New Years

Merry Xmas and Happy New Year!

Hope everyone is having a great time. Things here in Laos are great. After a top Chrissy in the Laos Jungle with Anja and the Sis, the sis departed off to the new years beach party in Thailand, while we enjoyed a mellow New Years Vientiane style. It's an exciting event in Laos and done in a very Laos way…dodgy band, fireworks that started 6 minutes too early, and balloons dropped from a building which blew off course and completely missed the crowd. But in Laos, whilst nothing really seems to work as planned, no one really cares much at all, and people are just really content with what goes on.

Before the party our New Years eve feed was spent at a fresh seafood restaurant with a German, Greek-Aussie, Lao, Iraqi and a Palestinian from Gaza strip. Definitely an interesting bunch of people to be sharing a lobster with.

So whilst the Palestinian is here to try and find a way to get somewhere else, he is renting a room here for a few weeks in our flat. With bombs being dropped on Gaza as we chowed down the lobster, the conversation didn’t go there, as his wife and six kids are back there still. He said that the Gaza strip has 2 million people living on a piece of land that is 15km by 8km. Intense. No wonder he loves it here in peaceful Laos.

The guy next to him is Safaa, a guy we are getting to know pretty well. He was fighting in a war against Iran at the age of 14 and fought in an uprising against Saddam Hussein during the 1991 gulf war, before somehow ending up in prisoner of war camp, and then refugee camp in Saudi Arabia for 6 years. He was then accepted as a refugee in Norway. Since receiving citizenship of Norway after 9 years, he is now equally as free as you or me to go where ever he pleases on this earth. So in search of a relaxed place (Norwegians worked till they get stressed), he stumbled across Laos 2 years ago and now calls it his home. He teaches martial arts, speaks Lao fluently and is a mellow. This is despite his cousins being killed by a car bomb 2 years ago in Bagdhad. No wonder he loves it here in peaceful Laos!

We like it here too. From the minute we set foot in Laos, we were hit with a feeling of ease. Vientiane is a very easy city to live in. Mekong sunsets, massages that'll cost you bugger all, and the cheap, tasty food from all over the world. And the people here are so bloody relaxed. They say that Lao PDR stands for Lao People Do't Rush. Content is the other word that comes to mind when describing them. The language gives you an idea of the people who live here. Everywhere you go one hears the slow spoken “Sabaidee”, which is hello, but the literal translation is ‘feeling good’. A conversation can easily begin like this…

Person A: Saabaidee (feeling good)
Person B: Sabaidee (feeling good)
Person A: Sabaidee baw (feeling good aye?)
Person B: Sabaidee (feeling good!)

The second most oft thing you’ll hear is ‘bor pen nyang’, meaning no worries. Everything here is bo pen nyang.

After four weeks of a language course, you realise what another world is opened up through learning a language. Suddenly you have something in common with everyone you see. Anja and I were driving home from the course the other day in the back of a ute–cum-bus when a lady corrected how I was saying “I” (Khoi). Apparently I was saying Khoey, which means dick. She didn’t tell me this by whispering it in my ear, she slapped my leg then pointed at my crutch, bursting out over and again with ‘YOUR DICK YOUR DICK’!!! I thought she was pullin me leg, so after double checking with a few monks sitting next to us, all them where saying it too! Pretty funny.

Being a tonal language, you can really easily fuck up. The are six different ways to say each syllable. The other day I was trying to say to the lady I was working with that I was not yet married ‘khoi nyam pen sot’, but by saying one word ‘sot’ with a slightly different tone, it turned into, ‘I’m still a fresh virgin’. I'm sure if you said Khoi wrtong too, it could easily be 'my dick is still a fresh virgin'. As we were on our way to work in some villages for 2 days, pretty much the whole of two villages heard that one.

As for what anja and I are actually doing here, everything is working out to be sweet.

Anja has landed the coolest work in the mountains of North Laos, working with a German ecotourism professor. top bloke. The scenery is amazing up there!! She is setting up adventure and ecotourism in a number of villages see the photos at http://www.die-bambooschule.de/. It’s volunteer work, but the guy is giving her a lot of initiative and is very happy to have her contribute her own ideas. He covers all her costs plus she gets a bit of pocket money, and a free pushy to get around town. I’m jealous of her

As for my more mundane work, my boss is back in Oz, so its up to me to train up the people who will work with me, and if things all go to plan we will then embark in february on a 3-4 month mission to collect data from 1000 household in 70 villages. I’ve got the job of making sure the cruisey Lao folk actually do interviews properly and in good time. I can’t complain about getting paid to travel through nearly all of Laos and meet so many friendly people, but it will be constant work always on the go, picking ways through a stubborn bureaucracy, and walking the line between friend and boss.

OK that’s enough writing for now,

Take it easy and let us know how you are

Sok di pi mai (good luck in the new year!!!!)

Chris (and Anja says hi)