival. Our driver stopped near a “stupa” that was owned by a member of the royal family.

So the Touk-Touk continued to the Mekong, where we walked through the festival grounds. There were tons of people selling things. All the shops had really nice clothes, but they were all long sleeved! Right now its the cold season for the Lao people, and they are all wearing long sleeves and long pants. I really don’t know how as it is about 33 degrees celsius. I guess they are just so used to it that the weather doesn’t bother them. We walked along the river some more and found a cute little fair.

There was also bumper cars, a ferris wheel and a tiny roller coaster. We continued walking and found a restaurant to eat lunch. Here is a nice panorama view of the Mekong River.

Today was really fun, I think I’m going to miss Vientiane. I will keep you updated on our progress on our way to Lao Ngam.

*Word of the Day: Ga-loo-na (pronounced exactly how it looks), it means please.

It was Mom’s birthday today!!! Happy Birthday Mom!

We went out in the morning and walked to the Lao Telecom building so that Mom could get more data on her phone. Then we walked around a little bit. We then decided we would go to the cafe near our apartment for lunch. As we were walking back we passed by the “French Institute” and saw that there was a cafe inside there. We decided to check out that cafe instead of walking all the way back, and it was very yummy. We both ordered veggie burgers and soda water. Then we went home and enjoyed the rest of her birthday by having a relaxing afternoon.

*Word Of the Day: Haan (pronounced: hawn), it means hot, which we are saying a lot because of how warm it is here!

 

Today was our last day at the Cuso office before we take off for the village of Lao Ngam. This morning we were exiting our apartment and were greeted by this adorable sight.

So then, with the other volunteers we cycled to the Cuso office. It was a pretty ordinary day there, but instead of going to one of the restaurants around the office there was a giant “welcome” lunch cooked for the new volunteers. It was delicious! There was soup, salad, rice and more! My favourite was a vegetable called “Morning Glory”, it was really good.

After lunch, the kitchen staff surprised us by bringing out a cake! It was for the Volunteers having October birthdays, which my Mom was one of. It was a beautiful cake. It even had three roses made out of chocolate.

We are having a fantastic time here. I’m adjusting the the life quite well, and I think Mom is too. I wish the best to all you back home.

*Word of the day: Dii (pronounced dee), it means “good”.

 

Sorry its been a little while since I have posted. I’m a bit behind due to everything that’s happening.

Anyway, we went on a field trip today! Our language teacher took us to a place called “Buddha Park”. We took a bus there. It was a bit of a drive (45 minutes or so), but it was really nice to be able to look out on the streets and see how the landscape changed as we got farther away from the city. As soon as we got there we saw a whole garden full of different ancient figures. There was one that was a giant dome-like temple you could actually climb up inside to get to the top.

The whole park was actually built 75 years ago by a monk who studied both Buddhism and Hinduism. Even though it is called Buddha Park a lot of the statues are important to the Hindu religion.

So of course we decided to go in and climb up it! We entered the “mouth” of the dome.

Inside it was so cool. We had to go up some precarious looking steps to get to this room that had a whole bunch of statues in it.

And so finally we ascended to the top where we had to climb out yet another mouth.

 

When we got to the top it was a beautiful view of the whole park. I looked up at the top of the temple, which made me feel a bit dizzy.

So after admiring the view for a bit we headed  down and out through the mouth again.

We then walked around and looked at all the other statues at the park. Here are a few of our favourites.

There were also a whole bunch of the most beautiful butterflies flying around and landing on all the flowers. They were very fast and almost impossible to photograph. Luckily, we did get this guy who is yet to become a butterfly.

As we were walking around we found another little temple you could climb up, but this one was very steep and probably wouldn’t be allowed in North America. I climbed up it a little bit but I was too scared to go all the way.

It was a very eventful and fun day. I hope you all are doing well! La Garn!

*Word of the day: wat (pronounced w-aw-t), it means temple.