Never thought I'd own a motorcycle...

and I don't yet, but soon. I bought my motorbike helmet today. I've been borrowing them as needed but now I officially have my own. So at least my head is protected....and I look pretty badass too. My assistant is taking me motorbike shopping tomorrow as well. The one thing is that it's too damn hot to wear a good jacket to protect from roadrash....drive defensively right?

Good look for me, right?

The sense of relief that comes when...

the fear of a new adventure drops away and you find yourself settling in for what looks to be an amazing ride.

I ended my second Monday at work with that brilliant feeling.

 Our program coordinator returned from Holiday today and went to straight to the task of getting me oriented and put to work. I have to say that I'm quite excited about this new position I have and the general work prospect in Laos. The organization I'm working with is pretty amazing, has some great funding sources and smart philosophies about working in a developing country. I enjoyed getting a better understanding of how the organization works and my place in all of that.

Apparently, Laos culture has some very specific aspects when it comes to work and prosthetics and orthotics. First of all, we work 8:30 to 4:30 with an hour and a half lunch break....not bad :). Secondly, things go very slow. Every item of business takes multiple people and lots of bureaucratic stamps of approval. In fact, since our director passed away last week....everything is on hold until we get someone from the ministry of health to sign off on everything we're doing. I guess it's a lot like the university setting in that way...

I'm looking forward to spending some quality time with the prosthetic and orthotic team tomorrow and seeing how they do things. So far, it's mostly been lots of paperwork, planning trainings, etc. With the idea of sustainability and being locally run, I won't actually have much patient contact over the next year, except for consults now and then. I play the role of mentor, evaluator, and development. I will be spending most of my time developing methods for things to run more efficiently, introducing new materials, methods and technologies, and reporting back to the funding sources about what I'm up to. I look forward to the experience and while I'm sure there will be lots of frustrations, have high hopes for the next year.

Also, just a disclaimer that almost every expat I've met in Laos only intended to stay a year.....and is still around. As one person said "people seem to get stuck here.....in the best possible way."

Random photos



I love this buddha carving. It's about
three times as big as I am.



Cool old car and beautiful hotel down the road.



Cute little munchkin.



So many amazing temples all over the city.



And monks are all over the place. I love the orange robes.



Beautifully ornate, some of the temples are just breathtaking.



Offerings at Impeng temple.



The Laos Way

My first week is in the books. I can't say it's been all fun and games but it has definitely been memorable. Work has been slow to start, primarily because the Expat team I work with has either been on holiday leave or on work trips to the provinces. Speaking of which, I just read the statistic that 70% of Laos is inaccessible via road! Apparently the beautifully paved roads of Vientiane lead a few kilometers out of town and then abruptly end....I plan to confirm this, once I purchase a motorbike.

This is a statue at my work, made completely out of unexploded ordinances, a major cause of death (200 annually), amputation, blindness, etc. in Laos PDR.

Thus far, I've been using the COPE bicycle to commute to work. I figure I'm easing into the motorbike thing. The roadrules or lack there of are quite interesting. Primarily, Laos drivers don't EVER look behind them. You are responsible for the people in front of you, end of story. That may take some getting used to. Also, while they drive on the right side of the road here, it isn't uncommon for motorbikes to cruise along the left when it's convenient. In general, road rules seem lenient at best....
investing in a good helmet for sure :). And just about everyone in town rides a motorbike, young women, old women, babies, falang, monks, everyone.

This is the casket covered in an elaborate display. 

I spent much of today recovering from a beerlaos hangover....the downside to making new friends and saying goodbye to the former director of the National Rehabilitation Department who passed away last Tuesday. The funeral was quite beautiful and quite the cultural experience for me. The director was quite an important and well loved man in Laos and the funeral directly reflected this. There was a crowd of probably three hundred people including many government officials.

The process of saying goodbye to a loved one in the Buddhist tradition is quite complex. There are a number of rituals I didn't fully understand and many prayers spoken in Laos that I can only guess at the intentions of. The director died while away from his home, so his body was brought to the gymnasium at the National Rehabilitation Center rather than taken home. The last week has seen a continual vigilance by the deceased's family over his body, with it being essential that someone sits near the casket at all times. A number of my coworkers stayed until early morning, keeping company of the family, cooking food, and playing card games. I don't quite understand the vigilance, but I believe it has to do with the deceased's spirit which is later released when the body is burned.




The director served in the military and was well decorated,
hence the uniformed pallbearers.


This morning, the monks from the director's temple came, blessed the body, dressed the family in monk/nun robes and accompanied the procession of the body to the temple. The whole process is quite laborious due to the large amount of flowers, offerings, etc. that people have placed over the last week which accompany the body and are burned along with it, including suitcases of the director's clothing and possessions.

