End of Buddhist Lent

Today is Boun Ok Phansaa, the final and most important day of Buddhist Lent that also marks the end of rainy season. Several activities surrounding the neighborhood wat, or temple, mark the occasion.

Vieng let me accompany her and her brother to their neighborhood wat where the morning started at 7am with prayers and almsgiving. Families sat in rows across the wat floor with their offerings of money, sweets, sticky rice, candles/incense, and lotus/orchid flowers. We lit candles as the monks chanted in the ancient Buddhist language, and at the end, each worshipper poured water in prayer to offer as a symbolic cleansing drink.

Once prayers were finished, the monks wound their way through the rows of worshippers to collect alms. I was free to walk around and take photos once this started, but I had to be very careful not to step over or touch anyone or their offerings with my feet in passing, which ended up being quite a challenge! When the monks came around, I helped give each monk a sweet, making sure not to touch any part of the pot since women must not touch the monks. Once we exited the wat, Vieng used the water from the prayers for the wat's plants, and then we offered our respects at her ancestors' grave.

Several children (some homeless; others just neighborhood kids) were hanging about and grabbing the sweets and money straight from the graves, offering bins, and statues. True, the monks not only survive on alms, but also share them with the homeless. But these children were being rather disrespectful by grabbing the alms before worshippers had even left. Vieng scolded them, but they didn't seem put off.

Here's something interesting about monks: there are two types, those that make it their lives' work and those who do it only for a short time to earn respect and karmic points for their families and ancestors. The latter tend to be young men before marriage, after which they become impure and un-monkable. Many teenagers will do it during the summer holiday like a summer job, but they must do so out of their own will for the "earnings" to count.



In the evening, I went with a group from the U.S. Embassy to a wat to float gatong (candles/incense made of banana leaves in the shape of a lotus) down the Mekong River to cleanse ourselves of sin and bring good spirits. This nice monk had great English and was able to read my fortune for me after I had picked a numbered stick matching my fortune on a slip of paper. Number 11: good fortune. Bingo! He also tied this bracelet for me to wish me longetivity and good health.

So, according to my fortune, I'll have no injury while I'm here; everyone will be happy; my parents will be proud of me; and I will move from Laos eventually. OK, now that I'm surrounded by this karmic force field, let's move on to the debauchery of Boat Racing Festival for tomorrow!

One Week Work, One Weekend Play

After one week of work, I'm already taking vacation. Now how about that!

This week is local holiday in Vientiane with the end of Buddhist Lent on Tuesday and Boat Racing Festival on Wednesday.

And Monday, well, I've still got to celebrate Christopher Columbus "finding" the land to which my parents immigrated more than 500 years later and that fostered the destiny to send me to Laos on its behalf, right???

So, I celebrated by going to Luang Prabang, former royal capital and one of Laos' two UNESCO World Heritage Sites, and nearby Nong Kiaw Village (pictured above). I must credit Dave for the idea of visiting these spots. He can't work yet due to visa issues, so why not travel in the meantime? And what better way for two freshly minted falang to explore Laos than to do so together blithely?

For your sake and mine, I will split up this blog entry. Stay tuned for the details!

First Days in the Office

I've been waking up consistently between 5:00am and 6:30am since arriving in Laos. I'm not complaining though since I'm usually a late riser, and this lengthens my days considerably.

This week I've been getting oriented with the projects born of the partnership between US-CDC and CARE Lao. On Monday I received a CARE security brief and overviews of CARE Lao's work and specifically, the avian influenza portfolio. And on Tuesday I went over to the U.S. Embassy to meet folks and learn about the services available to me.

All of the CARE Lao provincial coordinators and staff are in Vientiane for program meetings this week, so it's the perfect opportunity to meet the field staff and learn about CARE Lao's projects and strategic programming. Andy has in effect instructed CARE to "use and abuse" me, so I may be getting into other data collection projects for which they need more manpower. I hope they take Andy's note to the superlative (figuratively, of course)!

An Aussie, a Kiwi, and an American...

It's Sunday evening, the day before my first day of work at CARE, and I've got an Aussie and a Kiwi testing the limits of my drink. Welcome to Laos!

To think, it all started with a day out with Dave (the American I met at the airport) and Tony (the guy Dave's crashing with). We had planned to explore the city and go down to the Mekong to watch boat practices for the upcoming festival.

We ended up having early refreshments at Joma bakery cafe and then tuk-tuking to the Morning Market (outdoor stalls) and Talat Sao Mall (shiny, indoors with A/C). The bargaining here isn't as intense as in other countries, which is great for me since I'm horrible at it. I got two plain cotton/silk sinh, the traditional Lao skirt, to get by for the week since I didn't bring enough clothes. These two will be my rompers, and later I'll get nicer ones for work and official meetings.

When electronics, clothing, and jewelry couldn't quite satiate our hunger, we walked down to the Mekong Riverside Restaurant patio for a lunch of larb (minced meat w/ stuff), stir-fried morning glory, steamed fish, and sticky rice. Afterwards, while Tony tended to some business, Dave and I got 1-hour full body traditional Lao massages (bendy and stretchy; niiice after the long travel) for about $5.



We then met up with two blokes, Steve and Pat, who work at the Vientiane International School with Tony, at Mekong Deck for Sunday afternoon Beerlao.

Things went downhill from there.

When Dave and Tony left for a dinner engagement, Steve and Pat "took care of me" at several more expat hangouts -- Bor Pen Nyang, Khop Chai Deu, Jazzy Brick -- looking for port and teaching me all sorts of questionable Aussie/Kiwi humor. Pat says my nickname is now whatever "cat" is in Vietnamese. I don't remember anymore how we came to that, but I think I'm part of the expat family now.

