Green Gecko Project, Siem Reap, Cambodia

We visited a project called Green Gecko http://www.greengeckoproject.org in Siem Reap.

The Green Gecko Project focuses on helping street kids. It was very well-run. Some things that stood out in what they are doing:

• The children are organized into groups identified by an animal, e.g., with names like the bumble bees, frogs, tigers, monkeys, snakes, elephants... The children in each group range in ages from young to late teens. Each group has their own area for eating lunch, etc. and they each have a permanent "mother" and a "father", and "uncle" and "aunty". These adults have a corresponding role in the children's lives while the children are in the community. Remember, these are street kids, who most likely come from non-existent or dysfunctional families and communities. So Green Gecko gives the kids a functional family and community with corresponding responsibilities.
• 
The children who have a home to go to, are strongly encouraged to go home on the weekends. This can be a problem if the home is dysfunctional, so Green Gecko has a social worker who works with the family, to ensure the children are going back to a functional home with food, no alcohol and good communications. The Green Gecko Project understands that parents need to be involved if a good environment is going to be developed. So children are not forced to go home on the weekends if they don't want to, but they are strongly encouraged to do so when the social worker deems the parents to be ready for it.
• The green gecko project runs out of a base where the children do everything except formal education (they attend school). So they eat, sleep, play, clean, do activities like games, reading, drawing, watching movies, etc. on the base. They do everything in their groups, which emulate families living in communities. They do things like growing their own food in a garden, playing soccer and once a week they watch English movies so they get exposed to English...
• Some of the "children" were older than 18. The Green Gecko Project lets children stay until they graduate from high school, and some of them got a later start on school than others.
  
  
• The Green Gecko project is based a few kms from Siem Reap, so volunteers can stay in Siem Reap and cycle to The Green Gecko Project everyday.

I was impressed and pleased to see such a well-run initiative doing such good work. The Green Gecko Project looks like a very good volunteer opportunity, especially to understand the wide range of factors that need to be addressed to help street kids integrate into constructive communities.

These are the "lunch rooms".

Angkor Wat, Siem Reap, Cambodia

In early April we went to Siem Reap, Cambodia to see Angkor Wat (and some of the other temples from past civilizations in the area).

Siem Reap itself has a nice old town centre, with unfortunately urban (or should I say hotel) sprawl around it. I liked the old part of Siem Reap very much. The sprawl is a pity, but since the phenomenon is so much worse in Canada and I haven't done anything to stop it, I guess I can't be too negative about it.

Angkor Wat is a UNESCO World Heritage site. It is hard to describe these glimpses into past worlds.

I've included photos, but they just don't capture the experience. Partly because they don't show the magnitude and sheer numbers of these temples, nor the intricate detail. I had not realized before we arrived that there are more than 100 temples in the area, and the area covers a few hundred square kms. Needless to say, we didn't see everything. I saw Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom (the Bayon, Elephant Terrace, Terrace of the Leper King, ....) and a few others. Ron toured more of the smaller temples. The area around Angkor Wat is beautiful, with lakes and treelined boulevard-type roads.

Another reason why the photos don't do the experience justice is that a good part of the experience is not visual. One small part of Angkor Wat that I really loved was an echo chamber, which looks like a large stone chimney. You stand in it with your back against the wall and thump your chest, and the echo reverberates through your body. You do this 7 times for good luck. What an amazing feeling.

We were there during the dry season, and it was very hot and sunny. The temples in the trees (e.g., Bayon) were much cooler in the shade.

Looking out from the 3rd level of Angkor Wat.

One of the pools on the 3rd level, Angkor Wat.

Seven-headed statue in Angkor Wat.

Statue of a woman with red face.

Royal library, Angkor Wat. Gong, Angkor Wat.

Looking towards the main entrance, from inside Angkor Wat.

