Our Home

In our first year and half of marriage we lived in many homes…with Jeffrey’s parents and in a friend's farmhouse our first summer, traveling to Florida and living in a small primitive community while studying Community Development, spending the next six months living between both our parents in Minnesota and then Vermont, coming to Laos and living with a host family for two months and then moving to Tha Thom to spend the next two months in a guest house… and now after months of anticipation we have finally moved the seventh time… into our first real house!

If you are ever able to take a visit to Laos, don’t worry about the questions, ‘Where will we stay?’ ‘What will we do?’ ‘Who will we see?’ We can now answer all those questions for you!

Our Home!

Our new home is located a short distance down the main road from the ‘business district,’ directly across from the local temple (called a ‘wat’). We were happy when the home was not built on the road, but rather about thirty meters back. This will hopefully translate to less dust in the hot season and noise during village festivals. There are also a number of trees living in the yard, and we are happy for the shade they provide and hopefully fruit, too!

After a Thorough Cleaning

The house is a traditional style, raised-structure, and we hear that in the hot season families will spend more time beneath the home than actually in it! The home also consists of a traditional outdoor kitchen which is located directly behind the home. Some of our home’s ‘un-traditional’ characteristics are the porch, wooden walls and tiled roof. A traditional home would probably not have a porch, and would be built with bamboo walls and a grass roof.

Relaxing with a Bowl of Wai Wai (Ramen Noodles)

As you step into the house, you will enter our large living and eating area. After three months of sore rear ends, Jeffrey was insistent on the ‘comfort factor’ in our home. Most Lao homes will have various chairs or couches, but we have yet to see one with cushions on it. Our home will be furnished with a couch and sitting chairs (with cushions!) as well as cushions on the floor encircling our traditional Lao table.

We have two bedrooms, one for you and one for us! The guestroom is a bit snug and we actually had to cut the bed to fit it into the room! Part of this fact is due to a traditional custom we were informed of, ‘In Tha Thom people will never sleep against the grain of the floor boards, only with them. This is because when a person dies, they will be placed across the floor boards, demonstrating how that person can no longer do things as living people do.’ In our western point-of-view, we’d rather position the beds to maximize the space, but for now we’ve chosen to leave our beds the Lao way.

You can then make your way through the home and step down into our indoor kitchen. We were surprised to hear that even though they were building us an outdoor kitchen, we would still have an indoor one as well. I’m still trying to figure out what to do with all the space! One exciting item in our kitchen is the sink and a ‘running water’ tank that Jeffrey built for us. I find washing dishes this way much easier on the back. We also have a good refrigerator that does a great job at keeping food cool…when the electricity is on. As we are entering the dry season, electricity is becoming more and more sporadic.

Our bathroom is another step down from the kitchen. The interesting 4-different tiles used (all various shades of white and pink) are good at waking one up in the morning. There is also a large mirror on one wall, which to Jeffrey’s satisfaction, is high enough that he can shave without slouching to see himself! And yes we do have an Asian style toilet. We actually find we prefer it to the western style.
In our back yard we have the outdoor kitchen, well, coffee trees and the future site of our garden (more on that when it’s completed and green!). You can take a short stroll down to the river front, observing local villagers washing clothes, showering, fishing, children playing… or a perfect view of the starry sky on a dark night!

We feel blessed to have such a beautiful place to call our home in Laos, and we think it’s been worth the wait! When you come visit us, we hope you will agree!
Posted by Kaarina

Motorcycle Tales (Part II)

After our time was spent we returned once again via the mountains to Vang Vieng another of our destinations just north of the Vientiane. Unfortunately, this city is popular with the party crowd, but for us, caves, limestone cliffs and an organic farm were on the docket.

Limestone Cliffs and Dry Rice Fields

Blue Lagoon Cave

 Our accommodations at an organic farm were simple yet comfortable. Guests can stay in a dorm setting, guest room setting or even rent their own bungalow. The farm’s main products come from mulberries. Mulberries, mulberry tea, mulberry wine, mulberry shakes, deep fried mulberry leaves and goat cheese are all sold. I include the goat cheese as part of the mulberry product list because the goats on the farm are fed mulberry leaves too! The farm also has pigs that had a big litter of piglets during our stay. Workers and volunteers just planted pineapple and are putting in garden beds. It sometimes seems strange starting gardens in December! The farm is beautifully located on the edge of a large river. They demonstrate the use of mud buildings as sustainable alternatives to concrete and offer them as living quarters to those visiting at the farm. We thoroughly enjoyed our time at the farm and if we get the chance may go back to volunteer.

