teaching Science instead

So as many of you know, I intended to volunteer as an English teacher in Luang Prabang. The short story is that the group with whom I was working was terribly disorganized and combined with Laos culture and politics the situation was a disaster. So I stopped doing that. At the same time I realized that personally I was ineffective at teaching English and that what I really wanted to be doing was hands-on stuff. To be doing science experiments...

As fate would have it, I met an expat running a non-profit library here in Luang Prabang, the website is: www.thelanguageproject.org. A neat lady. She started here five years ago on her own money and has built up several self-sustaining libraries in Luang Prabang. Its much more than a library now, it has expanded to include photography and computers and music. And now hands-on science...

She has basically given me free run at the library to set up experiments with the kids. Its been an experiment for me as well, to see what works and what doesn't. So we have tried a couple different things. An advertised event targeting all levels of science. A self-guided experiment. An experiment targeting university students. Every single day something happens that I could not have imagined the day before. I will be sharing some of these experiments, crazy stories and revelations in upcoming blogs...

The idea is to create hands-on, fun, science projects to help the kids learn and explore on their own. To inspire others to discover within themselves new levels of potential. I won't do presentations or lectures. To introduce the kids to new kinds of learning (i.e. not rote memorization) and hopefully nudge the teachers to try new kinds of learning.

I created a delicious account to keep track of websites out there with good ideas:
del.icio.us/brainbugscience. So if you have any ideas for projects or implementation I would love to hear it. Comments & criticisms too. Anything really.

I'm back to blogging!

Sorry readers, I've been sick lately. I was considering a flight to Bangkok to go to a real hospital, but things are fine now. I'm sure there is no correlation between getting sick and the larger number of New Years parties I attended... Expect a flurry of blogging as I catch you up on everything that has happened since the new year.

Kuang Si Waterfall

Kuang Si Waterfall is one of the major tourist destinations near Luang Prabang. I spent the afternoon swimming in the beautiful travertine dams and hiking up to the top of the waterfall. Abbot Sipaeng from one of the local temples went with two other volunteer English teachers and I. It was an amazing afternoon.

This is my favorite photo from the day.


Its so neat to see a 22 year old abbot as a normal person in addition to a venerable monk. This stoic photo, while one of my favorites, does not do justice to Sipaeng's personality. He really is something of a comedian.

Trip to Sopjam Village

The trip to Ban Sopjam started with a tuk-tuk bus ride with a bag of potatoes resting on my feet and an old man resting his hand on my knee. I knew I was leaving the westernized city of Luang Prabang for the real Laos. A village with 200 people. My companions for this journey were a fellow English teacher, Tricia, and a novice monk named Sayphone.

We switched from the bumpiness of the tuk-tuk to the serenity of a slow boat after a bit of lunch in Nong Kiau. Somehow words are lacking to describe the river... groves of oranges, water buffalo, kids playing, the green lushness, splashing a novice with water, and then seeing the most beautiful beach and thinking, "I hope we're staying there." We did.

The first night was amazing... Meeting kids setting traps for rats (yes, to eat)... Dinner with the headman... Drinking lau lao whiskey... Teaching the alphabet to village kids... The kids and dogs and chickens running around the village... An old woman stoned out of her mind chewing betel... Drinking lau lao with the men into the wee hours...

Day 2. Some villagers took us on a hike to other nearby villages. A Khmu village. This was first time meeting Khmu people, they don't speak Laos (or at least it's not their first language). It was amazing to be there. The village was busy weighing bags of rice. Two men held a stout piece of bamboo on their shoulders while 50 kg bags of rice hung from the weighing mechanism. Unfortunately the lau lao from the night before was taking its toll on me...

We saw the jungle path that the villagers were quite proud of, they had been widening it so they could use their new hand cart to move heavy bags of rice. We ate lunch by the rice fields, fresh fish served on bamboo leaves in the hut. This is when I realized something was more wrong with me than just a hangover...

Back at Sopjam I opted out of the Baci ceremony the village had prepared for us in order to sleep off the stomachache. Fortunately, Tricia and Sayphone were able to participate and take heaps of great photos!