Here are some interesting professional photos of Angkor and environs, FYI. I'm sure there are many more on-line.

http://www.ourplaceworldheritage.com/custom.cfm?action=WHsite&whsiteid=668#

This site shows a beautiful photo of the Bayon temple:

http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/668

Phonsavanh, Laos and the Plain of Jars (dry season)

The first place we went to before we left Laos in early April was Phonsavanh, Laos. The minibus ride from Luang Prabang was stunningly beautiful. It seems to follow a mountain ridge so the views (usually from switchbacks with terrifying drops) are incredible. A real eyeful of rural Laos (which is of course how most of the population lives). We saw some slash and burn either in progress or recently burnt. Villages were few and far between, but were strung out along the road, regardless of the fact that the road is on the edge of a cliff. Every village seemed to have little Lao boys running. In that heat! Beautiful to see. I was happy to see a lot of children walking to and from school. It's good that so many of the villages have schools. And every village had dogs and chickens and people on the road. This was in spite of the fact that the road is a two-lane highway - Hwy 13 - which is the main route south to Vientiane. I was happy that the minibus driver drove slowly (not over 40 km/hour in the mountains) and even stopped to let a snake cross the road. Which explains the lack of roadkill. Then for the last hour or so of the trip, we came out on the plains - a whole other world.The countryside is beautiful around Phonsavanh and the Jars are impressive. It's tragic that the locals have to deal with the UXOs - the land would be wonderful for farming if it wasn't for the bombs. And of course the land IS being used for agriculture, in spite of the bombs.

We went to the Plain of Jars. I can certainly see why the French liked to picnic at the second site of the Jars - the countryside looks like it could be England or France (except for the rice paddies, of course). We tried to take photos but they just don't capture the beautiful panoramic views. Nor do photos capture the other sensations above and beyond the sights: the bumpy, dusty, red dirt roads, the hot dry sun, the much cooler air under the huge pine trees, the smell of the pines around the jars (just like home).

Apart from the obvious attractions of the scenery and the awesomeness of the Jars themselves, the highlight of our trip was meeting a local named Manophet, who works for the UXO as an interpreter in the field during the day, then teaches English before and after work - to 240 students! He didn't intend to have so many students, but they keep arriving and insisting on staying so he can't say no. They see how good he is and that their future is brighter if they learn from him. He has a website http://www.laos-edc.com/. I certainly recommend a visit to Manophet to anyone going to Phonsavanh - his personal story is amazing, above and beyond the inspirational work he is doing with his students. Manophet teaches out of his house. He seems to have very effective techniques. We met a student of his at the second Plain of Jars site (he is a tour guide and was there giving a tour). This student spoke English very well. We were impressed. Manophet does not focus on grammar - he focuses on speaking English. He believes students learn better when doing something else, so he gets them playing soccer (and speaking only English on the field). He has SONY-ERICSSON sponsoring the soccer team (14 players) to go to some soccer competition in Sweden this July. Apparently they are good at soccer as well as English. Manophet is in the process of setting up looms at his place for weaving, so the students will be able to do that too.

- Photos -

Bizarre tractor-type vehicle, which seemed to be the norm around Phonsavanh.

Jars at the first Plain of Jars site. Easy to believe they were carved from rocks!

Bomb crater at the first Plain of Jars site, from the Vietnam war. Note that Phonsavanh is in Laos, but this area is still riddled with unexploded ordinances (UXOs) today.

MAG marker. Indicates that one side is deemed to be safe from UXOs. The other side - not. The path is lined by these markers. Deviate from the marked and worn paths at your own risk!

A tree growing out of a jar the the second Plain of Jars site.

Ron entering a bomb crater at the Plain of Jars site 2.

Ponies in a field near the second Plain of Jars site.

Headhunter's (Bamboo) Dance

While in Sabah (Borneo) Malaysia, I've had the pleasure of seeing the traditional headhunter's dance (also known as the bamboo dance). It is impressive to watch live. The sound of the bamboo sticks clapping together reverberates through your bones. Check out this example http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RS2CgndFLnI.

Scuba diving at Sipadan Island

Ron and I had 3 AMAZING dives yesterday at Sipadan Island, a reef off the continental shelf (600 m drop) on the
southeast of Sabah (Borneo), Malaysia. We saw white-tipped sharks, huge turtles, a huge school of barracudas, a devil ray, two octopuses, and just many, many fish of all types off this impressive wall. We are due to go again on Sunday.

We've been diving around here for the last week or so and have seen some neat things but EVERY DIVE at Sipadan is the best of all of those dives (and more). Wow. It is a national park and access is restricted so the reef is in very good health (unlike some others we've seen around here), so that is encouraging. Ron (who has training in reef health) says some of the other reefs are beat up, or diseased or over-fished.

Sipadan has only been a protected area since 2005, so it is encouraging that the reef can be healthy if left alone. The other reefs we've seen here with healthy and abundant marine life of all sorts have been artificial ones.

