motorcycle diaries

note: I've written two posts, so after this one you'll see some pictures from my trip to Salavan Province

I’ve had requests to describe my motorbiking adventures. Remember that the things most precious to us are oft unable to be described through mere words, but I will do my best to do her justice.

I was first able to ride a moto during my week-long “immersion” week in Thailand and the mobility it gave me was something that I really wanted here in Laos. My friend Davis and I tried going through the rental agencies here in Vientiane but it was going to cost too much. Luckily we each found someone at our prospective jobs to personally rent each of us one. Mine is a beautiful red Honda that has 12,000 kilometers on it. She has some get up as far as motos go and has run great. She is a manual, but there isn’t a clutch to worry about. I control the shifting with my left foot and just let off the gas. I will probably get her washed ($. 59) so that we finish this last week in style.

The driving here could be labeled as “crazy” but compared to other cities in the region like Saigon, Bangkok, Kuala Lampur, etc. things in Vientiane are pretty tame. The traffic laws are often more like suggestions and it can initially be a little unnerving seeing everyone making blind right-hand turns and choosing to merge in one lane by first going the opposite direction into on-coming traffic. But because traffic itself isn’t that heavy apart from rush hour the chaos is manageable and no one really drives that fast so the possibilities of serious injury is minimized (I’m sure that makes those that are worried feel reassured). And now, that managed chaos has become quite fun.

other things:

- If anyone has any direct control over the value of the U.S. dollar, I need a strong couple of weeks. I don’t have time for your arguments concerning U.S. fiscal policy, and the strength of U.S.’s export sector ain’t the priority. I want to only spend $2.75 on green curry in Thailand, not $3. Let’s get on this.

- I will be getting back to the States on August 10^th. I had pushed my flight back to the 14^th to maybe visit a beach or two in Thailand, but I will enjoy that week before classes start to catch up with a lot of you. Reality is setting back in that I have responsibilities back home.

- I am typing this at my house, while a friend is watching Confessions of a Shopaholic in Thai with his Lao girlfriend. Oh the posts that could have been written this summer.

- I’m training for a half marathon that we’ll run when we get back to Chiang Mai, Thailand. I’m in decent shape and have been running some the last month, but 13.1 miles is going to be rough. Some friendly soccer matches against some Lao have helped the training.

trip down South

here is an article I wrote for a newsletter sent out by other interns.

Mike, Simon, and I (all legal interns) traveled to Salavan Province in southern Laos to visit two villages as part of our work on land legal issues with Village Focus International (VFI). We left by pickup with the three of us in the back seat of the extended cab, while two VFI employees, Viseth and Kasone, drove. We arrived in Pakxe after 10 or 11 hours and picked up three other members of the VFI team the following morning. Keith is a professor at Green Mountain College in Vermont, while Namphone and Bounme are two new Lao hires with VFI.

From Paxse we traveled to Laongam in Salavan where officials of the district’s Ministry of Education met with our team. Our tourist visas limited many areas of the country that we could “work” in. So for us to convene meetings in the village, we had to let them know that we were Dr. Keith’s students and presented a certified letter from the National Ministry of Education. A majority of work done by INGOs in Laos requires a formal relationship (MOU) with one of the government ministries. Without such a relationship, as some of our fellow frustrated Lao interns know, there is little that can be done without risking further isolation by the Lao government.

Laongam was a quite little town that lined the main road. We ate a lot of noodle soup and there wasn’t much to do at night, but we weren’t “roughing it” because the Lao staff really looked after us and we stayed at a clean guesthouse. At times I thought that they saw me and the other farang with giant “Fragile” stickers on our foreheads, but it was just their hospitality and they wanted us to enjoy our trip.

We visited two villages on two separate days. Each day, many of the villagers were already assembled in a meeting hall as we arrived. We were treated as real guests of honor, sitting at a long table as we introduced ourselves and listened to initial statements by village leaders. The villagers were divided between men and women with each seated on mats on different sides of the room. Shortly after introductions we were able to also move to the floor and Viseth’s ability to make villagers laugh, allowed our meetings to be more relaxed and conversational. He is as close as I’ve seen to any Lao having ADHD, so he always liked to keep moving. We began with conversations and questions about issues pertaining to the village itself, specifically relating to land. But there were some questions that they had for us; mostly pertaining to what life was like back home and what we thought about Laos. Our translator, Bounme, joked that we could start signing autographs.