I wanted reality and I saw it. Wow! The rawness of seeing villagers living so close to the land. So close to their food sources. When was the last time you slaughtered a pig for dinner? Or even gutted a fish for lunch?

I plan to go back and spend a little more time in Ban Sopjam when I get the chance.

Americas Secret War

Laos is often referred to as a buffer state, which exists only to ensure that none of the surrounding countries have to border each other. The leaders in Laos are in the difficult position of having to play off China's military might, Thailand's commercial aggressiveness, and Vietnam's population pressures, while keeping everyone happy. A favorite quote from the French newspaper Le Monde in 1993, "This country's only hope is to become, within the next 10 or 20 years, a bridge between its powerful neighbours, while at the same time managing to avoid being engulfed by either of them".

A brief summary of the history of Laos:

• In 1893 France began a 50 year occupation of Laos as a colony.
  
• Towards the end of World War II, Japan lead lead a coup in the administration. The surrender of the Japanese later that year fueled a movement for Laos independence.
  
• In 1953 France granted the country full independence and began suffering defeats with the Viet-Minh in northern Laos.
  
• With the Geneva Accord in 1954 Laos was guaranteed freedom and neutrality but quickly became the focus of the superpowers. Laos was becoming the dreaded "first domino" of Eisenhower's famous analogy. The U.S. began to get involved.
  
• In 1962 another Accord was signed guaranteeing Laos neutrality and denying the Viet Minh access to the Ho Chi Minh Trail.
  
• With the Viet Minh denying the existence of the Ho Chi Minh Trail while simultaneously enlarging it, the US began deploying undercover forces and bombing the trail.
  
• Thus began the US secret bombing of a neutral country, the so-called Secret War. "Raven" was the call sign used by pilots flying secret missions into Laos.
  
• The communists' final victories over Saigon in April 1975 catalyzed the Pathet Lao control over the Laos capital, Vientiane.
  
• In 1991 there was a shift in economic policy to embracing pro-market reform. Which leads us to the Laos of today: a communist country with a westernizing population.
  

To put the magnitude of the US air war in Laos in perspective: more bombs rained on Laos in the 1960s and '70s than during the Second World War; 2,093,100 tonnes of bombs were dropped on Laos - equivalent to 700 kg per person.

The real problem today is the 500,000 tonnes of unexploded ordnance (UXO) scattered throughout Laos' provinces.


Relevant books for further reading:
The Ravens by Christopher Robbins
A Short History of Laos : The Land in Between
Buddhist Kingdom, Marxist State : The Making of Modern Laos by Martin Stuart-Fox


Some wikipedia links:
History of Laos from Wikipedia
Domino Theory from Wikipedia


Some other links:
U.S. Department of State Background Note on Laos


Also interesting:
The character Kurtz, played by Marlon Brando, in the movie Apocalypse Now is based on the CIA's unsavory operative, Anthony Posepny and his dealings in Northern Laos.

Merry Christmas from Colorado

Lots of snow back home...


My family...


and my Christmas present...

Merry Christmas from Laos

First time its ever snowed in Laos...

Merry Christmas!

Pak Ou Buddha Caves

The famous and sacred caves overlooking the confluence of the Mekong and Ou Rivers are the home to many thousands of Buddha statues. King Setthathirat found the caves in the 16th century and declared them a holy spot. Many still pay respects here according to the old traditions.

Pok Deng - Beginners Luck

Met a great group of Thai folks traveling in Luang Prabang for the Thai Constitution holiday - some PhD students in biology traveling with their teacher. They invited me to dinner and I accepted. A few bowls of noodle soup later and we were all friends. Unfortunately they wouldn't let me pay for dinner, but I offered to buy some beer later. It seemed like a fair trade.

Back at the guesthouse we started a nice game of high stakes gambling for 20 baht a hand.

The game was similar to black jack but here's the official description. Everything was based on nines. Everyone is dealt two cards including the dealer who acts like the house. If your cards add to 9 you are an instant winner. Kings, queens, jacks and tens are all worth 0 points. If your cards add to ten or more you just keep the last digit (e.g. a 9 and a 7 = 16 which equals 6 points). After the first round you have the choice of taking one additional card or not. If your cards add to more than the dealers you win, if they are less you lose and if they are the same it's a push.

