Images from Sangthong District

Last week I had the opportunity to travel into “real Laos” once again. Far off the beaten track in rural villages in Sangthong District, MCC encourages some of the poorest children to go to school by providing them with school uniforms and other essential school supplies. I tagged along with the project’s manager in order to take pictures and write stories for a newsletter, which is sent twice annually to the project’s supporters back in North America. We visited the schools and talked to many children, but for me, the most meaningful part of the trip was the time spent visiting the homes of some of the students. We sat in their homes (or more often underneath their homes) and talked about their current living situation, their families and their histories. Many of the poorest families had recently moved to the area in hopes of fertile rice paddies and a better life. They are still waiting for both these things.

On the way back from one of the villages, our vehicle got a flat tire. As we waited for it to be changed, I met a little boy making a kite. I followed him down a little path into a dry rice paddy, where he joined four other boys, all flying their kites in the late afternoon sun. It was a beautiful site.

Motorcycle Mishap

I went to an internet cafe after work one day last week. When I had finished and paid, I rummaged through my purse for my keys, but for some inexplicable reason, they weren't there! After half an hour of crawling around on the floor searching (with the help of the man running the front desk) and repeatedly dumping out the contents of my purse, I determined that they really had disappeared.

By this time, it was dark and I was late and I really had no idea what I was going to do. But, it just so happened that the friendly front desk man knew a think or two about motorcycles. "I know a way to make your motorcycle start without any key," he said to me. Seeing as I didn't have very many options, I told him to go ahead. And so I sat inside the shop and watched through the window as he carefully unscrewed the front piece with a screwdriver and hotwired my motorcycle! The turn signals didn't work, nor could I see the speedometre, etc. but the it got me safe to the MCC office, which was the important thing.

Anyways, I realized that night that I really have grown accustomed to life in Laos. Had the same situation happened a few months ago I probably would have been close to tears. Instead I stayed calm and patient and I could even see the humour in the situation at the time. Nonetheless, it was a relief when I finally did arrive home safely that night.

The next morning a man came from the key shop with a box full of keys, and he simply tried a few out until he found one that worked. No wonder so many bikes got stolen here!