Young Mulberry Trees

A Modern Mud Home

Rows of Mulberry Trees

On New Year’s Eve a group of kids from the community center, which is also associated with the farm, held a small dance performance at the farm café. We both concluded that Lao enjoy two kinds of dancing, Lao traditional dances and hip hop. Unfortunately as evening progressed the Indian food that we ate earlier began talking back! When the clock struck twelve and the fireworks in Vang Vieng went off we both ushered in the new year from our seats in the occupied the outhouses. Food poisoning sure wasn’t fun…but I told Kaarina that we would eventually be able to eat food again and it would be a good story for the blog. We are thankful that through all our travels, diverse menus and sketchy restaurants, food and water has not made us sick until now.

With our bike returned and the New Year ahead we are excited to get back to Tha Thom and move into our new home! (Stay tuned).
Posted by Jeffrey

Motorcycle Tales (Part I)

Two hours into the trip, straddling our rented 250 Honda Baja, we began asking ourselves if this really was worth it. Our butts and back hurt and legs were cramped. Dirt bikes were not made for touring! Then we reached the mountains, completely forgot our sorrows and realized why we wanted to do this trip. Stunning limestone cliffs graced by clouds and dotted with caves, strange almost monument-like rocky outcrops, mountains wrapped in jungles and 15 foot “broom” grass, rice terraces in the lowlands, and the sun’s rays streaming through scattered clouds, decorated our route. Road 13 snakes its way along the mountain sides which perfectly suits motorbikes. For buses, cars and trucks it can be treacherous both in safety and to the stomach. The entirety of the mountain journey we found ourselves thrilled to experience the beauty from the saddle of a bike!

Starting Stance

Mountain Road to Luang Prabang

 This Christmas Kaarina and I traveled to Luang Prabang, a historic northern Lao city. When Lao was a kingdom this city was the capital of Lao. The royal palace, now a museum, is surprisingly well preserved. One room (Kaarina’s favorite) has its walls adorned with murals depicting Lao village life. The throne room is also stunning as it is adorned with murals of elephants, wars, villages, people and animals made solely out of different colored mirrors!

National Museum and Wat

 A strong French influence remains in Luang Prabang as stucco-ed villas and French-Lao food create an atmosphere that is strangely European. The night market reminds you that you really are still in Lao. An entire street is closed nightly when merchants set up tents and spread out their wares for sale. What makes this market uniquely Lao is that it is probably the quietest and most low-key shopping experience, second only to the silent auction.

A Side Street of the Luang Prabang Night Market

Many fair trade shops sporting elegant fabrics in the form of clothing, wall hangings…you name it, can be found throughout Luang Prabang. Most of the textiles will remain in our dreams as many things came with heavy price tags. However, Kaarina did buy the most beautiful sihn in the world at one such shop, Gobnoi (Small Frog).

Another enterprise that both of my grandmothers would get a kick out of is Big Brother Mouse. This organization has translated and written many books in Lao for kids. We have also used their books to help our Lao learning. They employ local young artists and writers, usually collage age. The books are either sold or if they receive enough donations are distributed in various rural villages and schools where children don’t have books. Some books even reach their village on elephant back!

At the National Museum

 As some of you might expect, the city bustle wasn’t the only attraction for us. Luang Prabang is renowned for its picturesque waterfalls! We spent a perfect afternoon exploring jungle trails, reading by serene waterfalls and playing Tarzan, swinging off trees to splash into blue-green pools. The pictures tell more.

Tat Kuang Si Waterfall

Posted by Jeffrey

What’s for dinner?

Lao comestibles are truly a mix of good foods as they share many dishes with neighboring countries while having a few specialties. We have yet to try the more bizarre delicacies that are sold, such as ant egg soup, barbecued bat and duck blood, but we have tasted our fair share of peculiar dishes. Unfortunately, we don’t have pictures of the many meals described below, but maybe for those with sensitive stomachs, words are enough.

