Pickled Pak Gad

There is a saying Laos that goes,

‘If a pregnant woman likes to eat sour foods, she’ll have a girl. If she likes to eat sweet foods, she’ll have a boy.’ 

I don’t know if it holds much sway, but for this, my first pregnancy, I’m lovin’ sour!

Laos is a great place to crave sour foods, because the people love to eat them every day. Actually the best translation of ‘snack’ is gin som, which literally means ‘eat sour.’

Mak Fai or Burmese Grapes

Some of their favorite sour snacks include: Dam mak hoong (Papaya Salad), Dam mak tua, (Green bean salad), Som mak kham (Sour tamarind), Mak fai (Burmese grapes), Pomelo and a whole assortment of un-ripe, thus slightly sour fruits (mango, guava, crab apples… etc.).

All of these are on my new ‘favorite’s’ list, but among the very best is Som Pak Gad, especially because I have recently learned to make it myself.  

Som Pak Gad or Pickled Mustard is really easy to make though the name, Pak Gad, is a confusing term for me. Lao people will use it for a large number of leafy vegetables: Kale, Swiss Chard, Mustard, Bak Choy… and more I’m sure. I’ve only seen Som Pak Gad made from what appears to be a Chinese Mustard. I tried to make it with Swiss Chard once and it only rotted – not a do over!

Finished Product

 First you slice the Mustard leaves into stripes into a glass or plastic container. Then sprinkle liberally with salt and ‘knead’ the salt into the leaves. After several minutes the leaves will wilt and feel limp. Rinse with clean water, add more salt and knead again. After the leaves are evenly limp, add enough water to cover the bottom of the container by about an inch. The liquid should be light green in color and taste slightly salty. Finally add a quarter sized ball of cooked rice to the mustard and mix into the leaves and liquid. Cover lightly with cloth and let sit. Here in the tropics Som Pak Gad will be ready in about 1 or 2 days (Some Laotians leave it for longer, but I don’t like mine quite as sour as them). Just keep tasting it until you like the flavor, then cover and store in the refrigerator.

Special Visitors

Earlier this month we were blessed by a visit from Jeffrey’s parents. It was a whirlwind-two-week tour, but relaxing and a needed break for us. After they arrived we quickly whisked them away to our home in Tha Thom. It was fun to show them our stomping grounds.

Welcome to Tha Thom!

During our two full days at home, 11 new chicks popped out of their eggs to see the new comers. Perfect timing since we left the next day!

Peeping, "Hello"

Remembering Nepal Days

Cleaning Garden Fresh Roselle

We quickly showed Mom and Dad the sights in Vientiane and our favorite eateries and then flew up to the old capital of Laos, Luang Prabang. Kaarina and I enjoyed looking down on the windy road which we motorbiked a year ago. (20 minutes by air…and 12 hours by road)!

I Spy Mom and Kaarina...

Real Family Meet Lao Host Family

Visiting the "Vertical Runway"

In Luang Prabang, we saw a waterfall and explored the endless markets and shops. Renting bikes certainly made getting around slick!

Filling up the Rental Bikes

Shrewd  Buyers

Jeffrey Jumping

Steve Sailing

Khuang Si Waterfalls

Biking Around Town

I Spy Mom and Dad

Mom and Dad’s visit was over before we knew it…but it was a blessing! After living in Laos for a year and a half our eyes have become slightly calloused. Showing visiting family around and reveling in the small blessings and beauty of this place allowed us to see the country again with a fresh perspective.

Thanksgiving Tha Thom Style

November 24th marked our second Thanksgiving in Tha Thom. We remember craving the wonderful tastes of home cooking last year, but since we weren’t able to make such a meal we opted for introducing local residents to pancakes. If you want a reminder check out Taste of Home.

This year we find ourselves living in a beautiful home, blessed with a garden, market with varying vegetables and fruit, a large cooking area plus a NEW addition of a gas stove! With such wealth we decided to try our hand at making our own Thanksgiving meal – Tha Thom style.

Cooking and Listening to Toons

During the dry season the local market is a beautiful burst of colorful, local, fresh produce, but finding the necessary ingredients for our meal required some searching. After looking we located some HUGE sweet potatoes from a nearby village (American football size), various produce from the local market and of course a turkey - ours weighed in at 6 kilos (13 lbs)! Sadly no potatoes or squash were to be found, but an MCC'er was able to bring some from Vientiane.

