Out-standing in the field

Since we arrived in Thathom, we’ve had various opportunities to travel out to the eight villages that MCC is currently working in. It is always a fun opportunity to get out of the office, meet villagers and beneficiaries, and see ‘first-hand’ the big picture we are part of here in Laos.

We’ve gathered some of our favorite pictures and memories while ‘out-standing’ in the field, to share with you…

Army Truck to the Field

MCC Truck to the Field

MCC is currently constructing two irrigation systems in the district. These systems will irrigate just over 26 hectares of rice paddy in one of the district’s northern villages. We had the privilege to visit the construction site on several locations and witnessed construction progression.

Villagers Working on Irrigation Canals

Fixing a Pump

Villagers Walk by Carrying Grass to Make Brooms

Kaarina Walking by Looking Beautiful

All Work is Done by Hand

Taking a Break

More Canals (Picture by Diane Gehman)

A Brief Meeting after Lunch Break

The Dam Site

In addition to irrigation systems MCC is also opening new paddy land in one of the district’s southern villages. This land will be used by poor farmers to increase their yearly rice yield. Leveling of the land is all done by hand through a rice for work program. Over 100 villagers turn out daily to work on this project.

Inspecting Newly Built Paddy Land

Talking With Villagers

Working to Remove a Stump

Formalities at the Thitnoon Meeting House Before the Distribution Begins

Doling Out the Rice

30kg Bags of Rice Make a Hefty Load

Carrying the Rice Home

Visiting New Paddy Land with Project Donors

Tromping Home After a Day's Work

“Rain, Rain Go Away…”

It's been a long, cold, wet week here in Tha Thom, after four straight days of rain even the locals are shaking their heads! March and April are usually the hottest, driest months of the year.

Eating lunch together with the staff at the office the other day, we were informed of the local gossip about the reason for the abnormal cold and rain…

This past week a local village, Ban Phou, celebrated a wedding. The bride was a young woman from the area whose older sister had died several years earlier. Usually a wedding (or special occasion) is an opportunity to honor deceased relatives by making a meal and offering it to their spirits, but in the excitement of the moment, the family forgot to offer anything to the deceased sister. Thus villagers say that the sister was offended and sent bad weather for the wedding and the days to follow!

The staff laughed together as they told the story, and shook their heads saying, ‘She certainly must be a strong woman to send rain like this!’

Rain Dripping Off Kitchen Roof

How Does Your Garden Grow?

Ever since moving into our own home we have been itching to get our hands dirty, dig in some soil and get fresh produce from our land. Well we are pleased to announce that this time has come! We started our garden a little more than a month ago and now have some produce to show for it!

With the help of our landlord (Khamsay), his brother and the occasional helping neighbor, we began garden construction. We say construction because the first thing you must do here in Thathom is to build a good solid fence…otherwise when you plant your crops the only thing you will be feeding is the neighbor’s free range chickens and turkeys! For the fence locals will usually use bamboo which they weave into a mesh. Our landlord suggested buying commercially made netting which allows light to pass through it better and will not rot over the years. Our plot of land is roughly 20ft by 20ft which provides us with room to grow things intensively on 3 beds. The land was blessed by having a cow/buffalo shelter occupy the area during the years prior. This has yielded a several inch layer of old manure which we are slowly working into the soil.

Garden Construction (Note our neighbor helping in his silk shirt, on his way to a wedding!)

As we are coming into the hot season locals are beginning to phase out their gardens. The rainy season (June-August) also limits growth due to daily rainstorms that pound the earth. We are going to try and keep things watered during the hot season and attempt to keep things growing as long as we can into the rainy season. Many of the local villagers will extend the garden season by planting in high raised beds (literally ‘raised’ because they are stilted, four or five feet off the ground). Some also will shelter part of their garden from the pounding rain. We haven’t decided how we’ll get things to grow during the rainy season, but it will probably be a combination of what we see and of course some experimenting as well!

After Planting

So what kind of things can you grow in Laos, where the season theoretically is year round? Currently, we are harvesting cilantro, lettuce and a variety of mustard greens. We have planted papaya around the perimeter of the plot as well as three stocks of sugar cane which are taking off! Other plants include: eggplant, volunteer tomatoes, roselle, lemon grass, lemon basil, mint, dill, spring onion, and ginger and a variety of flowers.

Villagers are constantly coming by to look at the ‘falang’ (foreigner’s) garden, make suggestions, ask what we are planting and frequently make the comment, “Ngam, ngam.” (Beautiful, beautiful). We aren’t yet sure if they mean it because we do still have lots of bare earth and are using mulch to cover the paths and beds. Mulch is a foreign concept so we are thinking that our garden must look pretty unkempt in the villager’s eyes (whose gardens are utterly devoid of unnecessary leaves and wood shavings).

