This evening, I was invited to a goodbye party for my friend’s coworker who will be heading back to Germany the next day. At the dinner I had this very delicious drink called Lao Gear (or something like that) that consisted of whiskey, pineapples, apples, dragon fruit…and other sorts of fruit.
After a very cozy dinner we headed to a second round of after party!
We arrived at an underground live pub in Vientiane. The moment we entered the pub, I saw waitresses wearing cowboy hats, a big TV screen on the left showing a soccer match; the pub was decorated in a shabby underground atmosphere – broken wooden frames, vintage beer logos, and graffitis. I looked around and found out that the place was surprisingly filled with local Lao people.
A band called “Whisper” was playing rock music – from all time favorites such as Sweet Child of Mine to rock versions of Lady Gaga and Taylor Swift.
We all sang along and clapped and tapped to the beats when a familiar tune came up.
Listening to the lead-singer singing “Home” by Michael Buble and sipping Beerlao quietly, I’ve never felt so relaxed in a strange place so far away from home.
Sunday, June 13, 2010
First Village Visit Part 2 - The Bamboo Village
The next morning I woke up to the sound of the rooster’s cock-a-doodle-doo and we headed for the next village at 7:00am.
The next village is known as the village for bamboo weaving; as soon as we arrived at the house of the head of the group of bamboo basket makers, a strong smoky smell entered my nostrils! There were all kinds of bamboo items in piles in her courtyard, from small to big, smoked to unsmoked, from sticky rice container to hats.
The lady told us to come and join her for breakfast. A quick note on lao breakfast, Lao people eat pretty much anything for breakfast. This morning we had 3 plates of stir-fried vegetables and some grilled pork with again, sticky rice!
After breakfast, I took a quick tour around the village. I saw houses built with bamboo stems and bamboo leaves. These houses had a very distinctive style— they were all raised around 6 feet above the ground. In the space under the house, there were looms and tables where people can sit around to weave cloths and baskets; there were usually a few beds for occasional naps as well! These raised spaces under the houses provide a very comfortable shade to work under in this hot weather!
Bamboos dominate every aspect of the villagers’ life. The villagers first started weaving baskets because of the abundant supply of bamboos from the bamboo forest in the village. Here is a brief overview of how the villagers use every bamboo to its full capacity! The bamboo skin is spliced into thin strips to be used for weaving. The rest of the bamboo stem is used to make fire for cooking. Bamboo leaves and older bamboos are used to build houses. Bamboo baskets are used as sticky rice containers, containers to catch fish from the river and etc. Fresh bamboo shoots will appear in meals, of course at least once a day.
Bamboo basket weaving is not an easy task! First, bamboo skin is peeled off from the bamboos. The bamboo skins are then trimmed into thinner pieces and spliced into thin strips for weaving. One interesting note is that bamboo baskets that are freshly woven are usually green in color but as time passes, the skin dries up and hardens, and turns into the usual light beige color that we see. Sometimes the bamboo baskets are smoked to give a different color and texture. The baskets are placed into a big metal cylinder and smoked with coconut shells and buffalo excretion for 5 days!
The wisdom of the ancestors of the bamboo village, to use the natural resource available in their community to its full capacity, is very very admirable.
taken from: http://blog.weargianna.com/2010/06/first-village-visit-part-2-bamboo.html
The next village is known as the village for bamboo weaving; as soon as we arrived at the house of the head of the group of bamboo basket makers, a strong smoky smell entered my nostrils! There were all kinds of bamboo items in piles in her courtyard, from small to big, smoked to unsmoked, from sticky rice container to hats.
The lady told us to come and join her for breakfast. A quick note on lao breakfast, Lao people eat pretty much anything for breakfast. This morning we had 3 plates of stir-fried vegetables and some grilled pork with again, sticky rice!
After breakfast, I took a quick tour around the village. I saw houses built with bamboo stems and bamboo leaves. These houses had a very distinctive style— they were all raised around 6 feet above the ground. In the space under the house, there were looms and tables where people can sit around to weave cloths and baskets; there were usually a few beds for occasional naps as well! These raised spaces under the houses provide a very comfortable shade to work under in this hot weather!
Bamboos dominate every aspect of the villagers’ life. The villagers first started weaving baskets because of the abundant supply of bamboos from the bamboo forest in the village. Here is a brief overview of how the villagers use every bamboo to its full capacity! The bamboo skin is spliced into thin strips to be used for weaving. The rest of the bamboo stem is used to make fire for cooking. Bamboo leaves and older bamboos are used to build houses. Bamboo baskets are used as sticky rice containers, containers to catch fish from the river and etc. Fresh bamboo shoots will appear in meals, of course at least once a day.
Bamboo basket weaving is not an easy task! First, bamboo skin is peeled off from the bamboos. The bamboo skins are then trimmed into thinner pieces and spliced into thin strips for weaving. One interesting note is that bamboo baskets that are freshly woven are usually green in color but as time passes, the skin dries up and hardens, and turns into the usual light beige color that we see. Sometimes the bamboo baskets are smoked to give a different color and texture. The baskets are placed into a big metal cylinder and smoked with coconut shells and buffalo excretion for 5 days!
The wisdom of the ancestors of the bamboo village, to use the natural resource available in their community to its full capacity, is very very admirable.
taken from: http://blog.weargianna.com/2010/06/first-village-visit-part-2-bamboo.html
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
Tuesday, June 8, 2010
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
Monday, June 7, 2010
No seafood in Laos
When I first learnt that Laos is a landlocked country, I was uber excited that I won’t have a problem eating the food (since I don’t eat seafood). When I first mentioned to my host family that I don’t eat seafood, they told me not to worry because they don’t get seafood unless for special occasions. Soon I discovered that while they don’t get “seafood,” they get “riverfood” from the Mekong River.
