What a week and a half...

Sa bai dee!! It's my second day in the office today so I am taking a break from reading the technical training manual to write :-) I've uploaded some more piccies onto my Flickr site (http://www.flickr.com/photos/susieblue) - Facebook rejects my attempts to upload photos :-(
First of all, I just wanted to thank everyone who sent me an e-mail or Facebook message to wish me a happy birthday. It made me feel really loved and special and definitely made home feel a lot closer :-) I will try to write back to everyone over the next week or so - we still don't have the net connected at home, so it is a bit difficult to write :-(
The last week and a half has been amazing. When I last wrote, the long weekend was just starting. That night (Friday) I went to the Mekong with some other AYAD's to watch the candles float down the river (apparently a Buddhist ceremony). I put my own in (which is in the picture above) but it went out as soon as it floated off! It was an incredible sight, watching thousands of candles float off down to Cambodia - something that is just impossible to capture on film. We went to a party on the Mekong but it was fairly dull and expensive, so I ended up going home at midnight (stopping along the way to do some shopping and eat some amazing banana pastries which are cooked right in front of you).
The next day was the boat racing on the Mekong - so we were back there again. The dragon boats have about 40 people in them so they actually go quite fast. Chris and I found a spot right on the river with some other AYAD's and whiled away the day eating, drinking and watching the boats.
On Sunday I played netball in a team started up by an AYAD from a previous Intake. It was really really hot once I started running around - dehydration just waiting to happen. The team is going to Hanoi to play some Thai teams on Nov 17 - so I am heading over too. My first international trip since I arrived! I can't wait to see Hanoi - it is apparently a beautiful city, with a lot of French influence, if not more choatic than Vientiane :-) On Sunday night our fellow AYAD's threw a little party for Nishan and I at Nishan's new house, because we were going to be away for our birthdays - it was really lovely, we ate pizza and cake (instead of fried rice and noodles!)
On Tuesday morning Nishan and I, as well as Sayyouth and Thongdeuan, our Lao counterparts fron Sunlabob, hopped on the bus to Phonsavan (if you have a look at the map, it's north of Vientiane and sort of in the middle). It took from 8.30am to 5.30pm - winding up through the mountains through amazing scenery. I wasn't suffering from motion sickness like the others, however my fear of heights caused enough suffering as it was :-) At one point we passed a broken down bus and I had to just close my eyes and say a few quick prayers that we would end up safely on the other side and not down a massive cliff.
Our guesthouse in Phonsavan housed not just us, but a massive collection of deactivated bombs, ranging from ones as tall as me (Nishan says they were B52's) to hand grenades. A few facts about the bombings in this area - there were over 2 million tonnes of bombs dropped on Laos from 1964 to 1973, which equates to about a planeload of bombs every eight minutes for nine years. That's as many as Japan and Germany dropped in WWII. And 30% of them are still unexploded. On our way to Nam Kha the next morning (the village with the mini-grid) we could see the hillsides literally covered in bomb craters where nothing grew.
It was also my birthday as we headed up to Nam Kha - Nishan came and sang a rap to me that he wrote in the morning, what an awesome present!! We went for a look at the mini-grid in the morning - which is hydro, PV and diesel - and learnt about how it works. In a few months time Sunlabob will be returning to install another similar mini-grid at a village just a few kms further down the river.
In the afternoon we checked the meters - so I think I went to nearly every villager's house! The village was lovely - lots of cute children running around, pigs, chickens and cows wandering the streets, mist sitting on the mountains. I got extremely dirty from all the mud, and since there was no toilets I had to make a trip outside in the rain a few times...
The next morning we headed on a long walk to check out the next village and the transformers (one of which you can see above - not the safest things ever invented). Our search for the last transformer found us in a village called Na Phi, kms away from anywhere. So we stayed here for a few hours, ate with the villagers, were blessed at their temple, tried to avoid the lao lao, tried to teach the villagers English with our limited Lao (as well as French - I think they probably ended up thinking I was French!) - one of the villagers could only say 'Thank you, happy new year'. It was hilarious :-) Eventually a car came to pick up and we headed back to Phonsavan for the night before getting back on the bus to Vientiane in the morning. The scenery was even more spectacular coming back down the mountains - literally breathtaking. One of the highlights of the trip for sure :-)
It was lovely to get back because we have a house now!! And a motorbike!! So I spent the weekend learning how to ride, buying food, and settling in. Last night we went to meet our village chief (apparently this helps us get on his good side, if we visit as soon as we move in), bearing gifts of whisky. We drank an entire bottle....yuck, whisky is horrible!!!! :-)
I've been doing lots of reading since I started at work yesterday - my boss is due back on Friday, so I am hoping we can discuss in more detail what he would like then.
I will post again soon - trying to cover a week in a post is actually quite hard (although maybe that's just because last week was eventful :-))

Lots of love,
Susan