Sabah is covered in rainforest. Where they have designated national parks things are good (Mount Kinabalu, Sipadan Island). But where things are not protected, the environment is taking a hit (not unlike at home, really). I have a Malaysian friend in Kuala Lumpur who tells me Malaysia has just recently restructured the tax money that goes to Sabah, such that Sabah gets it's own money. This is very good for Sabah, and I have high hopes (naive optimist that I am) that good changes will come as a result.

Lingering effects of Luang Prabang

I guess when you live somewhere for 3 months it's bound to have some influence on you (or maybe I should say that hopefully it will). Here are some of the habits or quirks I've picked up since living in Luang Prabang:

(1) I follow the lunar cycle. The buddhist celebrations follow the lunar cycle and I loved the 4 PM drumming at the 3 wats closest to our guesthouse (Wat Aphay, Wat Aham, Wat Visoun). So I kept track of the lunar cycle so I'd know when to go. I find myself still checking the lunar cycles when I check the wunderground weather where ever I am. Full moon tonight!

(2) I cover up in the sun. The locals seem to do that everywhere we've been in southeast Asia. I could not understand the long-sleeves in the HEAT when I first arrived in Luang Prabang (which was actually cool weather, I now know), but now I find myself only wearing my long-sleeved shirts, despite that fact that the temperature is over 30 degrees C and feels a lot hotter with the heat index.

(3) I really appreciate the elegant design of the cheap (~$7CDN) sandals I bought in Luang Prabang. They had a back strap (over the heel) that held the sandal on for walking, but that could be moved up over the instep for short distances when you need to slip in and out of your sandals often (e.g., for entering buildings - you remove your shoes when entering private homes and some public places in Laos). I can't even find this style of sandal in Malaysia, although I think I probably could with extensive searching. But I know I won't find them in Canada. Sigh. Ron has a pair; mine broke. I will post a photo. Funny how something so simple and taken for granted in Luang Prabang is just not even thought of in other parts of the world. It's a simple design that meets a real requirement in Laos, but the requirement doesn't exist in Canada. So the elegant design would not be appreciated. But now that I know about the requirement, I really appreciate the design. I once saw a novice entering a building right in front of me. He removed his sandals mid-stride, so seamlessly I couldn't tell he had removed them, except that I knew that he had and I could see them on the floor. The grace that comes from a long-repeated, common-place action...

(4) I walk slower. Not all of the time, but a lot of the time, and when I walk fast I notice it. This is significant for me. The Laos "please don't rush" approach to life has rubbed off on me. This is good. I needed to slow down - in life.

(5) I'm much more aware of the community that lies beneath the surface of everyone's day-to-day life, if only we choose to nourish it. In Laos, the families really LIVE together - the kids and extended family members and animals are in each others' lives for most of the hours of a day. For many people (there are, of course, exceptions), this is also shared with the neighborhood (the houses are literally open to the street). So people walking by look into homes. Everything is done in the open, from working to cooking, to watching TV, to shaving and even bathing, washing clothes, washing hair... It made me realize that at home we really shut ourselves off from the rest of the world, and this means our communities have atrophied. I think maybe we've lost something special. Ron has long been talking about creating a front yard that we can sit in and be part of the neighbourhood, and I think he's on to something. But we'll have to start with rocking chairs and hammocks to ease our neighbours into it. They might get upset if I started to wash the dishes and my hair in the front yard. ;-) Mind you, I'd probably bring people together if I did baking out there... mmmmm oatmeal chocolate chip cookies.

This is the first place I've seen that has a weather forecast of "Smoke".

This is due to the slash-and-burn agriculture around Luang Prabang. The smoke has become very noticeable over the last month. We had a lovely cool breezy day last Wednesday which enabled us to see the sky. We got a lovely view of the mountains around us for a couple of days, but this was an exception. Most days the haze of smoke means we can't see the surrounding moutains. We have even seen ash blowing around in the air.

A couple of weeks ago Ron and I were returning to Luang Prabang from a motorcycle ride in the country. It was dark and we could see the line of fire beside us, on the other side of the Nam Khan River. Oddly enough, we have not heard of any forest fires, which we find surprising, considering it is very dry (after all, it is the dry season).

Oh well, Luang Prabang is still lovely, even shrouded in smoke.

