Back to normal life

Sa bai dee :-) It's early Saturday afternoon, and I'm feeling a bit sick and sorry for myself after managing to catch a cold - I blame it on the weather in northern Laos (but more about that later!)
The first full week back in Vientiane was spent catching up with people and with work. On Sunday after church we headed out to the Nam Ngum River with about 20 other members of the congregation to have lunch on a boat - Chris and I had been here before, but all the boats were booked out last time so we had to settle for the floating restaurant. It was a lovely experience - motoring up the river while feasting on lots of tasty Lao food, and then cutting the engines and floating peacefully back down to our starting point. We watched some Lao fishermen pulling their huge fishing nets out of the water, and then back at the restaurant we watched some crazy Lao boys throwing themselves 20m off a bridge. All in all an entertaining afternoon :-)
I found out on Tuesday that we were welcoming a delegation from Hong Kong during the following week - 25 young professionals who were part of a practical training week (with the GIFT organisation http://www.globalinstitutefortomorrow.org) and would be writing a business plan for Sunlabob - and that I was to be part of the staff that was to help take care of them and answer their questions. Part of this included presenting on Saturday afternoon when they arrived, taking them out to Ban Sor village to visit our systems there on Sunday, and flying up to Phonsavan and taking them to Nam Ka on Monday. I got ready for a very busy week!!
After a few nights of dinner with friends and busy preparation at work, the weekend came around - Sam was back from Australia so we spent Saturday morning catching up with him (yesterday he had a wisdom tooth extracted in the chair after it got infected - so it hasn't been the best month for him!!) I headed to work in the afternoon, greeted the GIFT guys, gave my presentation about solar powered water purification, and then headed out to dinner with them and the other Sunlabob greeting group at a swanky Lao restaurant (which I had never been to before).These guys were at the end of a 3 month orientation program for their new investment banking employer CLSA, who have offices all over the world (GIFT was just running the practical training week) - it was phenomonal talking to them, because after their time in Laos they were all headed to various locations (London, Dubai, Singapore, Shanghai, you name it...) to start their first 4 month rotation. EnergyAustralia grad program, eat your heart out!! Although I could see that these people were bred to be nice little bankers, which I never want to be... After that we headed to another AYAD's birthday party, but went home early because I had a 6 am start the next day.
Sunday saw us heading out to Ban Sor, a village which I had visited quite a few months ago (and got my first taste of solar powered water purification, which has become my primary project at work). After stopping to see a solar powered village water pump, and a village health post with a solar refrigerator, I took one small group of a tour of the village - to see the water purification unit, the battery lanterns (which just won Sunlabob the World Bank 'Lighting Africa' Development Marketplace Award in Ghana last week - and $200,000! Have a look here http://lightingafrica.org/index.cfm?Page=DM) and the rental systems, and to ask the villagers questions. I learnt a lot that day - it can be really good to get a fresh perspective. For a lot of the GIFT guys, it was a completely new experience and it was good to be able to show them around.
The next day, we got ready to fly up to Phonsavan (where I spent my birthday and first week at Sunlabob last year). However, the weather was so bad in Phonsavan that our flight was delayed...and delayed...and finally cancelled. I thought the whole trip would be cancelled, but the GIFT group decided to send half of their group to Phonsavan the next day, so I still got the chance to go (even if it was now a 24 hour trip instead of 48). Even better, when we got there on Tuesday afternoon it was 3 pm and we couldn't go to Nam Ka, so instead we headed to the Plain of Jars!! These jars are scattered in sites all around Phonsavan, are about 2000 years old, are about one tonne and one metre on average, and have various theories associated with them (e.g. that there were used for burials, or for storing alcohol). I wanted to see them the last time we were in Phonsavan, but didn't really have the chance - so I'm glad I didn't miss out this time!
After that we headed into town (I dropped into the MAG shop again, where they were showing a documentary about cluster bombs and the effect they have had on Laos. Cluster bombs, which are still being used in wars all over the world, break up in mid air and shoot out hundreds of little 'bombies', many of which are lying unexploded all around Phonsavan. They're deliberately made to kill people and not destroy targets, and they're still having that effect in Laos today as people try to salvage them for scrap metal - a tragic combination of poverty and the remnants of a war from 30 years ago...), had some dinner, and then headed back to our classy hotel on the hill overlooking Phonsavan - the GIFT guys were amazed at the view, I don't think they had seen trees and mountains for a long time after being stuck in Hong Kong!
The next morning we headed out to Nam Ka - thankfully the weather had improved so we could drive to the village, although we had to walk the last kilometre because we got bogged trying to come up the last hill. We had a meeting with about 40 villagers, which was great - again I learnt a lot of new things. We showed the guys the village grid (where I tried to explain how everything worked) and then headed back to Phonsavan for our flight home - a short visit, but good nonetheless :-)
Friday we went to Green Park Hotel (the classiest place in Vientiane, where the GIFT guys were staying) to watch their final presentation and business projections. Their suggestions were quite interesting - I was amazed to see some of the profits that they expected Sunlabob to make!! Chris and I came back to have dinner with them at the hotel that night, where they were unwinding from a hard week of work by drinking BeerLao and throwing each other fully clothed into the pool (they also sung a song for us based on their tune 'The Lion Sleeps Tonight', but with Sunlabob-inspired lyrics - very funny :-)) We then took them to the Martini Bar for a bit of salsa dancing - that was all I saw before I headed home :-) It was really great to have them around, they were nice people and hopefully will get some investment for Sunlabob with their business plan - and they made my week at work quite interesting :-)
I'm not too sure what the next few weeks hold other than a visa run and Adra coming to visit for a few days in mid June - another visitor, yay!! It can be a bit difficult to settle back into normal life after such an exciting holiday - I keep daydreaming about more trips in South East Asia - but I'm getting there :-)
Until next time, sok dee,
Susan