Kaarina Working (And Smiling)

A Current View of our Garden

On one occasion when we were first digging the garden beds a neighbor stopped by to see what was happening next door. To strike up a conversation Jeffrey asked him if his family had a garden. (The word for garden is ‘swan,’ said by inflecting the tone upwards). He said yes and his daughter, who was with him, ran back to their home to get something. She returned holding a shovel, which he gave to Jeffrey. That is when it hit us that Jeffrey must not have made his question clear. (The word for shovel and garden are virtually identical. ‘Swan,’ for shovel is said in a high falling tone). Needless to say we now specify ‘vegetable’ garden whenever we use the word ‘swan,’ just to make sure we don’t end up asking for a shovel.

…chickens are next on the list!

Home Country Cook'n

After living in remote Tha Thom for two months without traveling outside the district we find ourselves craving western food. Although the food in Tha Thom always keeps us on our toes, the majority of the dishes leave us dreaming of a simple pizza, or warm loaf of bread…maybe even a taco salad! Of the more recent exotic delicacies small fried crab and seaweed soup top the list. Writing this blog from the comfort and familiarity of a western café in Vientiane, home really doesn’t seem that far away! Our cravings are being satisfied as I type this and we find ourselves thankful that Tha Thom doesn’t have western food. How much more we appreciate the cheese…oh the bread…the goodness of a person’s comfort foods.

JOMA Cafe

JOMA is one such restaurant that we find refreshing during our time in Vientiane. BLTs, Rubens, Lasagna, taco salad and their assorted drinks are our favorites. Although much of the food available in this restaurant is western, the service is very Lao. On one occasion we returned from Tha Thom quite tired, but still craving some good “home country” cooking. We decided to try JOMA’s take-out option. After I ordered I took a seat and while I was waiting was served an ice cold glass of water. How many cafés in the US would do that?! In the Lao context this hospitality is expected upon entering anyone’s home and it appears has carried over even into ‘western’ businesses!

Surfing the Web

A Random Entry

Five months ago we arrived in Tha Thom for the first time, by boat. Since then the river has dried up significantly, thus grounding any long distance boat travel. As we are in the dry season, dust is everywhere and trees are losing their leaves. It isn’t pretty like northern falls, but at times the cool nights and chilly mornings combined with the vivid blue of the sky almost remind us of the end of summer days.

With this change in season the sky is getting increasingly hazy as the hot season is ushered in. As one might expect the dust is somewhat to blame for the haze, but fires are another culprit. Farmers will traditionally burn the rice stubble from their fields and use slash and burn techniques in upland farming. The drying vegetation in the jungles is also reaching a perfect combustion point. The other day one of the largest mountains overlooking Tha Thom was encircled in a ring of burning forest. It looked eerie in the evening, almost resembling a glowing volcano. Villagers say that these fires occur every year, likely the result of hunter’s run away campfires. Our landlord also mentioned that unexploded bombs from the war will explode during these fires, although we have yet hear these booms.

Ring of Fire

Another contributor to the fine airborne dust continues to be the ongoing road construction. The road has undergone a massive transformation since we first arrived in Tha Thom. In fact this week the road through town received its first coat of tar! Travel to the nearest ‘large’ city (Paxan) is now fairly convenient, only 2 and a half hours by truck! This same journey was 6 hours by boat in the rainy season. Although the road is nearing completion two bridges still need to be constructed to allow for year round travel. The rivers swell significantly in the rainy season preventing a river crossing by truck (regardless of snorkel height).

As the road opens up, commerce and the diversity of things that we can purchase in Tha Thom continue to grow. We even purchased sour pork sausage from one vendor! Tha Thom also received its first billboard advertising a cell phone carrier.

Paved Road and Billboard

Even though we can get many things we still have to be creative with our meals. Stir fry and other Lao dishes are simple enough to make with all ingredients available in town. However, to make anything Western many of the ingredients are hard to find. We restock our supplies with the help of visitors coming from Paxan and Vientiane. Things we took for granted in the US like, bread, flour, potatoes, oats, milk, cheese and butter, all must be brought from the larger cities. In an attempt to ration our flour store we began making ‘sticky-rice’ pancakes. They are still quite delicious and very filling. Kaarina cuts most of the flour and adds pre-steamed sticky rice. Peanut butter is also a scarcity and very expensive in the capital, however, peanuts are certainly not scarce in Tha Thom. So we also tried our hand at home made peanut butter. Although not entirely ‘creamy’ it does taste like the real thing. A water buffalo steak and potato meal also brought us back ‘home.’

Sticky Rice Pancakes

(A Message Brought to you by Ovaltine and Skippy!)

Steak and Potato Meal

A diversity of fruits also grace our table. A tree in the front of our home produces a fruit that looks similar to a guava, but has bright orange flesh and two or more oblong seeds. Our landlord brought over a bag for us to try. We both think it tastes exactly like a cooked pumpkin!

