When you go out step on the dog, when you come back step on the frog

The title is an irresistable outtake extolling the virtues of hard work found in a Lao childrens book of proverbs picked up at Big Brother Mouse in Luang Prabang. The translation explained that you should get up and start your day early enough to find the dogs still sleeping at the doorstep, and you should return from your studies and chores late enough that the frogs have come out.

It's strange how Laos can feel so laid back and at the same time the people can be so dilligent and hard working. Don't get me wrong, these guys know how to relax too but I still haven't gotten up early enough to acutally see the first of the morning market stalls being set up - and I've gotten up early... In Luang Prabang, similarly, the night market is still breaking down when I'm stumbling back to my hotel bleary eyed from a long day walking the streets of town, snapping photos, and sampling the local dishes. In one of the wonderful garden bars, also in Luang Prabang, a waiter told us he starts work at 8am and works until close which is 11pm but in saying that he didn't seem to be complaining, rather he was just making conversation. Everyone here works too, like the grandmother in Vang Vieng who came out every evening with her clay oven and cast iron pancake form to set up shop on the dusty main alley that made up the tourist strip. She was still cooking up little silver dollar sized pancakes over glowing embers every time we were headed back to our bungalow; and she always greeted us with the same bright, wrinkled smile. It could be that these folks are putting on a good face for the tourists but I rather think they've sorted out how to enjoy themselves while they're doing whatever it is that they do to scrape by. I see the girls in the markets chatting and laughing loudly with the other sellers as they all lay stretched out behind their neatly arranged merchandise. The tuk tuk men, ever vigilant and always brandishing a big smile, huddle together playing cards or swing languidly in hammocks hung in the back of their rigs, laughing loudly with each other but never missing a potential fare in the passing foot traffic. Everywhere about the tourists districts we found the waiters, reception staff, and store clerks were students with a full class load working 6 or 7 days a week, most times putting in a full 8 hours at their jobs and although they make less in a day than a minimum wage worker flipping burgers back home, we found in talking with many of them that they frequently are able to send money home to support their families. I am in awe of the dedication and work ethic that seems to be intimately threaded through the cluture here and find it in great contrast to the often laisses-faire attitude I've encountered both as a worker and a customer in the states (and I'm not excluding myself from that passing judgement either!).

 

That said I've spent the last few days of my second round in Vientaine visiting the businesses that hire Lao staff and are working to empower the local people by helping them market their existing skills or by giving them new skills. One particularly interesting place was COPE which had a great UXO educational show along with being situated in the same complex as a wheelchair fabrication shop run by AAR  but staffed by and for Lao natives with disabilities. The Visitors center was very well set up with interactive and engaging educational displays including a mock up of a traditional Lao style thatch home stocked with tons of daily life implements that had almost all been fashioned from the remnants of war. It's cool to see the instruments of war being re purposed but there's a bigger problem behind that industry. The scavenging of scrap metal is a lucrative business and secondhand metal detectors help villagers locate metal fragments but it's impossible for them to discern something that will fetch them a months wages in one go from something that can kill them with one swipe of the shovel. As you might well have guessed access to healthcare and especially prosthetics is a little convoluded here which makes what COPE is doing that much more important. If you've got a minute please check out their website and if you feel inspired please make a donation! We've actually spent quite a bit of time now visiting the UXO centers: UXO Laos in Luang Prabang which has a brand new visitors facility, MAG in Phonsavanh where we saw a great documentary about the Secret War in Lao called "Bombies", and now COPE here in Vientaine.

 

On a completely different thread:

As most of you know I'm headed to meet up with a few cyclists in Chengdu, China in a few days. From there the 8 of us will take the train to Lhasa, Tibet and cycle overland from there to Kathmandu. I'm excited and nervous and have been running around Vientaine trying to square up my gear and tie up any loose ends before I fly out. This will be my first big adventure abroad without E. and I'm excited and apprehensive at the same time. I'll try and post some blog updates along the way but the trip promises very few cities and thus very few options for checking email or getting online. I promise a big post from Kathmandu though!

 

In the mean time I hope everyone back home is enjoying the last days of a balmy summer and getting some