the ELEPHANT FESTIVAL!!!!!!!!! Paklai, Feb 18-20, 2011

This was an AMAZING weekend. I had been looking forward to going to this ever since I came across an advertisement for it in a "things to do in Laos" book that one of the girls from Laos gave to me in August at the SALT/IVEP orientation in Pennsylvania. , That's almost 6 months of anticipation...and it was so worth it.

Highlights (in chronological order)

1) Getting there! 8 hour public bus ride! The festival was is Pak Lai, a small town in the neighboring province, chosen for the important role elephants have played in the community's economy (primarily logging) both historically and currently. It's only about 300km away from Vientiane, but because the only road there is a small, one lane road that winds along, following the Mekong River , it took forever! We left at 8am and pulled in at 4pm. Granted that did include a lunch break and a couple "potty stops" where you could get out and squat behind some bushes (or if you were the Lao men, just turn your back on the bus right there at the side of the road...). To give a little comparison about how bad the roads are, look at this map. I circled my starting point (Vientiane) and the destination: Pak Lai. Not that far - 8 hours. When I went to Thailand a few months ago, I went to Khon Kaen (also circled), about the same distance - 3 hours. That was a normal, Western highway experience...The first half was unpaved and SUPER bumpy (sometimes we would all FLY out of our seats!) and SUPER dusty!! This is of course a no AC bus, so it was nice to have the windows down...except you couldn't with all the dust! Even with the windows closedmy face, clothes, everything was covered in a thick layer of dust by the time we stopped for lunch. The bus was really really crowded too - the aisles were full of people sitting on little plastic stools. All the luggage went on top of the bus, but I kept my one backpack with me...which is good since I swear I saw something blue fall after a particularly nasty bump. The second half was paved but very curvy, as we slowly chugged up and down a few little "mountains" (hills, really). A few times I really worried about the bus brakes holding on! And right before we got to Pak Lai we had to cross the Mekong on a little ferry boat! It was just big enough to hold us plus five other cars.

2)Home Stay. Because Pak Lai is such a small town, there aren't enough guest houses for Elephant Festival visitors. So the festival organizers worked with the village authorities to create "home stays." Basically people opened up their houses to guests by providing a mosquito net and some sort of bed or mat.

Even though it is only 30,000kip ($3.75) a night, it is an important income opportunity for such a poor community, so many people were signing up. These are pictures of where I stayed. It wasn't the most exciting part of the trip for me, since I have been living in a home stay for the past 6 months...but one notable adventure: I noticed AFTER I had showered and brushed my teeth, that there was a huge CATFISH swimming around in the bathroom's water basin!!!

3) ELEPHANTS!!!!! They were in parades, hanging out in a courtyard area with crowds of people...there was an elephant baci (the Buddhist ceremony where you tie white strings on people's wrists for good luck - except this time you tie them onto their TUSKS! yes, there is a picture of me there, wishing the elephant good luck).
They kept announcing that there were 50 elephants in the parade, but I didn't see that many. 50 was probably the total. There were still around 20-25 elephants in the parade.


I got to see the elephants working (pulling logs, etc), bathing in the river...big ones, little babies,...elephants dressed up in festive garb - elephants elephants ELEPHANTS! (my favorite was the one with the big communist flag draped over it's back (she's featured in the first picture on this blog...and I specifically,picked that one to tie my baci string on!) AND I even got to ride one! ;) only 20,000kip! ($2.50)
It was just incredible how close to the elephants you were the whole time! My friend Emma, who is here as a volunteer vet with an NGO said that it probably wasn't the safest thing. There were some security people wandering around with the elephants, but they didn't have much work to do. The elephants were really well behaved. It was funny how natural it felt by the end of the day to just be milling around with the elephants. To give you an idea of just how close we constantly were, the picture down below here, where the elephant is going down hill, was taken without a zoom.
I was a little surprised that some of the elephants weren't dressed up/decorated more. But I think that is just because I was thinking of pictures I had seen of elephants in cultural ceremonies in India. And there was a real charm to seeing the elephants look natural too. It helped create that "this is totally normal" feeling, instead of it being like a circus or something. It was easy to imagine what it would be like to live in Laos long ago, when there were so many more elephants. (Random Fact: before Laos was a country, or I should say, before it was a French colony, it was know as Lane Xang - the kingdom of a Million Elephants)
Oh, and last thing, it was soooo cool: the elephants could do this really great trick! People would put money (1,000 kip) out and the elephant would reach out...grab it in it's trunk...and then hoist it up over it's head to hand it to the mahout (elephant rider/driver)!! I couldn't resist. It was so worth that 20 cents :)


