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!

Hunting Swallows

Today is humid! It seemed like everything was dripping wet after last night’s rain! Welcome to the rainy season. I sat with Bounpheng at a nutrition training exercise in Phonchaluern Village. It felt like we were on an island since the meeting house is partially surrounded by verdant rice paddies stretching off into the distance. Mist shrouded the mountains lining the valley.

Rice Paddies

Today the district health partners and village health workers are practicing how to give a presentation and monitor the growth of village children. When the training wraps up we walk out into the meeting house yard and head to the road. I follow Bounpheng, who begins to stare at some electric lines running parallel to the road. Some boys line a fence underneath the lines holding long bamboo poles at the ready. Little black swallows sit perched on the lines, some fluttering into the sky returning seconds later to rejoin the other lined birds. As soon as a bird lands one of the boys stealthily raises his bamboo pole and taps the newly perched bird with a blade of grass attached to the pole’s tip. The swallow then attempts to take flight only to fall to the ground milliseconds later. The boy then drops the pole, catches the fallen bird and places it in a small woven basked holding a congregation of other birds already captive.

Intrigued by these proceedings Bounpheng calls to one of the boys, “How do you do that? Are you using electricity?”
A boy responds, “No, we use glue to stick the birds.”

Birds on the Line

Confused further we ask more questions. One boy shows us a can of sticky rat glue and explains that you have to start with a few decoy swallows. These swallows have had their eyelids glued shut and then are placed on the electric line. Since they can’t see they simply sit on the line and attract other wild birds. The boys take a blade of grass, soak it in the rat glue and attach the grass to the end of a bamboo pole. When the wild bird lands the goal is to touch the bird’s feathers with the grass covered with glue. This temporarily disables the bird’s flight and it falls to the ground.

Personal Demonstration

So why would someone want to catch swallows? If you have followed this blog at all or know much about Lao culture, I’m sure you know the answer. To eat them! Swallows are a delicacy and sell for a good price…at least in the city. Bounpheng is so impressed with the village price that he buys 10 of the birds, costing just over a dollar for the lot! I am simply impressed by the method of catching the birds and wonder who came up with such an idea?!

Buying Birds

Back at the office Bounpheng proudly displays his purchase to the other staff. Kaarina and I wonder how he will cook the morsels and so decide to help prepare the fire. After a lot of tedious plucking Bounpheng deep fries the birds whole. We swallow the swallows for lunch…they are crunchy and tasty, like anything fried. Just watch out for the innards since they make for a bitter bite.