Spit Roasting our Bird

After cooking all day long, our landlord, his wife, two children and father joined us. We feasted on mashed potatoes, squash, stuffing, turkey, gravy, pickled kale (and some real pickles, too!), bread, sweet potato with pudding and of course ‘squash-kin’ pie! Oh, and it should be noted that there was also sticky rice at the table – no Lao meal could be complete without it! Everyone seemed to enjoy the food, but I was most impressed that Pa (our landlord’s father) tried every dish at the table.

Feasting with Guests

We are certainly thankful to be in our own home. What a blessing to share with our neighbors, to feast and celebrate together.

Coffee from Scratch

A sweet perfume permeates our yard in the evenings. The coffee trees that crowd around our well and chicken coops are in full bloom. The smell is strikingly similar to honey suckle. Interestingly, even though the trees are flowering they also sport a ripe crop of coffee cherries at the same time. It’s very strange how seasons for fruit work here in the tropics. Ever since moving into our home I have been eyeing the coffee trees and wondering when I should try to make homemade coffee from scratch.

Fruit and Flowers

Last weekend began the adventure. Standing atop the well cover I managed to harvest a large pot of the red coffee cherries. I then added water to the batch and agitated the mixture with a stick of wood throughout the day. The cherries then loosened their hold on the precious green beans stored within each fruit.

Pot O'Cherries

The next step was slightly tedious, slimy and used quite a bit of water. Coffee beans sink in water and thankfully the fruit floats making for easy separation. Once the green beans were separated I dried them for two days until the seed coat was brittle.

Tedious Processing

Then came another tedious process to shell each seed. To speed up the procedure I used a large mortar and pestle to crush the seed coat then, by rubbing the seeds, the bean would finally emerge. It would be neat to see all the machines that do all this busy work…but there is something rewarding doing it all by hand. After all this processing the large pot of cherries had yielded only one small peanut butter jar of beans!

Finally the roasting could commence. Our cast iron pan worked wonders and after much stirring produced a batch of aromatic black/brown roasted coffee beans. This unique roast is one of a kind and will probably never be perfectly replicated…thus I dub it the “Tha Thom Roast.” I then use the crucible and pestle once more to achieve a fine grind from the freshly roasted beans.

'Tha Thom Roast'

The final step before a hot mug is the brewing. Since we don’t have a coffee pot…a stove pot suffices…simply add coffee grounds and boil! There is certainly something to be said about freshly made coffee. Probably can’t get fresher than this since the cherries were still on the tree a week ago! The flavor is slightly bitter with a zingy aftertaste…and a coffee aroma that makes the mouth water for more.

From Flower to Cup

Driving Test

Living in a different culture from your own leads to some interesting adventures, and many times those interesting adventures come from places you’d never expect. I recently experienced one such escapade while taking my moto driving test with two other MCC volunteers.

Driving the Figure-Eight

Before taking the test we were given a study book of Lao signs and various ‘rules of the road.’ We also practiced the figure eight obstacle course that is part of every test.

On the testing day, we arrived with plenty of time to run through the obstacle course a few times to refresh. We then made our way to the testing room, received our queue number and waited with over a hundred others. In the front of the room was a large screen playing videos. I thought it would be of traffic rules and safety on the road, but I was wrong. My already weak stomach was weakened even more by video after video showing traffic accidents, the majority real life scenarios and graphically R-rated. If they were trying to scare away the weak ones, it almost worked on me! Then the videos changed to accidents in general: wrestling, airplane, helicopter… and we wondered, ‘What do they have to do with taking your driving test?’

We were then introduced to Lao Laws, driving rules and refreshed signs and driving scenarios. This part was very difficult to understand, partly due to the echoing sound system and also to my poor comprehension of Lao driving vocabulary. I hope there wasn’t anything too important!

The testing began. As we received our test booklets and answer sheets, I got a bit scared. There was no way I was going to be able to take this test as a written test! Thankfully they also offer the test orally, so I, and the two other MCC volunteers, separated from the group and waited in a side room.

In a short time a facilitator came and tested us personally. The test itself was quite easy, but the combination of trying to understand the question through broken English and use of British vocabulary often threw me for a loop. The question I found most hard was, ‘What... to do… when you come... to zebra?’ I racked my brain, ‘What is a zebra? Are there even zebras in Laos?’ Apparently he was referring to zebra crossings, an English term for pedestrian crossings.

