Australia Day, weddings and other events

G'day from Vientiane :-) I know its been a long time between drinks on the blog again, but it's been another few quiet weeks here. Sometimes I like how there is very little to do in Vientiane except eat, drink and hang out with friends - after all, it's better than being stressed! - and other times it just drives me insane, when I've been used to the fast pace of Sydney for several years now.
There have been a few interesting things happening though:

• Last weekend Chris and I went to our first Lao wedding. They are vastly different from what we're used to, for a few reasons:

• The 'wedding' itself is actually a baci ceremony. Only family and very close friends attend this. So when I say 'going to the wedding' I actually mean the Lao version of a reception.

• You can invite absolutely anyone to a wedding. In this case, we were invited because we work with the groom's brother Sert. I still haven't met the groom and bride! There was room for 500 people at the wedding, so I gather there were plenty of other people in the same situation!

• You don't actually give a gift when you go to a Lao wedding. Instead, you use the envelope you received your invitation in (with your name on it), and put about 50000 kip inside ($US5) into a box as you enter.

• You can have a wedding on any day of the week. There are several restuarants near our house that have weddings virtually every night, with consequent traffic jams.

The wedding was great - especially the part when they turned all the lights out and tens of waiters came out with plates of candle-lit BBQ duck. I had a brand new skirt tailor made for it.

• Our AYAD neighbours Deb and Nicole hosted an Australia Day party yesterday (Deb being possibly one of the most ocker people you'd ever meet). I was really impressed by the amount of 'Australiana' they managed - we had a kiddie pool, a BBQ with kebabs and rissoles, an esky full of beer, Vegemite and fairy bread, Australian music, a Lao made cricket set, stubbie holders, lamingtons, and tons of Australian flags. My job was to make chocolate cheesecake, which thankfully turned out just as well as the pavlova (and was nowhere near as hard). Chris' job was to man the BBQ :-) I also managed to hit the cricket ball over someone's fence..so all in all it felt like I was back in Australia :-)
  This Tuesday night the ambassador is hosting a Australia Day party at the embassy - free music and drinks for a few hours. Woot!

• Work has actually been quite ordinary these past two weeks. I thought my workshop went well, until at the end of the second day I found out that what I'd been teaching was far too difficult and technical, was not necessarily something the technicians needed to be learning, and that they'd latched onto one thing that I'd said and misintepreted it to extremes. That was probably my lowest moment here in Laos, although since then I've been trying to reassure myself with the knowledge that I'd never tried anything like that before. There have also been plenty of moments where I've been itching to get away from my desk and lamenting that my day to day working environment is actually not very different from Australia.
  However I am excited about my projects, which are to incorporate solar electric fences and a solar powered water purification scheme into Sunlabob's overall program. There is also a constant stream of international experts coming through Sunlabob - last week it was a Swiss consultant, Ueli, this week it is a German consultant, Dr Frank - who keep life interesting with their stories of experiences all over the world. I also enjoy spending time with my work colleagues - at the end of last week, we had dinner together after work, accompanied by rice wine in a pot, which has to be drunk (with a straw) with someone else in a drinking game fashion. I managed to beat the boss...

• Last Sunday morning Chris spoke at our new church. We've only been going there for a month, but the numbers are pretty low so I think they like to share the jobs around a lot!!! I think he did a very good job :-)

It's time for Chris and I to do another visa run (it looks like our permanent visas are still awhile away yet!) so we're off to Phnom Penh next weekend (it's about time we got out of Vientiane!) I'm looking forward to seeing the Khmer Rouge prison, which is now a museum, and the Killing Fields - it will no doubt be depressing, but it will be interesting to learn more about the history of this part of the world.

Phop gan mai!
Siao saan (the closest Lao word to my name - it means expert!!! I hope they don't expect much!)