Travels

Sunday, April 29

Peter is sitting in the chair next to me playing a game on the new cell phone we just got yesterday. Apparently the game requires lots of sound effects as he’s chatting away to the game and to himself. As he finishes each round of the game, he shows me the score and tells me how to say the number in Lao. My Lao is improving.

Yesterday afternoon Nin, Sivone, and Vanh helped us with some shopping. The first stop was to get a second cell phone so both Cathy and I could have one. It was most helpful to have Lao speakers along. There was lots of discussion and gesticulating that we didn’t understand, but in the end we walked away with a Nokia phone for not a lot of money.

It seems that almost everyone has a cell phone, and that landlines aren’t used that much. Even the monks have pockets in their orange robes that seem to be empty except for their phones.

After our successful shopping trip for a phone, we went to a local food market, the Talat Thongkhankham. Like other Lao markets we’ve been to, the Talat Thongkhankham has an amazing assortment of all sorts of exotic (for us anyway) fruits, vegetables, spices, and other foodstuffs. We checked out the various grades of sticky rice from the cheaper year-old rice, to the more expensive new rice. There were also mountains of fresh produce including baskets of lime leaves (or “lamb lips” as Cathy thought Nin was saying when she first arrived in Canada), galangal, chilies, and basil; and tubs full of fresh red curry paste. I didn’t see any apples, but there were lots of mangoes, papayas, pygmy bananas, mangosteens, bamboo shoots, and banana flowers, as well as all sorts of fruits and vegetables that we didn’t recognize.

If the nice, fresh produce looked good, some of the other items looked a little less appealing. The ant eggs actually looked kind of nice, and I’ve heard they’re tasty, but I’m not sure I’m ready for ant egg soup just yet.

And while the (beef?) intestines were an interesting, powder-blue colour, they didn’t do much to whet my appetite. Nor did the brains, stomachs, hearts, kidneys, tongues, and livers on display. Actually, the whole meat area was a little disconcerting. With the meat sitting out on wooden tables in 35° heat, it was a far cry from the tile-lined, refrigerated butcher shops we’re used to.

If the ant eggs looked like a possibility, the padek looked daunting. This fermented fish paste is a staple of Lao cooking, but it could use a serious image makeover. The various padek vendors seemed to be competing to see who’s barrels and vats could take on the most ghastly shade of green-brown, and to see who could get the most gruesome and unidentifiable fish bits to float to the surface. Padek is one of those foods that’s better eaten than looked at or thought about.

We didn’t buy any ant eggs or padek, but we did come home with the ingredients for spring rolls and red-curry beef. Nin’s family brought some snack food and beer, and we all ate and cooked, and cooked and ate, for most of the evening. We were all eem lai (very full), by the time we were done.

Peter, Kesone, and Nin stayed overnight and everyone, except Peter, was moving slowly this morning. By 10:00, everyone was finally ready, and we walked downtown for breakfast. Even after all they ate last night, the three of them were able to finish off their North-American-sized portions of Eggs Benedict. Amazing.

We’re starting to feel somewhat settled in our house. I’m finally learning all the strange places where the light switches reside, and I can identify the key for the front door in the pocketful of keys that we seem to need.

Cathy has been exploring the city by making increasingly wider circles as she walks away from home. She’s found the local coffee shop favoured by falangs (foreigners), as well as the Scandinavian Bakery (I didn’t see many Swedes or Danes there), a mini mart that had Parmesan cheese and Arborio rice for risotto, and a restaurant that makes wood-fired pizzas.

I know it won’t come as a surprise to any of you teachers, but I’m finding that getting prepared for four different classes is taking a lot of time. Instead of just managing to keep up, it would be nice to get ahead of the curve and to do some planning. Luckily, May 1 is a public holiday, so I’ll have a couple of days to try to catch up and to get a little better organized.

Generally the classes are going well, and I’m enjoying the school, the other teachers, and the students. The place has a kind of buzz about it, and lots of energy and enthusiasm. I think the students enjoy the western teaching style where they are expected to speak and participate. I understand that in the normal schools the students are expected to sit and passively absorb the information that’s presented.

Next morning…

Had a bit of an exciting night last night. Peter had stayed with us for the afternoon, and Nin and Kesone had just got back after an afternoon of traditional Lao dance practice, when a violent thunderstorm rolled in. There was a most impressive electrical display with torrential rain, high winds, and booming thunder. The windows that were closed, but not latched, blew open and banged against the house, and we struggled to get them closed before the glass broke.

Next door they’re building what looks like a three-story guesthouse, and bits of construction material were flying around. Even our heavy steel gate blew open and was banging in the wind. Predictably, the power failed, and we sat in the dark with candles burning.

Just as the storm was really getting going, we heard a forlorn beep at the gate and saw Moui and Boui on their Honda Dream drive into the yard and sprint for the door. They’d been caught on the road between somewhere and somewhere but, luckily, when the storm hit they were nearby, so they made a dash for our place. They’d made a good decision. With flooding roads, and near zero visibility in the driving rain, driving a motorcycle any further would have been treacherous.

Cathy saw the construction workers when they arrived next door this morning. She said they looked a bit depressed as the surveyed the scene. Much of the work they’ve done during the last week will have to be redone.

More photos next time…

Gord