First day in the office

Hi everyone!! I've had a simultaneously exciting and stressful day. Today was my first day in the office (although I don't officially start work until next week - next Tuesday, because Monday is a public holiday due to the annual boat racing festival here in Vientiane on the weekend).
Interestingly, I met my boss, Andy, at a concert on Saturday night. I was pretty nervous, so when I spotted him in the crowd, I didn't introduce myself -but one of the other AYAD's, Erin, dragged me over to meet him :-)
Nishan, Chris and I got the lowdown on all the projects Sunlabob is running at the moment. They range from solar electrified fences, solar lanterns, village mini grids with solar, hydro and generators, joint ventures with Cambodia (which Andy is keen to get Chris involved with - but he doesn't have any funding at the moment) - all sorts of exciting but scary things. Then...he told me and Nishan that next week we will be heading up to Xieng Khuang Province for the week!! Woohoo!! Some information on the area - it borders Vietnam, takes about 10 hours from Vientiane on bus (since it is in the mountains), Sunlabob has a village mini grid there and it is the most bombed area of Laos (which is also the most bombed country in the world). During the Vietnam War the North Vietnamese were using the area to protect Hanoi, so the US came in and bombed the crap out of it. There are still plenty of UXO's around (unexploded ordinance), however lots of areas have been cleared and are clearly marked. So that means that I will actually be away for my birthday, and most likely Nishan's as well (since his birthday is November 4). I'll take my phone with me, but I don't know if it will work :-(
Then we headed off to lunch with some of the staff. I did some motorbike training on Sunday (in the carpark at the college) but I'm still very unconfident - so naturally I didn't expect my first experience on a motorbike to be hanging off the back of a scooter going 50k/hr, wearing a helmet that didn't fit, with some guy I'd only just met. Anyway :-)
A few other experiences from the past few days:
* On Saturday we went to a baci ceremony at Joy's house, who is one of the staff here at Vientiane College. He has had an appendectomy and dengue fever in the last month, so he wanted to get rid of the bad spirits. That was pretty amazing :-) Although I could have done without the shot of lao lao - which is Lao rice wine, similar in every way to methylated spirits. The drinking culture here in Lao is about 200 million times worse than it is in Australia...
* Yesterday afternoon I spent the whole time in bed, trying to shake nausea and giddiness. I think it was probably due to heat. I'm feeling a lot better now - I think my body is starting to cope with the new bugs in my system :-)
* Friday night the AYAD's were invited to a farewell party for two of the Vientiane College staff (who I hadn't met). Amongst drinking jelly vodka shots (which was very odd), there was also an ice sculpture of a swan which had a hole straight down it's back into its butt. Our hosts proceeded to put vodka down the hole and people drank from the other end. Possibly one of the bizarrest things I've ever seen....naturally there were some very sick people the next morning.
I think that's all I have to tell :-) We still don't have a house and it looks like Chris and I may actually be living by ourselves now, so I will keep you informed.

Lots of love,
Susan