Ban Na

I arrived in the very northern most part of the northeast of Thailand (Issan for those of you keeping track) about two and a half weeks ago for training -- teaching us Thai and about Thai culture and about the project -- to help villagers in Thailand (and Laos) develop the computer skills and language skills necessary to compete in our 21st century world. (if you are interested, check out their web site: openmindproject.com. It is mostly run by Thai people, though the volunteers are mostly Farang and Nippon (developed world people) and there are a few Expats in charge as well. The other organization, teaching English in schools is volunthai.org) We had a weekend there getting settled and going to class -- first hand experience of how hard it is to learn a new language as an adult. I got to practice my Ponglang dancing -- much to the delight of the Thais! (very useful skill I learned there) And I'm beginning to think that all my volunteering in Thailand and South East Asia require that I first visit Nong Khai and the giant sculpture garden there.

On my first weekend with Mook, she, Jacob, a Thai family, and I drove 600km to visit Vientien, stopping in Nong Khai (the town across the border) and visiting the giant sculpture garden there. It was very strange to be there again, two months later and with a much better feel for the land and the people and the art of Thailand. The sculpture park is very cool! It is full of huge brick and cement sculptures of the life of and teachings of Buddha. There is a statue of the man who tried to cut off the Buddha's thumb, statues of people who are so devout or so generous that they give away their children, and all kinds of other moral lessons. Fascinating! And all Huge! One of my favorites is the elephant who calmly plods through a pack of frantic dogs trying to distract it from its purpose in life.

After a weekend of training, Angela, the other volunteer and I headed back across the border with Laos, through Vientien (making only the briefest of stops), and into the country side to a tiny town called Ban Na. Ban Na is a small farming village (less than 600 people) located just steps away from the Phou Khaw Khouay National Protected Area (a very large "National Park" in Laos). She and I spent about two weeks there "teaching English" to about 14 tour guides ("our boys"). The story (per the Lonely Planet and other sources) of why the town has tour guides at all is very ingenious! Several years ago, the town decided to plant sugar cane, as a more lucrative crop than vegetables. But the local herd of elephants preferred the sugar, too, and moved in, destroying the crop. To avoid killing the elephants, the towns people, with help from the Canadian and German governments, built a tower where tourists can observe the wild elephants in their natural setting. The tourists pay a fee to hire the guides, and more to stay overnight, and much of the money goes to town and other local towns to help out the farmers if Elephants destroy the crops. This way, the farmers are less inclined to shoot the elephants to protect their livelihood! The tower, in case you wondered, is near a salt-lick that the elephants frequent to get the minerals they need in their diets. So (and here is the plug), if you go, or your friends go to Laos, make sure to support the local community action to save elephants and still have a way to make a living.

I try not to have expectations at all (as reality is rarely what I expect it to be), but teaching English to the guides was not quite what I expected and was very different from my fist volunteer experience here. The town was much smaller for one. And we had a much freer schedule, in that we never really knew from one day to the next if we were teaching or not. We started the two weeks thinking that we would alternate day-long or over-night treks to the tower (talking with the guides and helping them gain familiarity with English and the kinds of questions English speaking people might ask), with "classroom" time where we would review what we learned on the trek, other important English terms, and role-play various situations the guides might find themselves in (such as booking treks). This plan lasted a grand total of three days.

On day four, we came down, ready to teach, and found all of "our boys" (as we grew to calling them), waiting for us. "No class" they inform us. "It's a Holiday!" We had cleverly scheduled our two weeks over the Laos New Year -- also known as Pai Mei in Laos and Songkhan in Thailand. In the guide books it is some times referred to as the "Water Throwing Festival." We had no idea how big a deal it was in our tiny town. The fist day started calmly enough, with us going with our host family (Mom, Dad, and Grandpa) to the temple for prayers and blessings of the perfumed water we all carried with us. Then, en mas, we all filed out of the temple and began splashing water all over, drenching all the Buddhas, the Naggas, the stupa, the statues of famous monks, everything! Then we packed up and headed to another temple to do it all over again.

Then the real party started.