The family, dressed at monks and nuns, leads the casket to the temple via a long white sheet. The immense display is then re erected at the temple, followed by speeches, blessings, and finally the burning of the entire display.

The final act of the funeral, burning the body and releasing the spirit.

A First Time for Everything

Today was a day of firsts. It started out with me finding my first mosquito bite....the first of many I'm sure. It's the dry season now and apparently come wet season, you can't tell the raindrops from mosquitos....care packages of deet anyone?

Tuk tuk - local taxi cabs....much safer than my motorbike or bicycle.

I am apartment hunting currently and thus have been doing more of that than work. So my assistant/translator took me on the back of his motorbike this morning to view a couple of places. Luckily traffic is light midday, I managed to keep my skirt out of the exhaust pipe, and my hands are only slightly sore from hanging on. Soon, my boss' son will be giving me motorbike lessons and then unleashing me on the road....that's a scary thought. Especially since I also managed to ride a bicycle home from work today and am thanking my lucky stars I'm still in one piece. Given the number of tourists on motorbikes and bicycles around here, I like to think the locals are use to them and give us farangs (foreigners) a wide birth.

I also had my first instance of helping tourists. A sweet couple from San Diego struggling to read the map and finding no help from the non-English speaking locals.  I talked them into visiting the COPE visitor center (my new place of employment)....which you should check out the website and maybe consider a donation to their wonderful cause :). http://www.copelaos.org/. It felt good to have the ability to help someone out and gave me a little boost since lately I am the stupid tourist making mistakes and looking silly.

Wandering Vientiane



Currently I'm living out of The Day Inn, a little hotel near "downtown" Vientiane. It works for now, but the plan is to find a house or apartment shortly and settle in a bit more. Having lived in SF for the last 5 years, I'm having reverse sticker shock here in Laos. Most apartments in the city are $250-300 for a 1 bedroom.

I spent today wandering around Vientiane, stumbling into Buddhist Wats (temples), and soaking up the sunshine. I will admit to getting lost, although only slightly, and with the Mekong river as a southern border, it's hard to get too distressingly lost. Somehow it seems that getting lost is often the best way to orient oneself to a new city anyway. I stumbled upon a number of restaurants, food carts, and bars that I will surely seek out again in the near future. I also happened upon my new place of work, to which I will be formally introduced tomorrow.

I also found the local hospital, which the ex-pats joke about viciously....aparently not somewhere you ever want to have to visit. Luckily, I've been told that there are a couple of clinics at the French and Australian Embassies that are quite good, should healthcare be required. With that in mind, I still think I'll invest in a bicycle helmet for scooter and bike riding purposes.

The Journey

The last 33 hours have been some of the longest of my life; 18 hours of flight time, a 12 hour layover in Vietnam, and nothing resembling decent sleep or a shower of any kind.....but for those of you considering coming to visit at some point....it was an absolute pleasure, you'll love it. :)

I feel like I've already discovered what undoubtedly will continue to be a recurring theme for this journey I'm on; Humility. There is nothing more humbling than being the idiot gringo who can't speak the language and knows next to nothing about the culture. Good practice at letting go of my ego.

My journey was going well until I arrived in Seoul, Korea and was asked for my visa for Vietnam. My stomach dropped as I realized I never even considered that I might need a visa for my layover in Vietnam. Luckily, I'm not the first (nor likely the last) ignorant American to make this mistake. Having an overnight layover in Vietnam wouldn't be such an issue, except the airport closes at 1 am, and I can't leave the airport without said visa. Luckily, the Korean flight attendant was very helpful, if not a little condescending as he tried to rectify my f-up. The compromise was that they would let me on the flight as long as I promised not to leave the airport and signed a form accepting full responsibility if Vietnam didn't take kindly to my lack of visa.

Long story short, I'm not in a Vietnamese jail.....but I did spend the longest night of my life sleeping on cold metal seats in a freezing, eerily empty, and dark Vietnamese airport. Luckily, I had stolen the blanket and pillow off my last flight knowing I would likely be crashing on the floor somewhere. However, the Vietnamese apparently don't believe in heat or insulation, and I spent much of my night putting on layer after layer of clothes trying to get warm enough to fall asleep. Apparently I did drift off at some point, as an airport security officer prodded me awake around 2 am to interrogate me about why I was sleeping in his airport after hours (closest I have ever felt to being a bum).

All in all, it's been an exhausting couple of days...but the little I've been able to see of Laos so far has me very thankful to be here and looking forward to my adventures ahead. Right now, it's time for some much needed sleep.