Amy

Photos of morning alms

A few of us have given alms to the monks in our neighborhood. I enjoy it so much I go pretty much every day. The monks from 7 temples collect alms in our area between 5:30 and 6:00 AM.

There are as many as 130 monks in these 7 temples, but we usually see between 100 and 110 each day. Not all monks collect alms every day. The come in groups, by temple. For example, the monks and novices from Wat Aphay (pronounced a-pie) usually come by first, followed by the monks and novices from Wat Aham and then Wat Visoun.

The monks get up at 4:00 or 4:30 and pray before the collect alms. They eat breakfast when they get back to their temples, which can be as late as 6:30 or 7:00 AM. They walk at least a few kilometers in their bare feet. The locals who give alms get up a good 40 minutes before alms are collected to cook the sticky rice. The woman who runs the guest house where we are staying gets up between 4:30 and 4:50 everyday.


The second photo shows Emma, Zoe and I preparing to give alms. Notice that we are sitting on low stools, because women have to be lower than the monks.

The third photo shows Patrick about to give alms. Notice that he is standing. Men do not need to be lower than the monks. We are all wearing a sash over one shoulder and using silver bowls. If we were giving sticky rice, we would use the covered baskets used to hold sticky rice.



The last photo shows me about to give alms. You can see Patrick standing at the beginning of the line.

We work with many novices every day. A novice I was working with at the Mekong English Centre today mentioned that he is from Wat Visoun and sees me every morning giving alms. It was interested trying to explain that yes I did like giving alms - I like the way it binds the community together. The symbiotic relationship really appeals to me (the locals give alms for good luck and take it very seriously and the monks collect alms because that is where they get their food). My English-Lao dictionary does not have an entry for "symbiotic", but after much discussion maybe they (we had an audience) understood. They were certainly amused.

The Improved Buffalo

March 3, 2010

I have been going to Big Brother Mouse (BBM) whenever I have time in the mornings. From 9-11 AM native English-speakers are paired with Laos students who want to practice their English. It is fun working with the students.

I arrived early once and read one of the books while I waited for students to arrive. It was the Improved Buffalo. It’s a wonderful story, and the illustrations are magical. I bought my own copy and a couple of BBM’s collections of Lao folk tales. I am having a difficult time finding teaching material that is culturally relevant to Lao students. I am actively looking for good English books of all levels that cover topics relevant to Lao, and am very pleased with what BBM produce.

Check out the Improved Buffalo at http://www.bigbrothermouse.com/books/newbuffalo-book.html. I'm happy to bring back extra copies if you would like one. :-)

UXO

March 3, 2010.

There is a UXO (unexploded ordinance) visit centre here in Luang Prabang. People can go and find out about initiatives to educate the Lao about UXOs and to clear UXOs from specific areas.
One of the GVI volunteers has made contact with the UXO visit centre and is teaching English to the officials there for an hour a day.

The UXO situation was made more real to us a few weeks ago when the UXO team sent a notice to our guesthouse, which is right beside the Nam Khan (river) indicating that between 9 and 10 AM the next day (it was a Friday) they would be exploding an UXO down by the river. People were asked not to watch. I was teaching at the time but one of the other volunteers was in the guesthouse and said she could hear and feel the explosion. We were curious where the UXO came from. As far as we knew, Luang Prabang was not bombed. Ron was talking to a local who said that in general, Luang Prabang was not bombed but that the old bridge (right behind our guesthouse) was bombed as a strategic target. He said an UXO was found there a year and a half ago. He went to watch the UXO team detonating the UXO found recently and said it was a cluster bomb. I gather they wouldn’t have tried to take out the bridge with cluster bombs so we are guessing that it was washed down the river from somewhere further north. The river is very low at the moment so it is possible the cluster bomb was there for a while but only now visible.

A volunteer from London saw the following article in the Times shortly afterwards. It is very sobering to be living in a community for which this is a very real issue (and as I said, UXOs are not considered to be an issue in Luang Prabang).

http://women.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/women/article7036794.ece

Tutoring

February 17, 2010.