Payout is where things get a little crazy. If you have a winning hand and both of your cards are the same suit you win double. Sounds great doesn't it? Well, the dealer can also get two of the same suit and you can lose double... haha There is also a double payout if the winning hand has two of the same card (e.g. two 4s). Things pay triple if the winning hand has three cards of the same suit or same number. A couple of special payouts: a hand of three kings, queens or jacks or one of each pays triple even though the sum is zero; a hand of three aces, if it wins, pays quintuple!

Enough of the rules... Let's get to the fun, I ended up taking all their money, a couple hundred baht at the end of the night! haha, I thought it was a great game! I felt bad for receiving a free dinner and then taking all their money... But they ended up winning it all back the following evening and I bought beer. It all works out in the end.

Simple yah? Except the counting was all done in Thai language...

Baci Ceremony

We were told that today was a particularly lucky day to hold a Baci ceremony as it was the new moon that starts the new year. When a orange-robed novice monk shows up at your guesthouse inviting you to attend a Baci ceremony what else can you say but yes? And that's how I met Sipon the novice monk...

The adventure started with a Mekong river crossing in a pirogue, a motorized craft carved from a single tree trunk. Picture a grandma totting a rooster in a bamboo cage, a throng of young girls returning home from selling "lucky birds" and bracelets, a novice monk named Sipon and three volunteer English teachers all overflowing in a boat a few inches off the Mekong.

We walked the thirty minutes of the dirt road to the Hmong village and were introduced to the village headman with hands raised as if in prayer, the nop of greeting.

The table was decorated with a marigold and banana leaf cone similar to the Krathong of Thailand. Two bowls were filled with the contents of a chicken

The Baci ceremony consisted of touching the table and saying a few prayers for good luck and fortune. Then each member of the family tied a bundle of white cotton fibers around each wrist of all of the guests while saying individualized prayers and gently giving a two-handed handshake. A feast of chicken and cooked vegetables was laid out on the best linens (banana leaves) on the floor with sticky rice.

In a show of friendship, the headman put his hand on my knee. Luckily I had seen this cultural sign before and understood it to be a sign of friendship...

Its amazing how far a few words in a foreign language will get you. By learning just a few key phrases in the local language I speak infinitely more Lao than the typical tourist and its times like these that make me so happy to be able to communicate with my hosts. Even if just a little.

We were offered shots of backyard hooch called, "Lau Lao". As we drank the potent homemade rice whiskey, the hosts seemed to enjoy our gnarled faces the most... After each shot of whiskey we were handed a piece of chicken. Interesting to note that we were handed generous pieces of the best meat...

As things were being cleared we were asked if we wanted to buy beer. From the western perspective its a little strange to be invited to a party and then told to buy beer... But we had to remind ourselves that we have more money in our wallets than the whole village makes in month. For them this party was an investment... An investment in the education of their children... So we each kicked out the equivalent of a few dollars. The headman's wife returned a little while later with Pepsi's for everyone. She said the store was closed, but we weren't sure if that meant the store was closed or we hadn't contributed enough for the beer fund...

If you look close at some of the photos you can see the red-ringed mouths of some of the Grandmas who were chewing betel... Also interesting to note was the poster of UXO (unexploded ordinances) on the bamboo wall of their home...

View of Luang Prabang

HDR photo of Luang Prabang from Mt Phousi.

Monks d'Orange

A sketch I made in journal on the second day I was in town. The monks often carry an umbrella to give themselves shade from the hot midday sun. The novice monks wear day-glo orange robes with one bare shoulder (except at 4 am when they are freezing cold accepting alms), the adult monks wear day-glo orange robes that cover both shoulders, and the distinguishing feature of the three senior monks in town is that they are old, hobbled men. The effect is that the town is crawling with monks in orange and the tourists that photograph them.

