Vientiane Afternoon

It is quiet and peaceful here on the guest house porch. The Wonderland "Guest House" across the street has turned off its blaring music, and for the moment, no is belting Lao karaoke from the bar further down. Sound is now reduced to the neighbours ping pong game, a few motercycles on the street, our water pump, and the calls of various birds and insects. Here in the shade I don't feel the intense heat, but it is still very humid. There has been no rain so far today. Laos is not like other tropical places I have known where the rain is predictable. Here it may start raining any time of day, and the rain may last for a week or be gone in an hour.

This afternoon, Phylis (one of the country representatives for MCC) walked us around the neighbourhood. We learned that Vientian is made of many villages ("Ban" in Lao) each made up of 100 houses. Every village has its own temple. Needless to say, there are countless temples in Laos, each with their intricate golden pillars, serenely smiling Buddhas, steeply sloping red tile roofs and orange garbed monks. We enter one temple, slipping off our shoes at he door. Inside a gathering of people are blessing a new motorcycle. The bike is tied to a string which leads through a window into the temple. Further along is a large alter featuring a giant stone pillar and a number of Buddha statues in varying sizes. Everything is decked out with colourful, flashing Christmas lights.

There is much legend surrounding this particular temple ("wat" in Lao). So the story goes, in ancient times the people had a vision that before the temple could be built, someone must sacrifice their life for the good fortune of the city. And so they dug a large pit and waited for a willing volunteer. Finally, a pregnant girl jumped into the pit. The stone pillar was brought down on top of her and the temple was ready for construction. To this day, residents of Vientiane claim to see this girl in the form of clouds overhead.

In front of the alter, people pray for miracles. When they feel that they have received one, they bring offerings of bananas, coconuts wax flowers and incense. All this can be purchased from the row of stalls across the street.

First Impressions

Our small Lao Airlines plane features two propellors and an inflight snack of lychee fruit and flat pop. Laos spreads before us in fleeting images through heavy for as we circle in for landing. What we see is an intricate quilt pattern of rolling hills, dense jungle, and neatly measured squares of brilliant green race paddies and bownish blue fishing ponds. The Mekong river rips through the landscape, powerful and brown as coffee. This lush scene is brightened by the red tile roofs of houses and temples, matched closely by the red dirt roads.
We are met by a heavy downpour as we leave the airport, along with three MCC trucks. Following closely alongside the frothy Mekong, we finally reach the MCC guest house, and wade through ankle deep water to reach the door. Although holding our eyes open is a chore, we are hungry for our first Lao meal. Spaghetti, to the best of my knowledge, is not traditional Lao food, but after three days of airplane food, it is comforting.

Exchange

Khamla from Laos sleeps in the room next door to mine. She speaks English well and is eager to tell me all she can about her country. She tears pages out of her journal and fills them with maps to places that I must visit and the names of her friends and family that I must greet. On Monday we SALTers going to Laos stayed up late talking to Khamla about what to expect, what foods we must try and what to avoid if at all possible. From all accounts, Laos sounds like a fascinating and beautiful country. We tried as best we could to tell Khamla what to expect from her conservative Mennonite family in Ohio. That, I feel, will be a cross cultural experience within a cross cultural experience.

Harmony

These first few days of my MCC orientation have been some of the most meaningful and enriching of my life. Sharing the orientation with us, the North American SALTers are the International Voluntary Exchange Program (IVEP) participants. These charismatic young adults come from countries all across the globe, and their presence is adding so much to our week here at MCC headquarters.

It will be a long time before I forget the powerful music we created in an impromptu choir practice during our first night here. There I was, gathered around a piano, played by Renata from Paraguay, with Bridgette from South Africa belting out a strong lead to "What a Friend We have in Jesus". Desi from Indonesia, Janah from Zambia, Amy from the U.S.A, Leonard from Switzerland and myself all harmonizing in our mother tongues. This struck me as peace building in a more concrete way than anything I have studied out of a text book in my peace and conflict studies classes.

Leaving

It's coming. As of Saturday I'll have left home, left behind my family and friends, left the country. There's a strange irony in all my talk of leaving lately. I seem to be forgetting the place to which I'm arriving. Neither the piles of clothing and the half empty suitcases on my bed or the 2 or 3 good byes I say each day, are enough to make me truly believe that in two short weeks, I'll be stepping out of a tiny plane, onto the banks of the Mekong river in Laos.