More than just their curiosity, however, both villages wanted to communicate their village’s needs, trying to find ways that VFI could partner with them. Us coming to the village was an opportunity to show that they are working hard to improve the village. They care about making things better for their children and making sure their kids will have enough rice, enough land, an education. I’m not sure how our trip could directly help those that we met, but it did give me a greater focus for who we are seeking to help here at VFI; the villagers.

We had a good trip and were fortunate to experience little parts of village life and also the new friendships we made with other members of the VFI staff. And all the farang came back in one piece.

A Day In the Life

Friday, July 3

6:45 AM - My alarm sounds and I hit the snooze button three times so I don’t get up until 7:15 AM. I use a cell phone that I bought when I first arrived in Thailand for an alarm. You only need to replace the SIM card when you go from country to country and you’re good.
I had been feeling a little under the weather with a head cold all this week, and it seemed like I had finally turned the corner.

7:45 AM – I leave the house for work, but I stop by a food stand on the side of a neighboring street for breakfast. This sweet lady at the stand grills vegetables and fruit. I normally go with grilled corn on the cob and a couple of grilled kinds of bananas, but I wasn’t feeling the corn and instead opted for the sweet potato-like veggies. Problem was that those weren’t ready to be sold yet. Hey, “Bo pen yang” which means “no problem” so I buy a couple of mini, toasted bananas and head off.

[Now, I have rented a motorbike for my time here in Vientiane. The driving exploits of the local people is a blog within itself, let alone a post, so I will just say that I love the freedom that comes with having the bike and it is quite fun to drive.]

Because I have the bike, I was able to ride around and look for another street vendor. I decided upon some rice soup that they placed in a bag for me to take. The rice soup has the consistency of a hot, milky oatmeal and it is surprisingly good. This is the type of food that I could become dependent on if I lived here for a while and then would at some later point mourn the fact that no similar equivalent exists in the States.

8:05 AM – I get to work and eat my breakfast while I check some emails, the previous night’s Cardinals’ score, and some other various news headlines. The Village Focus International office is a nice two-story building that currently holds about fifteen employees. When we see fellow workers we say “Sabaidee” which means “hello”. Some of the workers speak English very well, so we will have conversations in English throughout the day. I have my own desk with others in an open room, but I’ve taken to going downstairs to be alone so that I can get more work done. I like my alone time, and a lot of that is because I become so easily distracted with others around so I never get work done. Does that make me an introvert or extrovert?

11:00 AM – Another intern, Mike, and I were able to give a presentation to some other Lao members of the office. In Laos, they are still in the process of zoning land (forest and agriculture mainly) throughout the country, and then registering those who “own” the land. There are plans made by the government for how to effectively do this, and I gave a brief presentation on some of the changes being proposed to the current process. It is quite interesting because I am able to really see things from the policy side, and the challenge of crafting arguments that can bring in all of the stakeholders in a given situation. That is what I am getting better at by going to law school. Mike lead a discussion about the concept of community/collective title that will be introduced over the next year. That topic has generated quite a lot of buzz around Vientiane.

12:10 PM – Let’s Eat! We always eat lunch at our office, but this past week was slightly different because we had a training going on (that is who I gave the presentation to) so we all (twenty people) ate together around a long table. We stood and had communal dishes that we used spoons or sticky rice to grab the food and either eat it directly or transfer to the plate.
The laughter and joking that the co-workers in the office participate in has few equivalents to any work environments I’ve been in before. Like others in Laos, they are so laid back and enjoy sitting or standing with others, enjoying each other’s company.