At first, I had the same impression as other tourists that the novice monks were venerable members of society to be treated with respect. Well, yes, but... The majority of the novice monks come from very poor families, often Hmong families from the mountains, that live subsistence lives. Joining the monastery as a novice monk is often the only way a young man can get an education (while also getting free accommodations and two meals a day). So the novice monks become a boarding school of sorts...

3 currency transactions

Its been fun paying for things in Laos. It is a completely 3 currency system of paying for things, soon to be four with the inclusion of the euro into the mix. Prices are usually listed in the local currency, kip.

I've become a master at converting prices between the three. Roughly speaking, 10,000 kip equals a dollar, and 30 baht equals a dollar. So, of course, 1 Thai baht equals 300 Laos kip.

Have you figured it out yet? Here's your test: suppose you want to buy a kua pak and nam dip for lunch for 12,000 kip and you pay with a 100 baht note. How much change do you get in kip and how much did it cost you in US dollars??

hahaha, welcome to my world...

language...

So I've been trying to learn a little Lao language. What a challenge...

The writing system is fairly complex and this is complicated by several facts: there is no official system of transliteration into English; as a former French colony many of the words are based on French; and there are regional dialects that vary... To complicate everything, vowels are not always indicated by a single symbol but by multiple symbols that may come before, after, above and below the consonant symbol. So other than basic words like Beerlao and toilet I haven't bothered much with reading...

Learning to speak Lao is much simpler than English from a grammatical sense. There are no verb tenses like in English (go, went, goes) but there are five tones: mid, low, falling, high, and rising. Five completely different words can come from the identical English spelling.

But, as always, the language gives clues to the culture. Lao has many words based off the word for the heart, jai. To understand is to enter the heart, khao jai. To be glad is to feel good at heart, di jai. To be angry is to feel bad at the heart, jai hai. To be absent-minded is to have a floating heart, jai loy. To be impatient is to have a hot heart, jai hon. There are many, many more... A culture with so many shades of meaning based on the heart is a deeply sensitive culture.

Delicious Laos Food

Photos of dinner from a favorite restaurant. Tofu lahp.


Mushroom eggplant steamed in a banana leaf.


Fried bananas with chocolate sauce.


Ah-hahn seep!

Mount Pousi HDR

Two images from the Wat on Mount Phousi. If you have been to Luang Prabang you know this temple because it is on top of a mountain in the middle of town, you can see it from everywhere.

The first image is an unprocessed image exposing on the landscape outside. What a view! The second image is a combination of 5 images created using HDR freeware. Although I am not totally happy with the flat, muddy HDR image, it is more interesting than the first image. UPDATE: second try with a little more local contrast gives better feeling of depth.

Tip of the hat to SanchoTramp for pointing me to the HDR freeware to create HDR images! Check out his blog: Sancho Goes Walkabout

My Guesthouse in Laos

I am staying at the venerable Oudalon GH. It is on the SW side of town that sees very few tourists, actually most of the guests are cousins of the owner.









My room in the GH. Comfy bed. Gets a little chilly at night since there is only a screen for a window, nothing to close. Does have beautiful silk window shades...












The view from my window. The wooden shack in front is where the owners live and operate a laundry service. When I eat dinner with the family, we eat on the picnic tables in front. Laundry costs $0.80 per kg.











The lightswitch in my room. Don't touch anything metal, that's my advice.













And that most important of places, the toilet (and shower). There's a couple things to note here. The bucket is for low-tech flushing, not washing. The shower only has one knob, and yes, its not for hot water...

Day one in Laos

I wasn't nervous about landing in Laos like I was in Bangkok, somehow I could sense the laid back vibe before I even set foot here.

The pace here is so laid back and friendly, I immediately felt comfortable. After meeting the people I will be volunteering with over a fried rice lunch. Photo of my first, of presumably many, beerlao along the bank of the Mekong river.


After meeting some other volunteers over dinner, the inducted me in the Laos disco. I certainly wasn't thinking about discos when I signed up for this. Place is crazy! There was hip-hop dancing to modern Laos music. Line dancing. Laos version of salsa dancing. Sad slow songs. All while being at least two feet taller than anyone in the entire place. Plus there were massages while peeing in the WC. Too much info for one paragraph? That's kind of how the evening felt to me...