With the oral test finished, I took a picture, donning a black suit coat as the photographer felt I should look more professional, and made my way to the obstacle course.

The final step in acquiring my license was to drive a figure-eight on a small piece of concrete. All I had to do was follow the painted lines, not put my feet down and not get intimidated by the hundred person audience (others taking their test) or the uniformed facilitator watching closely.

With everything completed, I received my printed license a week later.

100 in Unison

The sound of 100 students brushing their teeth isn’t quite deafening, but it is a sound that certainly gets your attention! This week the nutrition team held a training at one of the village schools about dental health and the 5 food groups (we have 5 here since dairy isn’t ever on the menu). The training was special for two reasons. Firstly, it was the first training I attended where dental hygiene was discussed. And secondly, it was the first training where the team used puppets to convey their lesson about the five food groups.

Puppeting

The puppet show was something we have been trying to implement for a long time. Back in September an MCC staff member who has experience with dramas and puppeteer-ing came to Tha Thom and did a one-day workshop on the topic. Ever since I have been excited and hoping the team would be interested in trying a new way to interact with our target audience. Two weeks ago they asked me to write a story for them to present. The turnaround was short, but thanks to MCC translator, Bounpheng, we were able to crank out a short script for presentation this week!

Teacher Inspecting a Puppet

The concept of puppets to convey a message isn’t new in Laos…in fact we hear that in some parts of the country it is a traditional technique. The team’s first presentation went well! The kids enjoyed it and we hope learned the basics about why eating food from the 5 food groups is important. I hope that we can use more shows like this in the future to engage the audience more.

Lines of Brushers

Following the show, out came the tooth brushes. The students each fetched a glass of water, filled it at the tap and lined up in the school yard. Brushes were distributed as was the paste…some instruction followed…and the scrubbing commenced! For some students this was their first time ever using a tooth brush!

Student Inspecting a Brush

Tooth Paste Mustache

Unfinished Buisness

We haven't posted a 360 pan in a while...so here goes. The following is a pan of the river and unfinished bridge that will link Tha Thom to the south. When it is finished travel time to the capital will decrease to 4-5 hours! Right now travel is at the mercy of the water level. Sometimes we must cross by boat, but in the coming dry season it is possible to cross by project truck.

Click here for the full screen experience.

Feed Trough

Imagine sitting in a restaurant where all your food…all the food you can eat, is delivered directly to your table by conveyor belt. No, you aren’t at a feed lot getting fattened up for market; you are at an all-you-can eat sushi and hot pot buffet!

Menu Board

While at the ECHO conference we decided to scout out the area for restaurants. The Shabu Shi immediately caught our eyes. Rather than be presented with a menu when we entered, we were given a card with pictures of the various ingredients available on the hot pot conveyor and a pictured list of the sushi bar. Instead of paying a flat rate for eating at the buffet you are charged for each 1.25 hours (about 10 dollars). The waiter then asked what type of soup stock we wanted for our hot pots. I chose a spicy ‘tom yum’ and Kaarina a clear soup. We were then directed to our bar-stool seating along the conveyor belt that snaked its way through the restaurant from the kitchen. Raw ingredients (vegetables, meat, seafood, eggs etc.) occupied small plates resting on the conveyor. As a desired plate passed you simply take it off the conveyor and dump the contents into your personal hot pot nested into a hole in the table.

Food Conveyor

For sushi a separate bar was located along one wall (again all you can eat)! To boot, soft drinks and juices along with a fruit bar and ice cream filled in the cracks after the hot pot and sushi stuffing. Just keep track of your time…1 hour and 15 mins is just enough time for a nice meal…as long as you don’t talk too much and keep chewing. As soon as we got up to leave, our places were cleared and two more people took our seats! Who says efficiency can only be found in America?

2011 ECHO Asia Conference

Where can you find over a hundred professionals in various agricultural and developmental fields, representatives from numerous developmental organizations working in over ten different Asian countries, not to mention a nice bunch of plant nerds, but most of all where can you find a place to network with people who are as passionate as you are about helping others? One good place is at the ECHO Asia Agriculture and Community Development Conference held in Chiang Mai, Thailand!