4:00 PM – I am trying to give an hour of English teaching every day to members in the office. This week there was only one girl who was able to participate (see training). Her name is Loun and is working with the human trafficking division of our office. She is very smart and gets frustrated at not being able to find the right words to say in English. We then are just trying to speak as much as we can to have her feel more comfortable with conversation. She likes pop music and was sad to see MJ go. cont…

5:50 PM – I’ve gotten home from work and am hanging out with my flatmates before we head over to the party brewing across the street at our neighbors’ new hair salon. I don’t know how it has been in the U.S., but CNN International won’t stop the with the Michael Jackson stories. We had a ten-minute segment on the Neverland Ranch yesterday. I hope you can already think of why such television is ridonculous, so I’ll spare you my rants.
[note: at about 10:30 AM, I did watch two MJ videos on YouTube. His live performance of “Billie Jean” at the Grammys and then a later a performance of him dancing to Billie Jean at a concert. OK, scratch that. I watched four videos. The third was of him at a concert in Russia doing a sick, sick robot / side slide, and the fourth was him at some performance where then Usher came on and was dancing. Michael was like forty-three years old, had who knows what done to his body by then, and still made Usher look like a backup dancer for the Backstreet Boys.]

6:15 PM – me and Davis head to a local “store” to buy a crate of Beer Laos as a gift to our neighbors who will later be feeding us at their party. We decide that we can find some way to do it on one motorbike. We hadn’t done this before and we had to kind of talk ourselves into it. The local people can do it easily with just one person, but we ain’t the locals. So, Davis drives and we sit back to back as I hold a crate of empty bottles off the back end. We get to the store, but I thought that with the added weight of having full bottles, we needed a better plan. Here, they stick the crate in between the driver’s legs and it presses against the steering column of the bike. That seemed like an impossibility with one person, but a better option with two, so I sat facing forward with my arms around his sides, holding the crate in place. Davis drives impeccably and we arrive back at the house as victors. mission accomplished.

6:45 PM – we are watching the Wimbledon pre-match discussion about the men’s semifinal. I feel Federer will win easily, but I had a dream the night before where Roddick was losing to Murray, so I was a little nervous about the American’s chance. Simon, a flatemate, is British so he was pretty confident with Murray but was interested more in the Wimbledon event itself. I said that Murray was nothing but a lowly Scot, pre-madonna, who didn’t even deserve to carry the British banner, but that didn’t seem to evoke much emotion.

7:00 PM – we head over to our neighbors’ party. It is in celebration of a hair salon that officially opened. We sat around with their family and friends and had some really good chicken curry and other traditional Lao foods.

The beer Lao poured and the dancing commenced at around 9:30 in the hair salon. The dancing later moved to outside and continued until pretty late and I left around 12:00 AM, I believe. We then watched the end of the Roddick / Murray tennis match and the little guy got the job done. Well done. I never really cared about tennis too much, but I’m really pulling for Roddick.

1:00 AM – went to bed, a very good Friday.

A couple of miscellaneous notes.

- I am reading two books right now. Gilead and Morality Matters. Gilead almost got me to tears within the first five pages. It is that kind of book for me. The second is a philosophy book that is arguing that morality should be grounded commonalities found in human nature and through the guidance of natural law. It is a hard read because I struggle with most philosophy books, yet it is quite applicable to what I am currently doing and a lot of what I’ve thought about the last couple of years.

- I played a soccer game Thursday night. It was fun, and we ended in a tie which made the two gallons of sweat I lost definitely worth it. Soccer has a lot of similarities to basketball, especially defense. Also the way you have to see the field, the balance of set forms with creative playmaking, etc.

- Happy Fourth of July. I will be going to the International School for some hamburgers and hotdogs later this afternoon.

Weeks 4 & 5 - Vientiane

From my week in the village outside of Chiang Mai, I spent one last night in Thailand before a group of us interns broke off and headed to Laos. [The program itself has about forty legal interns, where we are then split between Vietnam, Laos, Thailand, and Malaysia.] Laos is culturally very similar to Thailand, but it is less developed, more laid back, and culturally more conservative than Thailand. Politically, the government is still classified as communist and the country has been controlled by one ruling party since the mid 70's.

There have been economic reforms that have officially introduced a market-based economy for the last twenty years, and it seems like Laos is working to become more integrated into the world economy and society. However, they are still heavily influenced by their neighbors Vietnam and China who are able to insulate them from some of the external pressures of the rest of the world that might advocate more democratic or transparent changes.

With that little summary, my work is trying to support an International Non-Governmental Organization (INGO) that works at helping rural villages. This help comes in many forms, and I am specifically working on a Rights LINK project that emphasizes the legal land rights that such villages possess under the law. I think I am developing a decent grasp on some key issues, but I need to begin to really focus upon one or two topics to address the legal significance of current legislation, policy, etc. An example would the current state of community title for villages, what requirements must be met for the government to give land (concessions) to investors for plantations [this is a major problem in Laos], should villagers be able to transfer use rights even if they do not have title, etc. You can imagine that the political climate heavily influences the type of work that I am doing, and the differences between the Lao legal system and the U.S.'s is astronomical.