The novice monks in Monk School take one English class a week at Monk School. This is not enough, and in every class there are usually at least 5 students who are really struggling with the material. As each lesson builds on the previous lesson, I am concerned that the ones who are behind (e.g., who cannot read) will never catch up. To that end, we have been discussing offering tutoring on the weekend but could never figure out when and where to do it. The novices have a busy day during the week and have to be at their own temples for praying and breakfast in the morning, then again for lunch before noon and for praying later in the afternoon. There is of course the added complication that the novices who most need help do not know English and my Lao is very limited. In our class on Friday, we broke out into 4 groups with about 6 students in each group. I really enjoy small group work because you can really see who is understanding the exercise and who is struggling. In my group, I had 2 students who were clearly not able to do the exercise. Lao students are excellent collaborators, which unfortunately means that when someone doesn’t understand and others do, the ones who do just provide the answer to the ones who don’t. There is a lot of shameless copying. However, I have observed that once students understand that (1) they are expected to try and (2) we will help them and (3) copying is not what we want, then having students who work together well is a big help. So I asked Tricia Feeney (the main GVI English teacher at the Monk School) to tell the class that I would be at the outdoor tables at the Monk School at 1:00 on Saturday. I did not expect anyone to show up but I had to try, and if no one showed I was happy to sit on temple grounds and read a book for an hour.

When I arrived on Saturday, a novice monk from the temple (on whose grounds the Monk School is located) joined me. He was keen to work on his English, so we chatted. Ron joined us a few minutes later. And lo and behold, so did 3 students from my class. I left Ron with the first novice and worked with the students from my class. Two more students joined us. Success! I wasn’t sure how much they were enjoying it (we were really just reviewing material from the last class), but at the end of the session they asked if I was going to be there the next day. So of course I said yes. I then designed a lesson to cover more material from previous lessons. Three students joined me and we had a lot of fun. I brought a small whiteboard and a clock (so we could practice telling time). It was a good session. One keen young novice asked if I would be there again next week, so of course I said yes. I am hooked. I really want to work with the students who are struggling, so Ron is going to run a more advanced session for the keeners (since he is already working with one keen novice) and I will work with the ones who need to start from square one. I am looking for an English-Lao dictionary that has the English word, the Lao word in English script, and then the Lao word in Lao script. I’m told (by several people) that Phosy market should have them. I will look on Friday when I go to get my week’s supply of cookies for morning alms…

FAQ: How is the teaching going?

February 17, 2010. Frequently asked question: How is the teaching going?

The short answer is it is going well. I am learning a lot and enjoying it. Students in Laos are very motivated to learn English, which makes working with them very fun.

Here’s the long answer, for those who are interested.
I have been pretty conservative with respect to jumping into teaching. I have never taught before and have had no training, so for the first couple of weeks I was mostly observing the teachers and helping out by reading snippets so the students could hear my accent, and helping the students with their pronunciation. Many of the private schools where we volunteer have Lao teachers who are only too willing to hand over their classes to us, but I was not comfortable with this when I first arrived. I had one experience early on where I arrived on my own at an 8:30 class and introduced myself to the teacher (who I tracked down in a back room). He showed me what he was working on (pointed to the place in the text book) and then said he had to go pick up medicine for someone in his family and asked me to start the lesson. He pointed me to the classroom and headed on his way. Yikes! When he arrived back in the classroom he noticed I was drilling the (obscure) grammar incorrectly (not surprising, as I had not bought into the point of the exercise). So he showed me how he wanted me to do it, then left again!!! He said we were working on efflective pronouns. I have no idea what that is. Many of the Lao teachers work on (obscure) grammar because they can, but I prefer the approach which focuses on effective communicating, including proper pronunciation (so that the Lao students can be understood by native English-speakers).