Met so many wonderful people at the disco last night, I hope that I can remember your monosyllabic names the next time we meet. Cheers!

Cock Fighting

Went to the weekend market, which was amazing in and of itself, but my friend and I happened upon a line of roosters in cages. Around the corner was a bunch of shouting, I realized they were cocks for fighting...

Pangs of animal rights and animal cruelty kept flashing through my head, but I had to remind myself to observe. This was real Thai culture in action that we had stumbled upon. Lasted a lot longer than I would have guessed, the single match lasted thirty minutes at least. Lots of shouting from guys watching. Feather flew. Money changed hands. In the end, I'm not even sure which cock won, they both looked exhausted.

I had heard that they attach razors or knifes to the cocks legs but this was not the case today. Perhaps it was just a training fight, which is why it lasted so long and ended without a clear winner. I really have no idea.

Loi Krathong festival

Was lucky enough that my week of layover in Bangkok between Japan and Laos landed on a major festival called Loi Krathong that is celebrated on the full moon night of the 12th lunar month (mid-November). Also known as the Festival of Lights, the banks of the Chao Phraya river shine with Krathong and boom with fireworks.

The word Loi means to float and Krathong is a cup created with banana leaves in the shape of lotus petals and adorned with flowers, incense, candles and coins. People dress in their finest clothes and make a wish before drifting their Krathong onto the river. The floating of the Krathong is intended to expel all sins and sufferings as well as ask for amnesties to the Goddess of the River in contaminating her bounty.

I thought it was interesting they floated a bunch of junk, albeit beautiful at night, to ask forgiveness for "contaminating her bounty". Heard a second explanation that the ritual is meant to worship the Buddha's footprint on the bank of the Narmada River...



And then there were fireworks. Although not as impressive as Japanese fireworks in terms of size, the proximity to the crowds certainly made up for it. My chest was reverberating with each shell they exploded...

Apparently the festivals vary quite a lot across Thailand. A friend staying in Chiang Mai described thousands of Khom Fai released into the air. Imagine mini hot air balloons floating in the sky instead of the river. Sounded interesting..

Loi Krathong

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving from Bangkok everyone!

Send me photos of your feast and family and I will post them here if you like.

Art show

Tokyo Ramen

This is what multicolored Tokyo ramen looks like. Delicious eh? Not really, it is actually quite difficult to swallow. The locals don't call it ramen they actually call it "the subway".

My last two days in Japan I trolled the streets of Tokyo for supplies before I leave for Bangkok. Now that I am an expert in Japanese language, with all of the 50 words I know, navigating Tokyo (and the subway system) should now be easy. Wrong! Its just as difficult in Japanese as it is without.

But I survived... Now armed with a new journal full of empty white pages and a ticket from Bangkok to Luang Prabang airport I am set! SE Asia, here I come...

What a wonderful experience Japan has been. If anything stands out, it was the incredible hospitality. Thank you. I only hope that the USA can return the favor for you some day in the future. I will be back to slurp ramen noodles again...

Morioka leaves

I was surprised to find some Japanese maple leaves still changing colors in Morioka. A couple of my favorite photos from the park.

Farewell Party - どうもありがとうございます！

Very sad to be leaving friends in Hakodate, they threw me a going away party last night. Friend closed her restaurant, Cocolo, on a Friday night for a private party for me. Humbling. Amazing o-sakana nabe cooking; a sort of fish/veggie mixture that you cook yourself in a bowl of boiling broth with veggies. Wow, delicious! She went all out with salads and sashimi and snacks and beers. Even a cake. Did i mention i was humbled? I wish I could remember the names of all the different kinds of sashimi and the names of the veggies in the salads. I was having so much fun, I forgot to take photos during dinner, I suppose its best that way.

After dinner we went to Eileys and Yamashitas for a couple beers and to share the leftover food with everyone. I am so lucky to have such wonderful friends in Hakodate. Thank you for the gifts, I only hope I can repay the hospitality someday.

Thank you my Hakodate friends!!

函館友人:
どうもありがとうございます！
私は、すぐにあなたに会います。

V ( ^ _ ^ ) V