Arrived in Laos

Vieng greeted me with the paperwork ready to get my visa when I arrived at the airport in Vientiane. While I waited for her to process through the line (yeah, she’s awesome), I started chatting with another American who had come in on my flight from Bangkok. Turns out he’s an MD/MPH student here for 3.5 months working on pan flu stuff for WHO. Our paths will surely cross; the Laos API community is tiny!! So we exchanged emails; got new friends already before even crossing the border! Niiiice.

The driver took us to the U.S. Embassy to pick up my boss, Andy, who is absolutely terrific. He’s always going 100 mph with his words, thoughts, schedules, phone calls. Immediately in the car, he was setting expectations for my three months, what we could hope to accomplish, and what I could learn. His emphasis is to provide me the best learning experience possible -- learning how to get things done in the “Lao reality.” He’s going to be an awesome mentor.

We took a quick spin along the Mekong to see the restaurants, bars, and sandbags (remaining from the flood back in August) lining the riverbank before checking in to my apartment. And then Vieng brought me to PVO, a Vietnamese food place near the Mekong, for lunch. The noodle salad was yummy, but only after I’d started eating did I realize that I might be better off avoiding the raw stuff. Sure enough my stomach was rumbling later on, but ginger tea helped. I’m also told that drinking a can of Coke (not Pepsi) with questionable foods is good to kill any nasties…

I was doing pretty good for the day till that warm shower around 5pm put me to sleep on the dining table. But I had a beer obligation with Monica, and she picked me up on her motorbike (thank goodness I brought a helmet from the U.S. after all) to go to Sticky Fingers, a surprising expat haven close to the Mekong. I tried my first BeerLao (a nice light beer) with ice, and Monica and coworker introduced me to the Tom Yum Martini. We had a good time chatting, with me interjecting lots of yawns with accurate timing.

That’s it for me. It’s 10pm, and I’m zonked. Much more to come; over and out.

In Bangkok...twenty air hours and ten restless on-ground waiting hours later

I’m impressed by my first travel experience with Lufthansa and Thai Airways. The in-flight service was pleasant and attentive, and I enjoyed listening to the German and Thai that I couldn’t understand. The food was quite good, particularly the chicken & eggplant green curry with fragrant rice. I was tempted by the wine, but I didn’t want to end up completely bloated at the end. That’s no way to greet your boss for the first time!

Frankfurt Airport was a bore. That wait was the most difficult, being the 2am~7am chunk of my regular sleeping hours. With few seats in the waiting area, I couldn’t lean back on anything or get comfortable without getting dust bunnies all over me. So I decided to convert US$20 for just €10 in return and used 20% of that on a Haagen-Dazs macadamia nut brittle ice cream cone (might as well get happy) with which I sidled up with my book next to a cute puppy waiting with its person. Unfortunately, that wouldn’t occupy my entire 5 hour layover, so I eventually found myself rocking head in hand, waking with a jolt every time I nearly fell over flat on my face asleep. I was thankful when they finally announced my gate number about an hour before my flight to Bangkok, so I could go check in.

One good thing about international flights is the chance to catch up on movies and sometimes sleep. This time, success on both counts! So I watched two movies to edumacate myself on Marvel comics, wrapped myself in a cocoon, and fell right to sleep. The Spanish woman next to me didn’t know a lick of English, but with me on the aisle, she just crawled over me whenever she wanted to get out. Neither of us minded, so we had a great 10-hour relationship.

Suvarnabhumi Airport in Bangkok is much nicer, clean and bright with lots of cafes, noodle shops, and places to chill (key!!). Plus, they’ve got the cutsie character thing going on (“Asia” nostalgia for me) and remakes of American “standards” playing over the speakers, like The Bangles’ Eternal Flame, bossa nova style (combining two of my favorite genres...). Here I converted US$20 for about 650 Thai baht, and used 10% of that on a Thai style iced tea, nothing fancy.

But I am well-rested and excited to arrive in Vientiane at midday after just one more short 1-hour flight from Bangkok, with the rest of Friday (and the weekend!) ahead of me to settle in. Bring it on; I’m ready!

My Journey Begins Today

What a whirlwind; I'm not sure where to begin. Flew back from DC to Atlanta Monday morning, straight into meetings (mostly fun, actually) with epidemiologists, field staff, and my home office, picking up my gear and figuring out what gear to leave behind... Not to mention trying to remember the Atlanta roads and how to drive. Dern drivers!! And the gas shortage? It's for real. Cars line up down the streets at all hours of the day, and people are getting into fights over it. The desperation...how the American psyche is so tied to fuel!

Now, no one warned me about the culture shock of returning to Atlanta... My culture shock is always worse within the United States for some reason, and this is no different, although these two days of adrenaline-pumping preparation have kept me from thinking too hard about why my diet has instantaneously returned to beer, steak, and fried chicken.

I voted this morning; thank goodness for early voting. (Note to Georgia voters: you can vote early, M-F, 8am-7pm, from now till October 31st. No reason necessary. Check it out.) I'm very appreciative and giddy to have a voice in this historic 2008 presidential election (sorry to all those local/state candidates for 7-8 pages worth of elections I didn't know about...oops!).

And I have proudly managed to fit all of my check-in material into one, albeit heavy, bag. I was freaking out a bit last night about what stuff to bring with me, but then I stepped out of my body, kinda slapped myself, and told myself to get a grip. I'm going to have an amazing adventure and journey, no matter what I bring or don't bring. So chill! So I'm a-chillin' right now, a few hours before I've gotta get to the airport. I'm gonna go eat lunch...fried chicken anyone?