A Famous Novelist :-)

I got an iPod before I came to Laos to practice my Lao and listen to podcasts on the way to work, and one of those NPR podcasts, I was surprised to find, was about Laos. About a novelist writing about Laos. Yesterday, I met that man here in Vientiane.

Colin Cotterill is an interesting guy who never looks the same in any of his photos. He's an avid cartoonist and novelist, with his recent 7-book Dr. Siri series (which has shot him to fame) set in 1976-1978 about Laos' only coroner right after the change in government. One of the coolest things is that his royalties all go to grassroots projects in Laos:

1. COPE in Vientiane (see previous post)
2. Big Brother Mouse in Luang Prabang, which publishes Lao books for children in Laos
3. Colin's personal scholarship project, in Luang Namtha, which funds children from hilltribes to become teachers and return to their villages to teach in their own ethnic language

Laos doesn't have a reading culture which is hindered by a literacy rate of 69%. Many of the hilltribes, including ethnic groups with whom we will be working in our study, have only oral tradition without a written language. And they definitely don't speak Lao, much less read/write it.

So these projects are worthy causes...to bring Lao books to Lao children in their own Lao language (few even get a chance to own a book because there aren't enough to go around) and to train villagers to become teachers for their own people in their own language.

And to think I stumbled upon that reading and book signing accidently. I was actually looking for a lecture by a World Bank economist about the recent financial turmoil and its impacts on economic growth in Laos. Heard it was really interesting, but I don't mind the mis-cross-communication that landed me here. Now I have the first 4 Dr. Siri books, signed, and one with a cartoon of Colin riding a bike. How Lao.

More photos from the book signing at COPE.