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.