Something that may be slightly troublesome for me is the fact that I am living quite a posh life here in Vientiane (Laos's capital). I'm kind of doing the whole foreign NGO thing, so that means living in large houses, getting connected to other foreignors in town, eating out a lot, etc. More than the money, questions of whether I am making the most of my time or whether I am part of a problem rather than a solution are definitely valid. I kind of count it as an opportunity to learn a side of the global NGO side that I previously was unaware of, and it is good to remember how I had the complete opposite experience in Guatemala. There, the work I was a part of was 99% on the ground yet there were many obstacles placed in our way because we weren't connected to centers of power or resources. I was wanting to see the policy side of this kind of work and that generally means being close to centers of power. A natural byproduct of that is that you can become detached from those that are on the ground.

However, let me clarify that I feel the organization that I am working for has a very, very real understanding and presence on the ground here in Laos. Their strength is working with rural villages and because of that it makes their policy efforts more legitimate, responsive, and effective.

Pic Notes:

1. I share a house with four other persons. Davis (Augusta, GA - yes, he has been to the Masters 25 times), Simon (London, UK), Dena (Canadian), Sarah (Canadian). We're turning into a nice little family, it is quite sweet. Our house is the big yellow one, and that is the flooded road after a large rain. We are entering the rainy season here and I like it. We pay probably too much for the house, but it comes with someone who cleans and does our laundry. She is also our neighbor and her family has taken care of us so much already.

2. Last Saturday, the four interns that are working for the same NGO I am working for, went with other Laos workers in the office to one of their houses outside of town. The house is on a plot of land that has chickens, fish, eel, frogs, turkey, and I'm sure other stuff. The people here drink a lot of Beer Lao [Beer Lao has a 99% market share in the country], and that is pretty much what everyone did all afternoon. It was hard for them to understand that sometimes you just have to say "N0" and I think they thought some of us weren't having a good time because we weren't drinking that much. The drinking culture here is probably another topic, but I'll just say that their hospitality in the matter is second to none. The picture is of me reeling in what I thought was going to be a catfish-like fish, but it turned out to be more of an eel-like something that they didn't want to eat. I still think fishing on a lake is quite boring, but they cast the line and would just let me reel it in if it got a bite. Also, for any fisherman out there, they had two hooks on the line and the only reason I can make for it is that their line wasn't strong enough or the hooks they were using weren't big enough. The two fish I reeled in swallowed one of the two hooks and I'm not sure if the fisherman I was with understood the troubles of a swallowed hook.

3. Saturday was a big day, I'm not going to lie. We went out to this "farm" from 9 until 4:30pm and then some of us met a fellow intern's law professor from Univ of Indiana who was in town to briefly check up on the intern's progress/work, so we had a nice dinner paid for. Then we headed over to the French Cultural Institute where we listened to good French acoustic, some acoustic Dylan that lacked much heart, some really really bad Lao hardcore rock, some mediocre Lao ska and hiphop, and some very good Lao reggae. I'm not exactly sure what the Cultural Institute does, but I know they give French lessons and help support local French culture. Laos was a French colony so there is a decent French presence in Vientiane. And by "presence" I really don't have too much to go on besides the fact that there are a lot of French people and excellent pastry shops. There was a pretty decent crowd in this open-air courtyard to hear the music and then at the end of the night there was a DJ that played American tunes for a couple of hours. It was interesting because there seemed to only be younger Lao and all types of French people there, but our group (5 from the house) tore up the dance floor. We really made everybody take it up a notch. Highlights would be Rage's "Killing in the Name" which was directly followed by Nirvana's "Smell Like Teen Spirit". But Biz Markie's "You Say He's Just a Friend" has been in my head ever since.

I did an imitation of my friend Tristan's I-need-a-glow-stick hand movements and even though I knew it was second-rate, the crowd ate it up.