Conference Hall

Jeffrey and I had the opportunity to attend the conference this past week, October 3-7, 2011.

If you have heard of ECHO before, you may be most familiar with their development center in Fort Myers, Florida. Shortly after moving to Laos, we were introduced to their first impact center on this side of the world, Chiang Mai, Thailand. In our first year of community development, ECHO Asia has been a great resource in our work – informing MCC of nutritious local vegetable varieties, connecting us with others working in rice growing so we could ask questions and learn, and providing us a big bag of seeds for this year’s school garden activity!

Some information that we are excited to take back to our work area includes:

A new nutrition curriculum, LANN, compiled by Lao based NGOs which is specifically geared toward rural Lao people. Jeffrey is excited to look through the curriculum and possibly introduce aspects of it to the nutrition team.

Techniques we can use when saving and storing seeds in the tropics. Hopefully some will be appropriate to use in MCC’s school garden activity.

Germination Test

A reminder that what is considered ‘pigweed’ (Amaranth), in most of North America, is actually one of the most nutritious green vegetables in this area! We also learned about the highly nutritious grain variety as well, but are not sure if such a grain would be applicable in Laos yet. We did receive some seed though, so we might try to grow grain amaranth and see if our neighbors like to eat it!

Other things we've tucked into our bags are techniques we want to try in our own garden/home someday!

Biochar Oven

Efficient Rice Husk Stove

One thing we appreciate about ECHO is not only their dedication to equip people with resources and skills to reduce hunger and improve the lives of the poor, but also to honor God in everything they do.We were impressed that people of many different faiths attended the conference both as delegates and as speakers. Jeffrey and I were refreshed by the morning devotions and worship times which reflected ECHO's christian values, and were inspired by connecting with professionals from so many walks of life.

"The Cock Crows, but the Hen Lays the Eggs"

The month has finally arrived! Not only is Kaarina with child, but our chickens are soon to be as well! One afternoon I came home from work to give the chickens their evening meal and found one small egg laid on the floor of the coup. I had heard the tell-tale clucking of egg imminence from a hen on days prior, but didn’t expect the eggs to come so soon.

A Big Toe

 The next morning I woke early to install the nesting box. We were rewarded with 4 more eggs during the next few days, all of which were the size of a large big toe (or a silver dollar). It sure will take a lot of eggs to make an omelet if they don’t get bigger! We decided to sample the first three eggs by making Egg McKniselys (a family breakfast specialty).

Egg McKnisely (Sausage courtesy of Jyoti)

 Local practices of chicken rearing are as un-intensive as you can get. Every family seems to have a chicken shelter in which a few free range birds spend their nights. The birds spend their days roaming the village looking for food. When a hen becomes broody she finds a nesting spot (probably in a hay loft somewhere) and hatches a brood of 8-10 chicks. She then raises them until they are 3-4 months of age. Many may die of disease or predator attacks. In terms of meat and egg production it is pretty inefficient, but financial input and work invested by the owner is virtually nil.

Memorable First Egg

Our plan now that we have laying hens is to collect the eggs for about a week until we have 15 or so. After this we will try separate one of the laying hens to a section of coup containing a nesting box and eggs. Hopefully she will go broody and be able to hatch those eggs. After the chicks are two weeks old we will separate the hen from them and return her to the rest of the flock. In this way she will return to laying sooner and egg/chick production will be increased. I have not tried this method before, but hopefully it will prove successful and increase egg/chick production in our chickens!

A New Sound in Town

Our landlord’s daughter came skipping down the path next to our house the other day, but a new sound issuing from our house stopped her in her tracks. She paused for several moments, looking up at our living room window, then in her childlike fashion picked up her heels and continued on her way. 

I just chuckled from my viewpoint in our outdoor kitchen as I watched her ponderings. She probably had never heard flute music before. She probably wondered what would bring such foreign sounds to Tha Thom. Who? Only a very special visitor from America!

The beginning of September we were blessed by a visit from our sister (my good-sister!), Jyoti! Now it is already the end of September and she has continued on with the second leg of her journey. We had many special times these past three weeks… too many to recount in full, but here are some highlights of our times together.

Getting a Lao Hair-do!