And, to conclude...highlight #4) The People. I got to spend time with my running friend Emma (the one in the pic) and her friend Tracy. I also ran into Noun, either a neighbor or relative of my host family. She abducted me for a few hours there during the festival and I got to meet her family - they were really fun (and really drunk). We had a great little song-and-dance time together (hence the cymbals..) I love meeting new Lao people =) they are sooo nice. Speaking of, I also had a lot of fun talking to the really sweet grandmothers and grandchildren who were watching the parade near me. There is nothing I love more than being able to strike up conversation with random people in Lao language! Oh, and on this trip I even got to use my Lao language to help a little girl who was lost find her parents. I saw her walking down the street crying...I felt so grateful that I was able to comfort and help her.

oh, and I also had my modeling debut. haha. Emma, Tracy, Jennifer and I were recruited as western models for this Lao cotton clothing company! The second day of the festival we went up on stage and did the classic catwalk model strut to this obscure ABBA song...it was hilarious! Unfortunately, no pictures of this adventure.

The 2011 Elephant Festival was a fabulous weekend that was rejuvenating and refreshing in every sense! Getting out of the city to see the beauty in Laos' nature and culture really helped renew my sense of excitement for this opportunity to live in this amazing country.

My Lao Christmas: God gives good gifts

{WARNING: this post is super long...if you want, I give you permission to just look at the pictures, but I wanted to put the details in for my curious parents and grandparents}

Well, one thing is for certain: this was a Christmas to remember!

The fun started Christmas Eve. After thanking God for the Christmas gift of a gorgeous sunrise run, I scurried over to school for the Jingle Bells sing-a-long (see previous "Nita Christmas" post). I taught my usual two Friday morning classes (well, if by "taught" you mean sang Christmas songs and played Christmas charades...then, yes, I taught two classes). The Nita teachers were all especially friendly and joyful that morning - just the Christmas Spirit, I suppose ;) They were laughing and joking, taking pictures with me, and saying really nice things, like how they were going to miss me when I left. I even got to share what I think was water chestnuts with two of the teachers during my midmorning break! (I started humming "chestnuts roasting on an open fire"...I don't think they meant this kind of nut...but, really, that's pretty close.) It was very meaningful to have so many positive interactions with my fellow teachers, giving me a little reminder of how far I'd come in the three months I'd been teaching at Nita: this was my second Christmas present.

Christmas Eve dinner was a very western affair. Wendy (the MCC boss) had a little part for us, complete with a white elephant gift exchange and Christmas cookie decorating! The MCC Lao "mae baan" (housekeeper/cook) make hamburgers and French fries...not the typical Christmas food, but it definitely was a fun little piece of home to share together with some of the MCC Lao staff.

Finally, at 7pm a few of us headed over to the Christmas Eve service at Na Sai, the Lao Evangelical Church I've been attending. It was so fun to see the Church all decked out in Christmas lights and pageantry! I've been attending this Lao church for quite a number of weeks, so I've gotten pretty decent at reading along and actually being able to sing the songs in Lao, even though I can't understand exactly what I'm singing about. The Christmas Eve service was great because I already knew the songs so well that I could feel like I knew what I was saying, even as I was singing the Lao words! We sang Joy to the World, It Came Upon a Midnight Clear, O Little Town of Bethlehem, and Silent Night. I just LOVE singing in a different language! And I also take great joy in picking out the few words I do know in the songs. This time my favorite "ah-ha!" moment of Lao language understanding was when I read the first line of the next song (before the music had started) and understood what song it was!! "o baan noy noy suu betleeham" (literally "o very small village named Bethlehem"): my third Christmas present.