It is commonly said that the Lao people eat everything…thus far that statement has proven correct. Our experience with food began soon after we arrived in Lao, which was good since we were rather hungry after the trip! Lao victuals are best described as a conglomeration of Thai, Vietnamese and Chinese cuisines. It does have its own unique dishes, but usually when we ask if a dish is Lao or not people will say that it originates from one of the aforementioned countries.

We wet our pallets when Brennan and Kristina visited us on their whirlwind-world-honeymoon-tour. Some of you may have heard their colorful account of an afternoon snack of barbecued dog (entrails and tails included). I maintain that the sauce was excellent and the meat was tasty, but the extras didn’t have much going for them apart from turning our stomachs.

Spending time with a host family in our first two months here was not only extremely helpful in broadening our understanding of language, but also introduced our taste buds to a variety of foods. While with them we ate fish gill soup, buffalo skin (which is a delicacy even here in Tha Thom where it is deep fried), marinated chicken feet and snails. To our chagrin we missed out on eating the 2-inch-long grubs, frogs, and song birds that we saw gracing the counter top of the kitchen.

Dragon Fruit

Eating Seaweed Soup with Bounpheng

Close-up of Slimy Goodness!

Little did we know that our lips had only been moistened for the culinary experience of rural Lao in Tha Thom! Here, roasted duck feet, embryotic eggs, iguana, sparrow, monkey, mouse deer, seaweed soup, many new fruits (mak kho, mak ko, mak tao) that sound the same, pickled garlic, innards soup (very common in the office), stir-fried cucumbers (one of my favorites) and a type of  "jay-o" (a dipping sauce) made from a cows fecal matter, are some of the special items on the menu.

As you might expect, rice is the staple in our diet and just as there are hundreds of varieties and flavors of potatoes in America so there are many varieties of rice here…and they all have a name! The most common and enjoyed rice in South East Asia is sticky rice (gluttonous rice). It is steamed in a basket, not immerses in water and cooked as normal rice is, and is eaten with other food by forming a ball in the hand and then using this ball to pick up veggies and/or meat. Interestingly, just as potatoes come in many colors, rice comes in a variety of hues! One of our favorites is purple (or black as the locals label it) sticky rice. Most commonly this is sweetened, stuffed into a piece of bamboo and then roasted over the fire. The bamboo is them pealed back and the rice column can be enjoyed.

White and Purple Sticky Rice in the Traditional Rice Basket

For the most part we enjoy the wide variety of foods we are served, but the normal meal in Lao isn’t all that foreign. Noodle soup is available at almost every shop and fried rice, omelets, fried eggs, wai-wai, steamed veggies and corn on the cob are some of the foods that remind us of ‘home.’
Posted by Jeffrey

Taste of Home

As our friends and family in America joined together in the spirit of Thanksgiving, celebrating with good company and good food, Jeffrey and I also joined in to give thanks. But things are different here in SE Asia, and we realized that it would be just as difficult to fly all our loved ones here to celebrate with us as it would be to try make a whole thanksgiving meal. So what could we feasibly do? After scratching our brains and talking things through, we decided to fore go turkeys and mashed potatoes this year, and try our hands at making – pancakes!

Making the mix

On Friday, November 26, 2010, MCC Tha Thom staff and district partners were hosting a farewell party for our Project Manager. Even though it was the day after Thanksgiving, we decided to contribute our pancakes to the mix of traditional Lao dishes. We weren’t sure at first if the pancakes would turn out as we were missing milk, but we decided that sweetened condensed milk is close enough as long it is watered down thoroughly. We started cooking them over a fire with our cast iron skillet (the most awesome find during our shopping for kitchen accessories). The pancakes drew quite a crowd. Our district partners even asked to try their hand at cooking them.

Help from District partner

Our 'Thanksgiving' feast

In the end we had enough small pancakes for forty people, who apparently, enjoyed them greatly because there were none left over for breakfast! Next year we may try to make the more traditional Thanksgiving dishes, but we also might just keep pancakes in the back of our mind.
(Thank you to Wendy Martin for the pictures.)
Posted by Kaarina

Tuk-tuks and Log Trucks

So this blog entry is for all of you who are wondering, might be wondering or haven’t even asked yourself, “So what kind of vehicles do you have in Lao?” That is a great question! Hopefully, this blog will give you a pictorial experience that will answer that question.