Also, I am adding a new section of my posts entitled
"Things My Mother Would Want to Know" (which is different than "Things My Mother Would Ask Me")
- I have been eating well, and even though I've had some stomach issues recently I've been able to keep my weight up.
- I am getting quite tan on my face, arms and shoulders but my stomach still is pretty white
- there was one quite pretty girl I saw at the Cultural Institute, but I could tell she had "drama" written all over her
- my hair is curlier now that things are so humid here, but it isn't long enough to cut
- yes, I might just keep growing it out
- I can go to the store if I run out of deodorant or any other hygiene item
- I worked out yesterday and am wanting to keep running when I have the chance
- No, I haven't kept in contact with any friends back home, and I do feel bad about it.
- the French bakeries are quite nice and are owned by French persons.

Week 3 - Immersion Week

This week I lived with a Thai family outside of Chiang Mai. In the mornings I would kind of hang out around the house, though some days were filled with little surprises, and then I would head to a local school where many of us interns would be giving English lessons. After that, I followed my family to a local market where they sold spices, fruits and vegetables, and sauces. They would tell me things to say and I worked out how much most everything cost. I'm sure it was quite a sight seeing me behind the table.

The school was really enjoyable because it gave me a chance to teach, which I really enjoy. And the setting, though different in many ways, reminded me a lot of the school I taught at in Guatemala. The kids (I taught 13 year olds) enjoyed the classes and it was cool to see how the kids were so similar to other kids I've taught. We can talk and talk about differences, but there are so many more similarities that people share than we often recognize.

It was such a great week. Things were definitely very "different" than how I am accustomed to living, but I really have to talk about how spoiled I was all week. They treated me so kindly and generously, it is hard to even describe how hospitable they all were. Despite all of the new foods I was eating, I'm pretty sure that I gained 3 or 4 pounds. And that is difficult for me to do.

Notes about the pictures.
1. this was the family that I stayed with. That is the dad, mom, son (10 years old) and daughter (16).
2. this is a tradition in Thailand where you light these lanterns that are like little hot-air balloons. we set them off the last night we stayed with families.
3. they call this Korean style barbecue, and a little fire is started in an insulated bucked and meat is then grilled and eaten from the grill that is set above it. lettuce and other vegetables are boiled along its edge
4. those are teachers at the school we taught at. like everyone, they were so nice and wanted to talk about my life in the U.S.
5. this is a picture of the school and fellow interns that were eating lunch before we started our classes.
6. many families grew flowers to sell and by placing lights over them at night, the flowers would bloom much faster. it was a pretty sight seeing such lights scattered throughout the fields.
7. rice fields behind my family's house

Weeks 1 & 2 - Chiang Mai, Thailand

so, I flew into Chiang Mai after a 17+ hour flight from LA to Bangkok, then directly to Chiang Mai, Thailand's second largest city that is in the North. I had a couple of days to hang out, but we quickly had orientation meetings that would occupy my days for the next two weeks.

I am interning with an organization called Bridges Across Borders. This NGO focuses upon community-based legal education and much of the orientation involved developing lesson plans for ESL or legal training in different settings and in different countries.

There are forty total interns in the program and I quickly made friendships with a lot of them. We are almost all in law school and because we have chosen to do this type of work for our summer, you can imagine that there are a lot of commonalities between us. I had a couple great nights having drinks and doing some dancing, or just nice dinners in different parts of Chiang Mai.

Things in Thailand are very, very cheap. There are different reasons for this but most meals (and this is good, good food) will cost you from $1-4. And other goods or services are also very inexpensive. [ if you compare this to other countries in southeast asia, Thailand is much cheaper even though it is much nicer. this has to do with import/export production, Thailand's middle class, etc. ]

The first picture is of me and my friend Kelly (Canadian) who I became close with and even though it was early, we knew that it was going to be a great night. The restaurant had good food, another intern, Davis, ended up taking over the sound system and after moving some tables we turned the place into a dance party.

The second picture is of a Buddhist temple, known as a "wat". The wats in Chiang Mai are very ornate and are highly valued in Thai culture. Buddhist monks are a constant presence on the streets, especially early in the morning, and foreigners are generally welcome to explore the wats and can often talk with monks if they wish.

After kind of a rough April and May in the States, it was nice to relax and have a good time these two weeks. I was quite uptight over this last spring and I'm happy to see that I can actually relax again.