I took some neat videos of parts of the service, but seeing as it might take an entire day to upload them,I'll have to share those later. Maybe even next Christmas!

On the way home, I stopped by a food stand to get myself a treat: a taro drink-in-a-bag! I also enjoyed a nice little conversation with the lady who ran the stand. It was a great little boost in confidence to be able to buy my food with ease and even chat with her - I love these little language successes! Yet another little "Christmas gift" moment. =)

OH I almost forgot! I had another little surprise present when I got home that night! My host sister, Puna, had put up this sparkly maroon and silver tinsel around the door and window in my room! =)

Phew! And that was just Christmas eve! Christmas Day was eventful too, but I'll try to be brief and let the pictures do more of the talking...

In the morning, I woke up early to run (another great sunrise!) then made breakfast for my host family - French toast! They seemed to like it (and actually, I got further confirmation that they did a few weeks later when they requested that I make it again/show them how to make it)
but it didn't turn out like home, possibly because I was cooking in in a wok...
After breakfast I gave my family the cards I had made them (with little notes written in Lao! oh it was really hard but totally worth it). and I had printed off some pictures I had taken during my first few month living with them that I gave as presents, oh except to the little ones, they got coloring books =)

Then, off for the big adventure of the day - a trip to Nam Ngum!
This is the name of a lake that was formed by the construction of a hydro electric dam 90 km north of Vientiane. (that's the dam behind my head in the pic...but the water you see there is the river on the other side, not the lake). It is HUGE. 250 sq km. The dam was built in the 1970s. The dam has been a huge part of the Lao economy. 70-80% of the electricity from Nam Ngum is exported to Thailand. Hydroelectricity (from this dam and others) is the number one export of Laos.

I LOVED this trip! The dam flooded so much space in this valley that it has created a landscape that really reminded me of the Puget Sound, aka HOME! All the little hills in the valley have now become little islands. I thought they were all deserted but was informed by Peng (the Lao guy who came with us) that one of the islands actually has a prison on it! But the prisoners aren't locked up; they just live in a little village, stuck on this island in the middle of the lake. The Lao Alcatraz looked a lot nicer =)


We took a boat out to a picnic lunch on an island! We brought along our own fish, but Peng helped us cook it Lao-style over a fire on the beach. It was so wonderful to have this peaceful setting (soooo quite out there in the lake!) to just eat, play UNO, and enjoy the beauty of this sunny Christmas Day (it was beautiful clear skies and about 80 degrees).

On the way home, we took a few detours trying to find Peng's uncle's house...after a few U-turns we finally found the house, just as the sun was setting over the nearby farmland. We were warmly welcomed by his aunt and cousins, but his uncle was actually not at home.

And what would a Christmas Day road trip be without some carols?! We took turns sharing our favorites, which ended up being an amazing opportunity to hear some Khamu Christmas songs. Khamu is one of the smaller ethnic groups in Laos. Both Peng and his wife, Dtum, are Khamu and Christian...and beautiful singers! Khamu language definitely sounds a lot different than Lao! It has a lot of rolled R's and in a way, kind of reminded me of this weird mix of Lao with a hint of...Russian? It was unlike any language I had heard before and it was so neat to hear Jesus' birth being proclaimed in such a foreign tongue. Another "gift"? Yes, I think so.