In any case, I spent a couple of weeks watching and learning and helping out on the manual labour front and on the simple things but not taking the lead. I did help the teaching assistants at the Mekong English Centre (aka MEC, formerly the Mano English Centre) with their computers and PowerPoint, and Ron and I introduced the concept of Show and Tell to the MEC. I guess my enthusiasm showed because the main teacher at the MEC invited me to join the Teacher Training classes he is doing for one hour a day for his Teaching Assistants. It has been very useful for me, and now I am comfortable walking into unknown situations and just dealing with whatever comes my way. I am slowly developing the skills to enable learning rather than explain or just involve the students (yes I have been influenced by Scrivener's LEARNING TEACHING). I wasn't sure I would ever be able to walk in cold to a situation without preparation, but I am realizing that I am slowly building a toolkit of activities and even lesson plans and approaches for providing students with clear ideas from which they can go forward and discover patterns. The more I have in my toolkit, the more able I am to (1) assess what the students know at any given point and (2) figure out a next step that reinforces what they already know and allows them to learn more. I am now signing up to work with the Lao teachers (who are apt to hand over the class even when they stay in the room. This has provided the unexpected benefit of helping me to develop skills for including them and sharing the teaching as well as moving a class along). I am much more comfortable and effective volunteering at Big Brother Mouse, too. Big Brother Mouse sets up a space for tourists and English students to converse from 9-11 Monday to Saturday. Last week was the first time I had room in my schedule to go during the week and I loved it so much I went on Saturday as well. A good thing , as I was the only native English speaker there! I was surprised because there was one tourist for every student during the week. I guess the tourists were all sleeping in on Saturday. So it was about ten students and me. It went well and I enjoyed it. I would not have enjoyed it at the beginning of January when I first arrived.

One of the things the students love best is to hear us attempting to speak Lao. Attempting being the operative word. There is much shouting (in an attempt to help us to hear the subtleties) and laughter. However, it is paying off. I tried some of the Lao words I know on the students at Big Brother Mouse and they understood every one of them. Yay!

Likely a victim of the Lao sense of humour

February 17th, 2010

There are a lot of Chinese tourists in town. I’m told that the Chinese take a week or two off for Chinese New Year (which makes sense). Tricia (the main English teacher at the Monk School) saw a woman with a rice basket on her head yesterday. This is the kind of basket the Lao use as a serving container for sticky rice. I laughed long and hard and thought “note to self - always ask if you don’t know what something is.” Then I realized, she probably DID ask the Lao vendor what it was. It would be just like a Lao to tell her it was a hat. The Lao have a wicked sense of humour. Tourists beware…

Festival at Wat Manoram

Wat Manoram is holding a 3-day festival to raise money to build (or maintain?) a temple. It reminded me of a village fair. They put flags up everywhere and brought in sound systems. There were vendors selling food and snacks like waffles. There were games such as dart-throwing at balloons, some kind of dice game and many of the little kids had fire crackers (which they loved throwing at everyone’s feet - yikes!). There was a big screen showing Tom & Jerry cartoons (it was fun watching the monks enjoying at Tom and Jerry). There were tables where donations could be made and the monks made trees out of the kip bills which they displayed in the temple. There was chanting and praying which the village women seemed to attend. It was a lot of fun and I suspect there will be many tired novices on Monday AM.

Morning alms

On Tuesday I finally decided to try giving alms. I was encouraged by one of the volunteers mentioning that he had seen monks on their morning alms run around 5:45 on the street outside our guesthouse. He reckoned there were 30-40 monks so I bought 40 individual packets of Ovaltine and asked my landlady if I could join her. She told me to meet her at the end of our lane by 5:40 AM and she provided a stool and shawl (to tie as a sash around my shoulder) and a silver bowl for my packets of Ovaltine. It was a magical experience. It was still dark, with a just-past full moon and clear sky so lots of stars. 4 or 5 women from our lane were there with their sticky rice. I loved it! But I was mortified to run out of Ovaltine in the middle of a group of monks. My landlady then told me that 7 temples come up our street, for a total of 130 monks, although not all monks walk every day.

I have since gone to morning alms every day. The monks go by on the other side of the street and then come up our side of the street some minutes later. They walk barefoot. One day I arrived just as the first group of monks did, which was hectic, so now I get up at 5:25 so I can get out there by just after 5:30. I have been getting packages of 3 small cookies, which come in a package of 60 so two big packages of 60 individually wrapped sets of 3 tiny cookies pretty much lasts me a morning (we all go in when the women I am sitting with run out of sticky rice). The women get up between 4:30 and 4:50 to make the sticky rice for the monks. I am thoroughly hooked on this morning ritual, and when to Phosy Market a few kms away to buy 14 bags of the cookies I give out, so I have enough to go all week (I was having trouble finding the cookies in town and it can get expensive to give anything else). I am thoroughly hooked on this morning ritual, and when to Phosy Market a few kms away to buy 14 bags of the cookies that I give out,(at 15000 kip each, which isn‘t much when you convert it to dollars, but it eats into my budget now that I am unemployed) so I have enough to go all week (I was having trouble finding the cookies in town and it can get expensive to give anything else). I am committed to cutting back on my own food expenditures so I can continue to give alms. Next I just have to work out a nap schedule, since I am dragging a bit with the reduced sleep.

