World Travels - Laos

Okay, so Meridee informed me that I had been volunteered to be a "guest writer" on her famous blog, so I guess I should feel special, but after the many threats she has made against me if I don't get this done, I think I feel more pressured!

About a month ago, I travelled to the country of Laos, which, if you're not sure where that country is, it is located in Southeast Asia, near Vietnam, Cambodia, and Thailand. I went with a group of 24 7th graders and one other teacher. I was really excited to go for a couple of reasons, first of which is that I have been very interested in that regoin since taking a class on the Vietnam War in college. Seconldy, Laos is a Communist country, and I, being a child of the Cold War, thought it would be cool to actually step foot on Communist land. I was surprised to see the old hammer and sickle flag flying right next to the Laos flag. Of course I had to buy one of each as a souvenir.

In addition to spending 3 nights in the historic city of Luang Probang where we saw Buddhist temples and monks, floated down the Mekong River, hiked to some beautiful waterfalls, and shopped in the night market, we also spent 3 nights in a remote (I meant REMOTE) village where a villager's social class was identified by whether or not their home had electricity. While in this village, some students stayed in the homes of local villagers while some stayed in some bunk houses that had been built specifically for school visits like ours. In addition to the village we slept in, we also visited a few other of the nearby villages which housed the elementary and high schools we would do service at. It was great interacting with the locals from the villages and we all enjoyed being greeted by a line of smiling Laotions who were waiting for us with flowers and flower necklaces.

During our 3 days in these villages, we performed some community service at an elementary and a high school. At the elementary, our kids taught classes to the Laotion students. Some taught classes inside, focussing on teaching the kids basic English words and numbers, while other groups went outside and taught some outside games. It was great to hear our kids telling us how hard it was to teach and keep student's attention for 30 minutes! Yeah, you're telling me!

The service at the high school is what really made our kids appreciate what they have. The high school services several villages all spread out for several miles. Of course there is no bussing system, nor do the students have cars -or parents with cars for that matter. Some have bikes or mopeds, but most have to walk. Because of this, most students get to school Sunday night and stay for the entire week, building themselves makeshift dormitories. One major problem at the school is the bathroom facilities, or lack thereof. Until a year or two ago, they had none. Then they built two, as in two toilets for the entire student body. That's where our service came in. We helped in the construction of 8 more toilets.

Our students were also surprised to hear class sizes usually averaged 60 students per class, in classrooms much smaller than our classrooms. Speaking of classrooms, wow! Some were literally shacks, some had dirt floors, all were minimally equipped. I was surprised to see a "hopscotch" pattern carved into hardened mud on the playground. These schools were definately an eye-opening experience for all our students... and me.

One of the days at the village, our kids were taken down to the river to make bamboo rafts. After the rafts were built, they all went swimming in the river, including jumping off a bamboo deck. The first time I jumped off I was immediately swarmed by the several local children who dragged me back to jump off again. This time, when they came swarming me, I dunked them in the river, to their ecstatic delight! They loved it, and wouldn't let me leave until I dunked them all many more times. I was also able to persuade some of our students to get close enough to join in on the underwater plunges. I'm proud to announce the Dunked by Moffett Club (started while taking my basketball teams to tournaments where we would swim at the hotel) now has a worldwide membership!

Staying at these villages was really a great experience, despite being a true thirdworld experience. It was very humbling to see how happy and friendly the villagers are, despite their simple and impoverished lives. I'll always remember how whenever we arrived back at the village after being out on an adventure, all the little kids I had dunked would coming running up to me shouting, "Nate, Nate, Nate!" Awesome!

Towards the end of our trip, we went to an elephant camp to ride the majestic, huge beasts. Please understand that I don't ride horses back home because they're too big! Believe me, horses have nothing on elephants! Wow, are they big! But, of course I couldn't pass up the opportunity to try it out. It was a lot of fun. My elephants name was Mae Kap Ing (of course I don't know about the spelling, but it sounded like "May camping") and I learned to steer her by tapping the side of her head with my foot. I took a bunch of pictures and even a video of the experience (which Mer is trying to upload to the blog -thus far unsuccessfully). When I got home I was worried to let Cooper (or as he is more commonly known on this site, Will) see the pictures and video. He has turned into a huge animal lover and has several toy elephants. I was wondering if an 18 month old had the capability of thinking, "Why does dad get to ride an elephant when it's me who loves them so much?"! As it turns out, he would look at the picture, see me on top of the elephant, point to the picture and with a big smile on his face, say "Daddy!"

Anyway, Laos was an incredible experience, but I was happy to return to my wife and boy!

Pictures of the schools and villages we visited, and the elephant ride

The City of Luang Probang. Great place to visit if you ever get the chance...

Now that I've finished, maybe Meridee will stop hounding me to get this done! Thanks for reading :)