MCC staff – We had special times with all of MCC’s staff here in Laos. From bowling with service workers, to eating papaya salad and playing UNO with Lao staff at our home, to meeting and hanging out with 'new-comers’ (YAMEN volunteer from Zimbabwe and SALT volunteer from America), to joining all MCC staff during the 4-Month Meeting held in Tha Thom.

Teaching UNO

A Local Lao Lunch

Supper with the Service Workers

Adventures while traveling – We covered a lot of ground this month and we joke with Jyoti that she sampled every kind of transportation Laos has to offer! We got to go shopping in Vientiane, touring in Phonsavahn, suffering through the 10 hr. journey to Tha Thom, and a final adventure of trying to get back to Vientiane. Our final journey started by riding sawngteo (the local public transportation which consists of two wooden benches in the back of a covered truck bed) in the spitting rain, getting on a boat only to have it break down an hour into the journey. It could have been bad, stuck in the middle of nowhere with no cell service, but thankfully we were going down stream! After paddling for a while we came to a place where the road came near to the river. We scrambled up the bank with our bags and sat next to the road to wait. What a blessing! Within five minutes a public sawngteo came along and took us to the next city/bus station an hour and a half down the road! There is only one sawngteo that travels that road a day, and we were fortunate enough to meet it… pretty amazing!

Smiling with Pattu Xai

'We might be stranded in the middle of the jungle, but we are still happy!'

Food! – Jyoti commented during her trip, ‘I feel like all we do together is eat!’ and that statement was quite true. Jeffrey and I had a busy month and had to spend full days at the office. It was during lunch breaks and evenings that we spent most of our time together. Jyoti also brought us a suitcase of food from the states, so between her contributions and our local produce, we had a lot of good food to feast on!

A Western Feast!

One Rooster named Coconut Curry

Dolled-up for our Final Dinner Together

What a blessing to have Jyoti visit and we are so thankful she made it half way across the world to see us!

Between a Log and a Hard Place

More than once a day in almost every village in Tha Thom can be heard the rumbling of log trucks (converted Russian and American army trucks) transporting their heavy burdens from the jungle to the lumber mills or log landings nearer the main road. Laos is a country known for its timber. Huge tropical hardwoods can be harvested and are worth quite a pretty penny on the domestic and especially on the international market. It is said, that much of the harvested logs are shipped internationally to pay off national debt. The remaining wood is sawn at local mills and sold locally. Exquisite carved single-piece wooden furniture can be purchased in many places throughout the country, just make sure you have a way to transport it since it is heavy!

From one Landing to Another

Unfortunately, the big lumber and with it the jungle is disappearing at an alarming rate. Tha Thom district is one of the few areas in Laos that have big trees remaining. With the nearing completion of the road more trees will likely be carted off soon.

One Saturday afternoon we jumped in the office truck to explore a conservation area to see what the jungle was like before the cutting began. It is hard to explain how massive jungle trees are…pictures don’t even do it justice. With trunks 10 feet wide plus they rocket into the canopy hundreds of feet above. Strange shade loving ferns and palms cover the forest floor.

Hugging a Giant

Although it is disheartening to see these massive logs beings hauled away and jungles destroyed the real tragedy befalls local communities who usually gain nothing from the sale of the lumber from their land. On another occasion, standing with some local farmers in some paddy land we hear chain saws running in the hills nearby. The farmers comment that the water they have to irrigate their rice fields becomes less and less each year. They fear that more tree cutting could cause a greater shortage.

In most rural Lao communities, villagers supplement their daily food with many forest products. Frogs, insects, monkeys, bat, small deer, bamboo shoots, leaves, mushrooms, medicine plants, and many forest fruits are all collected to be eaten or sold in the local market. These are known as NTFPs (Non- Timber Forest Products) and are critical to life for many people.

"Sure we can fit one more log"

It certainly wouldn’t be fair to say that over-logging is the cause of all the problems facing the jungle. Since some NTFPs are gathered to be sold it is easy to over harvest them. In response to this issue MCC and other organizations are doing work to educate and develop NTFP management committees to help villagers keep their forests sustainable for years to come.

And finally, in case you are worried that we have become tree huggers…we can assure you this is not the case (despite the picture of Kaarina hugging a tree above). We are simply seeing firsthand how much an impact forest resources can have on communities that rely directly on the jungle for their livelihood.

Well managed logging is an excellent sustainable resource to access!