Just when you thought the Christmas day adventures MUST be over...no, it was time for the strangest one of all. We got back, changed into our Lao skirts (sinhs) and went to have dinner at Kong's house (he works for MCC). It was a very special Buddhist event - a relative blessing. Kong's family was honoring 5 dead relatives by building (buying?) 5 bed-like canopy things and then having everyone come and give offerings of money, fruit, candy, flowers, etc in exchange for a blessing from the family and some monks. Oh, and one of the sons in the family has to become a monk for a week following the ceremony - and it was our friend Kong's turn! Unfortunately, it is disrespectful to take pictures at this kind of ceremony, but here is a picture of one of these "offering beds" that I found online.


SO that meant that Christmas dinner was Lao food! I wont bother giving the Lao names but here is an "english-ized" version of the menu: Meat salad, sticky rice, spicy noodle soup, spring rolls, tamarind, and mandarin oranges.

Finished off the night in Western-style by having a sleepover at the MCC guest house with Whitney and watching Elf =)

It was a crazy, peaceful, wonderful, surprising, and one-of-a-kind Christmas.

"We wish you a merry chrit-mat" : Sharing Christmas at Nita School

Hello and a very belated merry Christmas blog entry!
I really enjoyed the holiday season here in Laos. For one thing, it meant getting to do fun Christmas activities in my classes at school! I taught them Christmas songs (Jingle Bells and We Wish You a Merry Christmas were the easiest, but I tried out Deck the Halls and a few others with M4A - they're one of my best, most enthusiastic classes!). I loved getting to play "music teacher" at the end of every class period all of December! The kids loved learning the songs and by the end of the month "jingle bells" could be heard breaking out randomly in the corridors and courtyards.

Also, it was just the cutest thing ever to have these tiny little primary school students come up to you and say "merry christmas" during recess and lunch times, because Whitney was doing a great job teaching even the littlest P1 and P2 students about Christmas. (or more like "melly chritmat" since the lao language doesnt have the letter/sound of "r" and the letter/sound "s" is not a final consonant (meaning you can never end a syllable with that letter. thus, the sound of "Chris-mas" would be tricky...)


I also had my classes make Christmas cards. Even though I told them to give it to a friend, many many students gave their cards to me! I have a whole section of my room decorated with their pictures and cute messages. Most just wrote the standard "merry Christmas and happy new year" but I did get a few more creative ones that included sayings like "i love teacher lisa" and "i wish you beautiful and happy forever." My favorite was a really sweet girl who wrote "we very happy have teacher lisa come teach us. want to teach us forever. you're very fun. you smile is very big and beautiful." =) I did the Christmas card activity just to let them have some fun and review some vocab (Christmas tree, snowman, etc.). Little did I know I would be receiving so much love and affirmation!! it was a great Christmas present. (unfortunately, I haven't taken a picture of the wall of cards in my room. i'll have to do that soon.)

Another Christmas-y activity at school was that Whitney and I baked Christmas cookies to give to all the teachers and staff! We had to do it one saturday at Wendy's house (the MCC laos country program administrator, aka my boss) because our host families both don't have ovens (very standard for Lao kitchens. they dont do oven/stove-top cooking. it's all over a fire or in an electric wok!)We had a great time baking the cookies (complete with cookie cutters and red and green icing)...and the teachers loved eating them! We we're really pleasantly surprised to see them so excited about the cookies!!
Most Lao dessert is really not very sweet, so we were a little concerned about how they would like sugar cookies with icing and sprinkles, but most of them really loved it!

And finally...the big day. Friday. Christmas Eve. Every friday morning Nita school has a little assembly time first thing, from 8 to 8:30. Since we still had school on Christmas Eve (remember, Vientiane is 90% Buddhist...so even though they know quite a bit about Christmas, they don't celebrate it (santa is known here...he just doesn't come...), Whitney and I asked if we could come up during the assembly to lead the kids in a sing-a-long with the two songs we had both been teaching in our classes: Jingle Bells and We Wish You a Merry Christmas. Everyone was very excited about this idea, so we did it! It was great fun! We both stood up on the little stage area, while the entire student body stood either out in front of us in the courtyard or some of the kids surrounded the stage from the balcony above too, as you can see from the pictures below.