We spent the next 5 days moving from house to house to house, eating, drinking, dancing (those are handy skills I learned), dumping water all over each other and rubbing baby powder all over each other's faces and hair! It is the tradition to wash each other clean and then freshen up with the power. In other words, a giant water fight that goes on for days and you know the water is coming and get to just sit and take it, and even thank the person who just dumped a bucket of water (sometimes with ice in it) down your back. Great fun! The drinks were always beer (beerlao -- worse than the worst mass, cheep beer I've ever had in the US and served with ice-- if you are lucky) or whiskey (lao lao -- home brew and strong enough to take the hair off or put hair on your chest -- I'll leave it to your imagination to decide which it did for me). It is rude to refuse, so ... They did graciously give me just the tiniest tastes of both the beer and the whiskey (a sip really), but over the course of the day, it adds up. And I'm not sure if the tiny sip is actually better, as it tends to vaporize faster and get up you nose! Angela pointed out once, that everyone looks at the glass as if it is the worst thing you could offer them, then everyone, even the most hardened of them makes a face as if it was the worst thing they ever tasted. And then they smile and thank you for it! And everyone laughs! Once they got going, the people in Ban Na, and the surrounding towns, didn't stop. We were offered beer or whisky for the last 11 days in a row! The first 5 for the new year, then preparations for a wedding, then the wedding, then a birth celebration, then another new years celebration, then our own departure celebration. Whew! It is good to have a few days to "dry out."

On our last day we got to see wild elephants! We had hiked out to the local waterfall (dry because it is the dry season) though blazing hot sun (it is so hot in fact, that the other day, not thinking about it, I said, "Wow, its almost cool today." then looked at the thermometer and saw that it read 32oC (90oF)) and down crazy little paths that you had to know existed in order to find. We finally crashed through the bushes to a rocky plane with a tiny stream running through it. Angela and I look at each other and say, "Is this it? Looks like it, the guides are setting up to make lunch. And what is he doing stripping off his clothes?" Turns out just before the stream crosses the large, flat, hot rocky area, it hits a natural dam and creates the most wonderful swimming hole imaginable! Shaded by trees, with a rock to jump off of, and deliciously cool, clear, drinkable water! We spent the entire afternoon splashing around: jumping in, swimming, getting out and drying off, then jumping in again to repeat the whole thing! Perfect!

After a final dip, we packed up again, and trudged back up through the trees to the tower to spend the night. Met up with a couple of Swedish boys, who we made the guides practice their English with. And, as night fell, after another wonderful diner of sticky rice eaten with fingers we were treated to the sounds of a baby elephant and its mother coming down to the water to bathe. Just as we had done hours before. It was too dark to really see any thing clearly, but a dark blob of baby elephant could be seen shuffling up the hill, dark against the light sand and grass, to disappear into the tree line. So Amazingly Wonderful! Later there were sounds of more elephants, but the highlight came in the wee hours of the morning, when I was awakened by a call of "Teacher!" and a beckoning hand. Groggy from sleep, I staggered out of the mosquito net and followed Mr. Pon to the edge of the tower. "There!" he whispers and points. Right below the tower is an Elephant! All grown up and large as life! Beautiful and Wild and Amazing! We didn't get any photos, unfortunately, but just watching the elephant shuffling around the tower, heading towards the bush, and then changing its mind and heading down the road was spectacular!

Our own going away was very sweet and moving! The town had a party for us. They made a Banana leaf "tower" and decorated it with yellow and white flowers, and stuck sticks covered with strings into the top. A man, speaking the monks language, though not a monk, said something over us as we held to strings attached to the "tower." Then people put money and food in our hands (including a boiled chicken head in mine) and tied bunches of strings around our writs. Our wrists look a little bit like we just tried to slit our writs (to put a dark, culturally insensitive view on it), but are tokens of well wishes and good luck and affection. And we are both very proud of them. Which is lucky as we are supposed to wear them for the next 5 weeks! We ate the food (not the chicken head) and then had dinner. More beerlao, and more lao lao, dancing, singing, and food. The Laos people make music everywhere and for any occasion! Clapping hands, tapping spoons against empty beer bottles and plates or each other. Drumbing, playing recorders, or traditional pipes, and singing! Ah! A wonderful expression of life!

And the next morning we left. Angela to head to China on a trip around the world with out flying, and me to tour Laos a bit before flying home in the last 5 minutes of May 8.