Some things I have learned: We all take our shoes off for this morning ritual. This is easier for those of us sitting and giving out alms. This is tougher on the monks, who walk down our street then head downtown, which means they are covering kms in their bare feet. It is important to be lower than the monks, which is why we sit on stools (or kneel). If one wants to photograph the monks, it is common courtesy to do so from a distance. Too many of the tourists don’t seem to know this and will stand right beside the monks for their photo opportunities. The Lao people will never say anything, but I see many posters around town asking tourists to respect the Lao culture and keep their distance when taking photos.

The monks get up at 4 or 4:30 in the morning and pray before their morning alms walk, after which they have breakfast. The novices will then go to school or work in the temple, then go back to their temple for lunch, which they have to finish by noon. They won’t eat again until breakfast the next morning, They then go to classes or work in the temple, pray in the afternoon (including drumming or chanting).

I have noticed some of the young novices have trouble focusing in morning class, and I can imagine their eating schedule contributes to this. I was working on “how old are you?” with some of the tiny novices in primary school, and was shocked to hear they were 11 and 12 years old! However, some of them come from remote villages and may eat better as a novice.

It’s lovely to watch the orange-robed monks coming up the street. There is one elderly monk who is not well and cannot do the whole walk, so every morning he does morning alms down our street and then heads back with a novice monk on the other side of the street. They are a familiar site now.

Elephant Village

Sunday, January 31, 2010.
A few of us went to the Elephant Village today for “one day of Mahout training.” It was great and very relaxing. Laos used to be known as “the land of a million elephants” but now elephants are an endangered species. Asian elephants are smaller than African elephants but are still huge and eat constantly. They also love fruit and other cultivated crops, so can be quite a problem for farmers. If they don’t eat the produce, they trample it which is of course still a problem. The 800 or so wild elephants still estimated to be in Laos are in danger because they are separated from each other by urban areas and so in-breed, leaving them less strong and more prone to disease, etc. They also have a hard time finding enough food. And poaching is still an issue with wild elephants, despite the fact that they are endangered.

Elephants have been domesticated for manual labour for a long time, but most recently have been used for logging. Often they were underfed and over-worked, with drugs being used to enable them to work longer and harder. Injuries happened and were often not properly addressed. So domesticated elephants have had a rough time of it, and now that logging is winding down, the fate of the domesticated elephants is unknown. It costs a lot to feed an elephant so people can’t just take them in. And they are domesticated and would not do well in the wild, even if the wild elephants had it good (which they do not).

The Elephant Village was set up to provide a home and gentle work for domesticated elephants rescued from the logging industry. There are nine female elephants there, and each has their own mahout (it is not common for an elephant to respond well to multiple mahouts). They vary in age from late 20s to 71. One is blind in one eye, one is blind in both eyes. They have scars that tell of the rough life they have had. In the elephant village, they are turned out (hobbled with about 40 meters of chain) in the jungle to eat and relax on the other side of the Nam Khan from about 16:00 until about 7 or 8 AM. I’m told that elephants sleep twice in that time, for about 30 minutes each - I think around 10 PM and 3 AM. As with any herd animals, they each have their buddies amongst the other elephants. In the morning their mahouts fetch them and bring them back to the Elephant Village on this side of the Nam Khan and clean them and feed them and tack them up. From as long as 9:00-4:00 they give rides, are used for trekking, give “training” lessons and get bathed by tourists. They get treats throughout the day. This gives them regular but easy exercise and daily handling. Their mahouts are with them the entire time.