First we have the infamous ‘tuk-tuk’ famous in many Asian countries and known by various names. This three wheeled machine buzzes the streets of Vientiane and is available for hire. They come in different sizes, but all are put together with miss-matched parts from cannibalized motorcycles and other vehicles.

Tuk-tuk

The second is similar to the ‘tuk-tuk’ in name and use. The ‘dtek-dtek’ is the primary work horse in rural farms and the modern version of a water buffalo (minus the milk). However, it's use extends to local hire, putting down the street to Tha Thom and to neighboring villages. Farmers take these ‘powerhouses’ anywhere, including crossing rather deep rivers. It is interesting to note that they are started by a hand crank!

Dtek-dtek

Washing the Dtek-dtek

The next vehicle is the bamboo raft! Although they are simple they are used to ferry goods and motorcycles that are too small across deep rivers.

Bamboo Rafts

“But what if the river is too deep for a larger vehicle?” Well I am glad you asked because now we bring in the big guns; the grader ferry!

Grader Ferry

Another mode of transportation we have become accustomed to is the long boat. They come in various sizes and with different sized engines. The down side: they aren’t incredibly comfortable so for long trips we recommend a pillow and be sure to wear long sleeves lest you tempt the UV rays to turn you into a beet! These contraptions may also find themselves literally grounded in the dry season.

Long River Boat

Another Boat

We move now to larger beasts of burden. The first I throw in for interests sake…the commercial truck with dual steering axles! These machines negotiate the narrow roadways of Vientiane delivering many supplies, mostly from Thailand.

Dual Steering Axles!

The next heavy-weight is the log truck converted from an old army frame. These are seen frequenting Tha Thom and neighboring villages, picking up logs and delivering them to the mill north of town.

Log Truck

“So how do you get around when you visit project villages?” Another good question! We have several options: walking, running, riding bike, dtek-dtek, small motorcycle (100cc), large motorcycle (250cc) or by pickup. The larger motorcycles seem to be one of the staff favorites if they can manage the starts and stops! The average Lao stature is short, so many staff start by using a step and try to stop somewhere else in the same manner.

250cc Kawasaki

On longer trips the pickup up is nice ride. It traverses rivers and mountains with relative ease and it’s AC is a blessing in the hot and dust season. The current road situation in Tha Thom and the surrounding towns makes a truck with brush guard, snorkel and winch a good option.

Toyota Helix Vigo

Road Construction

Finally, “How do you get around Tha Thom?” The answer is simple: by bike!

Posted by Jeffrey

Khmu Village

Kaarina and I have been blessed these past two weeks to have Bounpheng help us in our work. Bounpheng is a former IVEP’er and has done translation work for MCC in the past. He will help us as we begin our work as our Lao is still in its infancy. He is an immense help, teaching us more technical Lao words and couching our sentence structure. In addition to Lao, Thai and English, Bounpheng also speaks Khmu.

Studying with Bounpheng

 Work in Tha Thom recently brought us to Thitnoon, a Khmu village roughly 21km to the south. 103 families call the village home and all the structures are built in the traditional stilted style with bamboo walls. The village does not yet have electricity, but running water is present provided by the first development organization that worked in the area.

Thitnoon Village

A Traditional Home

   After arriving to the village in the afternoon, bathing in the river, learning a few key Khmu words and eating chicken soup we retired to bed in one of the homes. Bed consisted of a mat, blanket and pillow. Morning began early (3:00am) when the roosters began to stir and some farmers started getting ready for the day. We decided to wait stay in bed till 6:30am.

Evening in the Village

Morning Sun

The reason for our trip to Thitnoon was to observe the agricultural team’s workshop about animal raising and vaccines. About 107 villagers attended, plus the MCC agricultural team, several government officials and us, all crammed into a small classroom.
Topics of the day included:
1. A recent law stating that all farmers must keep their animals contained during the night and work harder to keep them from destroying crops. Farmer’s heard the new law and agreed that it is good to start following.
2. Basic needs of animals.
3. Importance of vaccinations.
4. Breeding.

Village Farmers at the Animal Training

We are eager to get to know the other villages in which MCC works.

Posted by Jeffrey