Reflections on the good, the bad and the in between

What I will miss:


- The people I have met - Lao and falang.



I don't expect to ever meet people like the Laotians again - constantly giving, never angry, always easygoing. They make us Westerners look like the fussiest and unhappiest people on Earth - I hope I have managed to learn some of their ways while I have been here.
The foreign community has really sustained me during my time here - from the AYAD group (especially our lovely flatmate Sam), to my tight knit work group, and others I have met along the way.



- My church.



I really thought that being a Christian in Laos would be difficult, considering that it is a predominantly Buddhist country. But God took care of Chris and I, and we ended up at an amazing church with a very strong sense of community and some very good teaching. I have learnt a lot this year and am in the best place I have ever been in my Christian walk (plus I have had the opportunity to lead music - just me and a guitar! - for the last few months!) While I have a good church in Sydney to return to, I will sorely miss the fellowship that I have experienced at this church.



- The food.



Where to start??? I will miss being able to afford to go out every day to fantastic restaurants - Lao (laap and sticky rice, yum! And my daily dose of khao pheak for lunch...), French (the creperie, creme brulee from Le Silapa, and the baguettes from Le Benetton), Japanese (croquettes and hot chocolate cake from Yulala....THE best restaurant in Vientiane), Italian (Le Gondola's homemade fettucine and Swedish pizza), Indian (Nazim's for church lunch on Sunday), Chinese (one word required - DUMPLINGS!), Vietnamese (bi bun, kao jii, spring rolls, and that yummy fried rice ball thing from Nam Neung, PVO and the Spring Roll shop)...the list goes on and on. I have absolutely gorged myself this year - and usually for less than $5 a pop. God help me trying to cook again.



- The massages.



I'm never sore for very long here when I can go and have a massage for $5 at Oasis. The best thing is you can walk straight in off the street and be relaxing within 5 minutes. And if Oasis is full? Then there is always another place within walking distance :-)



- My job.



Kind of a strange thing to say?? Not really - thats why I came. And it hasn't disappointed. Its been an exhilarating, stressful and frustrating ride at times, and sometimes I'm not sure whether I have contributed anything. But the people who work at Sunlabob are phemenonal - especially our managing director Andy, who has more energy and drive at 50 than I have ever had. The technologies that we get to play with here, and the techniques for introducing them to Lao villages in a sustainable fashion, are really innovative and exciting - and I'm proud to have been a part of it.



- The country, and the region.



Laos is a amazingly beautiful country - my bus trip from Vientiane to Phonsavan during my third week in Laos was one of the most incredible experiences of my life, as we wound our way through mountainous terrain in a bus for 10 hours. But I don't even have to travel to see beauty here - behind my house every afternoon is one of the most awe inspiring sunsets you will ever see, as the sun sinks behind the banks of the Mekong River in Thailand.
I've also loved the sights I have seen in other places in South East Asia - Halong Bay in Vietnam and Angkor Wat in Cambodia instantly spring to mind. There are really a lot of sources of inspiration here :-)



What I'm not sure about:



- The roads.


I absolutely love getting around on my scooter - its such an exhilerating experience (although the SuperCub doesn't go particularly fast...) The SuperCub is one of my prized possessions - hot pink (matches my helmet!), very retro looking, having only the bare minimum functionality in order to be on the road..........

But the unpredictability of the traffic can be extremely wearing - there's only so many times you can take people coming down the wrong side of the street at you, or driving through red lights, before you start to feel serious road rage. But in line with the Lao character, you will usually just be greeted with a smile and a wave by the lunatic who almost just killed you.



What I won't miss:



- The language barrier.


I tried very hard to learn Lao in my first six months here, and looking back on it I know I made considerable progress. However, I struggled a lot with tones and being able to put words together into sentences. Sometimes I wish I had had the patience to keep trying, because I feel I could have made better friendships and learnt more about Lao culture if I could have spoken the language better.



- The homesickness.


I was really surprised by this - possibly because I've never really experienced it before (but then again, I've never been away from home for so long before!) It got better every day, but I still felt the absence of my family and friends all the time, and wished I could have been there to share special times with them. My trip home in April helped to soothe the homesickness, but the strength of this feeling convinced me that I am not meant for the development 'lifestyle', and that my family and friends at home always come first.



- The bugs.


Before I left I really expected that the mosquitoes would give me grief (with the potent combination of me having yummy blood that mosquitoes like, and nice diseases like dengue fever and malaria for the mosquitoes to give). And don't get me wrong, they were really annoying (although thankfully I ended up with no diseases, and found a really awesome and entertaining way to kill them with my Lao electrified tennis-racket-shaped mosquito killing machine). But the ants were far worse. Within five minutes of you putting food anywhere they were all through it (eventually all food had to live in the fridge). And if you got on their wrong side then their bites were vicious. They particularly seemed to love my towel, and I would only discover this after I had finished my shower, dried myself and was stinging all over.

- Lao lao.

Just thinking of this stuff makes me want to retch. It smells like methylated spirits, and I'm sure it tastes just the same. You can feel it disinfecting all your organs on its way through the body. The worst part is, its rude not to have some if it is offered to you (especially in the villages, where they pride themselves on their home brew - and this is the strong stuff). Thankfully I can get away with just one shot these days, although that is more than enough.

I learnt this the hard way when our neighbours were having a party, and I thought that since I didn't like beer, I'd go for the lao lao. Now I say - give me beer any day.


- Not being able to find things.


Some of this springs from language barrier of course, and some of it springs from simply being in a developing, non-Western country. But the rest of it (when it comes from going from A to B anyway!) springs from no road maps, no directions, no street signs, and no street names. I got seriously sick of having to explain things like this: 'To get there, you have to travel on the one way street into town, turn right on the second dirt road after the traffic lights, and drive along this until you see the white house with the black fence..' etc. It made every conversation about 20 minutes longer than it had to be.