When we arrived the elephants were tacked up and ready to go. I wasn’t sure about using the “benches” that are strapped onto the elephants with ropes (I still don’t see how it can feel balanced for the elephants) but was pleased to see that the ropes were in clear rubber tubes so they would not chafe the elephants. We mounted from a hut/platform. Each elephant took 2 tourists and their mahout (who started out on the elephant’s neck). We went down the river bank, into the river, along a sand bar in the river then back out and back along a dirt track. I was impressed with how balanced and careful the elephants were. They handled the uneven terrain on the banks and the drop into the water very slowly and competently. I could see the drop but didn’t really feel it. Their feet are impressive and can handle uneven terrain very well. We each got to ride on the neck/back of the head for awhile. It was wonderful. They have very dry, tough skin and thick black hairs/bristles on the top of their heads. They flap their ears when they are happy, which I was relieved to notice they were doing. When we got back to the camp we got off our elephants and were given water and coffee in a gazeebo in the shade, then were told some basics:
Never approach an elephant from behind. They need to see you.
Never run or move quickly
Always approach slowly and make sure the elephant is ok with you proceeding (their mahout will tell you when it is ok). If the elephant is showing signs of unhappiness, stop.
To mount the elephants from the ground when then are not tacked up, you give them a certain command and tap their right front leg. They will lift their right front leg to a right angle and you hold onto the back of their ear and step on their bent knee to hoist yourself up. This is somehow easier than it sounds. The elephant used for training was very accommodating (she was completely motivated by food and just kept looking for the sugar cane, which of course we kept feeding her).
All commands should be said short, sharp.
To get them to go you tap with both legs behind their ears (knees relaxed) and give a command.
To get them to stop you squeeze with both knees and lean back and give a command “How”
To get them to go backwards you lean back and give a command.
To go right, you tap with left foot and lean and turn to the right and give a command.
To go left, you tap with right foot and lean and turn to the left and give a command.

I didn’t have much (any) control on my training ride but the elephant’s mahout did (from the ground) and as we were just walking the same path around the yard, it was fine - fun to try. I challenge anyone to succeed in stopping that elephant when she knew where the sugar cane was and consistently made a bee-line for it. ;-)

The mahouts carry a hook (a stick with a nasty blade like a large nail) on it for keeping the elephants in line if they get out of control, but they didn’t seem to need them (good) and I do understand that they need to be able to put a moody elephant in her place immediately, should the need arise. I was told they tap the elephant on the forehead with the “nail” and since none of the elephants had a mark on her forehead, I was reassured that they were not misused. The elephants were all clean and had no marks on them (except for old scars and wounds) and seemed well-taken care of.

We then had a lovely buffet lunch over-looking the river, which was very pleasant. There were kids spear fishing in the river for the entire time we were there, and it looked like back-breaking work. They were bent over the entire time - whew!


After lunch and after two of the elephants came back from a trek they were on, we each got an elephant and rode her to the river bareback for a bath. The mahouts rode behind us and stood on the elephants’ backs when we got to the river - most impressive. I was again impressed with the elephants’ balance as we went down the bank, especially since I was riding the 71-year-old blind elephant. She used her trunk like a cane as she made her way down the uneven river bank. Her mahout sang to her, which she really enjoyed. I could not be sure she was actually blind, but remembered the descriptions and histories of the different elephants and couldn’t see any others that fit the bill. When I asked, sure enough - it was her! She hunkered down nicely for her bath and was very polite throughout the whole thing.

When we finished with the elephants we could see some being taken back across the river for turnout (not all - some had more tourists booked). It was early - still maybe 1:30 in the afternoon? We heading up the Nam Khan by boat to a waterfall which was largely dry but still impressive and had some pools for swimming. It was interesting to see that that Nam Khan was largely undeveloped and we did not see garbage in it (phew). We did pass families going about their daily lives - fishing, washing, etc.

All in all, a lovely day in Laos - sunny, relaxing, nothing hurried, nothing rushed, lots of hanging around in the sun with elephants. A nice way to spend a Sunday.

Lao P.D.R

Lao P.D.R. (People’s Democratic Republic) is affectionately known as “Please don’t rush” by the locals.

Novice monks - with 2 videos of drumming

Saturday Jan 30, 2010.
One of the things I love about Luang Prabang is the large number of novice monks around. Boys come from all around to be novice monks. They don’t have to be a monk for life - often they come for a few years, which serves the double purpose of enabling them to get an education and being an honour for their family. So in the course of a day here in Lung Prabang I see many novice monks - on my way to school in the morning, walking to a café for lunch, in classes (both at the Monk School and at other private schools as well). They swim in the river, climb Phousi hill, walk together to classes or their temples. Some carry umbrellas to keep the sun off of them.. And they participate in the daily drumming and chanting. There seem to be temples everywhere, and monks and novices live at the temples. At the temple around the corner from our guesthouse, they drum at 4 o’clock in the afternoon. Here are some photos and video footage of two different drums, both on the same grounds (I think it’s two different temples). It is beautiful to watch and hear