'Pumpkin Fruit'

Another tree in our yard was recently wrapped in the traditional sihn. Our language helper explained that when a tree is flowering it is tradition to wrap a sihn around its trunk. This symbolizes fertility. Villagers believe that this practice will yield a good harvest.

Tree wearing a Skirt

Fruit and other forest and garden products can not only be purchased at the morning market, but also from ladies who tout various produce from house to house. As I was trying to find a chain to fit my bike at the local fix-anything-shop one of these women stopped by selling a greenish purple fruit from the forest. For 25 cents I purchased a half dozen. They have a white flesh and taste just like custard! Kaarina and I have also become fans of jack fruit and enjoyed some that was brought to us from Paxan.

Purple Forest Fruit

Posted by Jeffrey

Tha Thom's One-and-Only

Shivering at the entrance of the That Thom market, wearing my blue sweatshirt and traditional sihn, I feel about as awkward as standing on a California beach wearing a bikini. Being the only female foreigner in town makes it difficult to ‘blend in’ no matter what I wear or try to say.

‘Where is Lamphoon?’ I kept thinking to myself. Jeffrey and I had finally moved into our new home, the kitchen was finished and I was excited to start cooking on my own. But the difficulty lay in the fact that the one and only fresh produce market in town is open for business from 4am to 7am. Being still new to the area, I wasn’t quite ready to attempt the market, with local dialect and prices, half asleep and by myself, which is why I had asked the MCC Housekeeper, Lamphoon, to help me out. In our three months in Tha Thom, she’s been a great companion, showing me how to make traditional Lao dishes, and teaching me new local vocabulary.

‘But where was she?’ I just came from the office, where I thought we were to meet, but it was as dead as the rest of town, except for the small bustling market in front of me.

A women’s voice jolts me out of my thoughts,
‘Jao seu pea leur?’
‘Ha?’
‘Jao seu pea leur?’
‘Eu… Khoy seu Nalie.’ (My name is Nalie.)

She smiles and walks off, but the quizzical expression on her face makes me think I didn’t quite answer that one correctly. Why does this language have so many words that sound the same! ‘Seu’ said by inflecting the voice downwards means, ‘to buy,’ but ‘seu’ said by holding the voice flat means ‘name.’

Watching the woman disappear into the morning darkness, I realized that she actually was asking me what I had come to the market to buy, not what my name was, and I in my blumbering ‘pasa Lao’ told her I was going to buy myself!

‘Well, I’ve been standing at the entrance of the market for 15 min now, waiting for Lamphoon who didn’t seem to be coming, I’d already tried asking some women at the market if they’d seen Lamphoon today, but they hadn’t… I think it’s time to do something!’ I decided to give it a try ‘pu de-ow’ (by myself) and dove into the marketplace.

Shopping at a Lao market is an adventure in itself. Being part of a friendly, non-confrontational or pushy culture, the Lao market mirrors the people exactly. Oftentimes while shopping in the Capital, I will have to wake up the Lao shopkeeper to ask a price or buy something. Bartering seems to be more of a friendly conversation, then actually trying to get a killer price. Though common in the cities, I’ve hardly used it in the country. Here in Tha Thom shopkeepers usually give the rock bottom price, and I’m not too concerned about getting ripped off.

Walking through the market, I observe all the tables with neat little piles of mint, basil, chili peppers, forest flowers and other garden produce. There are also large piles of cabbages and pak choy. Some vendors are also selling baked goods such as fried fish and deep fried rice donuts. The market’s meat section consists of a single table, on which is heaped whatever animal was slaughtered the day before. There’s not much choice on the cut you would like, just poke around the pile and find something that looks good! Fish is also available at the market, though you have to arrive early to find it; once they’re sold out that’s it for the day.

‘Hmm… what to buy!’ I chose some cilantro, chili peppers and green onions. Buying is actually easier than I had thought, due to the fact that most produce is piled or bundled into neat little bunches, and each is 1,000 kip (about 12 cents). There isn’t much for fruit at the market, but I spy some nice bananas and buy them. I also buy some fried fish, a bit more expensive at 5,000 kip per kilo, but they would make a nice breakfast.

In a few minutes, I leave the market, my arms full of bags of produce, meat and fried fish. It’s a satisfying feeling to be able to have a simple conversation with the Lao vendors and to feel like, ‘Hey, I can do this!’ I hum a tune as I walk down the road to pick up my bike at the MCC office, not feeling half as awkward as I had in my sweatshirt and sihn. Returning to the office, I hear rustling in the kitchen and Lamphoon pokes her head out. I show her the things I had bought and she shares that she slept in this morning.

As she gathers her things to head out to the market she asks,
‘Bai ek bo?’ (Well, do you want to go again?)
I look at my cell phone, its only 5 am! What a morning! I’ve already conquered the market once this morning, why not do it again!
‘Bai ga dai!’ (Sure!)

Posted by Kaarina

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