First Village Visit (Part 1)

About two hours by bus from Vientiane lies a little village by the Naam Geng River. Bandith and I were welcomed by a dozen or so warm and lively women weavers who prepared a table (or floor? we ate in a picnic style) of delicious dishes to welcome us. On the menu there were: ants(!), stir-fried coconut with pork, stir-fried cabbage, a humongous fish and of course sticky rice (a must for every meal!)

Fried Ants!

The women weavers who gathered around keep on talking to me in Lao despite the fact that I could only answer them with limited body language! The entire afternoon, one event followed by the other, first the delicious lunch, then village meeting, then quality control of the finished products, more chatting and so on. While the weavers sewed the GIANNA labels on to the pillowcases, I helped them measure the sizes of the pieces and ensure that the surface of each piece was smooth without blemishes. The weavers were very patient in going through the pieces, amending rough edges and cutting off small knots that appeared at intersection of threads.

Group of weavers finishing up the product

Around 5pm, when we were all packed and set ready to head to the bus station to go to the next village, the villagers suddenly told us there’s no bus! At first I thought it was another silly joke that Bandith was telling. But not, the villagers were serious! Apparently there will be no bus going back to Vientiane until the next morning.

The villagers were overjoyed by this news because that meant that we will be staying in the village overnight! Every woman used their creative sign language (gesturing sleep, then pointing at themselves), to invite me to sleep in their house. One of the villagers brought a duck from her backyard, ready to prepare a welcome feast for us.

We then headed to the river, spread out our picnic matt, with 5 bottles of the one and only beer brand in Laos, Beerlao, a glass, a bag of ice, a plate of grilled beef sticks, and the welcome ceremony began!

After the head of the women weavers gave a short speech welcoming me, Kong, one of the women weavers poured the beer into the glass and drank it. She then poured another one and passed it on to the person next to her. This is how beer is drank in Laos – one glass, in a circle, one person downs one glass at the time, till the bottles are finished. After 2 rounds, I tried to refuse further drinks but the women told me the rule of the game, “you can ask someone to help you but you can’t skip your round!”

Food and Beer!

We spent the next few hours sitting by the river, looking at the sunset and the slowly flowing river stream. There were laughter, the joyful voices of the women and distant sounds of children playing in the river nearby.

Perhaps it is only on these rare occasions that the women weavers get a chance to sit by the river and relax, sipping beer, spending one of these hot summer evenings in the company of one another.

taken from: http://blog.weargianna.com/2010/06/first-village-visit-part-1.html