This morning, a visit to the market I saw eels, squids, all sorts of big and small fishes, frogs (!), catfish (I almost stepped on one of them whey it jumped out of the bowl and snuggled into the drain located on the side of the walkway…)
A little note on the Mekong River. The Mekong River is just a 3 minutes walk from the house and across the river lies Thailand. Along the river there are many food stalls random benches, essentially, places where people can just chill and relax! My first day here, I went to one of the food stalls and had Kaw (something) soup, which looks like pho but in a udon noodle shape, using chopsticks! In the background “nobodynobdy but you!” was playing which made me momentarily forget where I was.
My host father goes to the riverbank to savor his morning coffee every morning. I would love to join him one of these days and get a taste of the famous Lao coffee!
The Mekong
A monk sipping his morning tea
Sunday, May 30, 2010
Laos Here I come!
Hi world! I'm back to blogging again! It's less than 24 hours till I depart for Laos so I'm short on time for a thorough introduction but here's a brief overview.....
I'll be in Laos from 5/31 till around 8/16 working as a summer development intern for an eco-fashion fairtrade company!
and here's my pre-departure blog....! (taken from http://blog.weargianna.com/2010/05/48-hours-countdown.html)
It’s 12:20 am in Kitakyushu, Japan. Sitting at my dining table at home, my heart is pounding with excitement for my departure for Laos in less than 48 hours!
Leslie’s amazing and insightful blogs, as well as my Laos tour guidebook have been keeping me company for the last few weeks. Coming from a quite multi-cultural background, I’ve always been interested in the intermixing of cultures, such as the way Creole languages are formed, the exchange and intermingling of cultures that happen on the Silk Road, and extinct cultures that form in regions along country borders.
Laos, a country bordering China, Vietnam, Thailand, Myanmar and Cambodia, is definitely an alluring place that cannot be missed! I’ve read that due to the Annamese Cordillera mountain range that runs from north to south along the eastern border with Vietnam, the Lao culture is less influenced by the Chinese culture and more by the Thai and Indian cultures as compared to its neighbor, Vietnam. The bright orange robes of the Buddhist monks that appear in my guidebook resemble nothing of the plain gray/ black and white robes of Buddhist monks in Japan and Taiwan. Yet, Quan Am a goddess who is apparently commonly worshipped in Laos, is seen everywhere in Taiwan, displayed on family altars and worshipped in temples. These subtle differences between the Lao culture and the cultures of its neighbors and other East Asian cultures that I’m familiar with, is something that I cannot wait to explore further.
I am looking forward to the countless wonders that Laos will bring, and of course, the rain!
Thursday, August 6, 2009
Pictures are worth a thousand words
When I first picked up this project of starting the Youth Resource Center, I was among the skeptics who questioned about the purpose and effectiveness of the center. A center for the youth to come and play and receive some vocational trainings? Well that’s nice but how does this tie in with empowering the youth?
What changed my pessimistic view and gave me a light of hope is my visit to one of the Youth Resource Centers in a rural village near Udaipur.
The village is located about an hour away from Udaipur. I visited the center twice, once in mid-June and once recently. What I saw on my way to the village recently took me by surprise. I remember back in mid-June when people were praying for the rain as the lakes around the city were dried up and the once beautiful tourist spots were turned into cricket fields. On the way to the village, I saw the trees on the hills dried up and all I could see was a brownish gray vastness. Someone told me that with one drop of rain the whole hill will come alive. Recently I saw that magical transformation happen. The once gray and brownish vastness has turned into a mosaic of different shades of green and yellow. As I listened to the Hindi music playing on the bus and a cool breeze touched my cheeks, I really felt that "water is the source of life.”
I went back to the center for the second time with an important purpose in mind. The first time I visited center, I was shown the various works of the youth ranging from glass paintings, tiny arts and crafts to the magazine published by the youth. These were no doubt amazing works, but what really grabbed my attention were the photos that the youth took after receiving a photography workshop. The photos told so many stories; a picture of the view of the grand palace hotel in the area was juxtaposed with the locals wearing worn out saris on the streets, carrying baskets, who would never be given the chance to even see the lobby of the hotel; a picture of a wooden table covered in a turquoise silk cloth with offerings and other religious ceremonial equipments on it, with bright magenta flower petals spread all over the table and the floor – a representation of the culture and the religious life in the area.
This reminded me of the documentary “Born into Brothels” which documented how the photographer Zana Briski taught the children who were born in brothels in Calcutta photography skills in order to give them self-confidence and allow the outsiders to see the tabooed red-light district from the children’s eyes. The photographs they took were exhibited and are even on sale on the website of the non-profit “Kids with Cameras.” The education level of these village youth may not be very high but with their new acquired skill, they now possess the tool needed to express their opinion and to raise issues in their community. Pictures may even be a better medium to present these issues, considering the low level of education of the majority of the villagers.
I went back to the village wanting to ask the youth if they would like to submit their photos to online photo contests so that an even larger audience can see their work. They were very interested in doing so and I will be going back to village next week to talk directly to the young photographers. Even if photography skills wouldn’t bring them income, it gives them a sense of self-worth and a sense that they are part of the community. The moral of the lesson that I learned is that empowering the youth is not just about giving them vocational trainings that would give them economic power; it is also about training them on critical thinking skills and social responsibilities so that one day they can become leaders of their own community.
What changed my pessimistic view and gave me a light of hope is my visit to one of the Youth Resource Centers in a rural village near Udaipur.
The village is located about an hour away from Udaipur. I visited the center twice, once in mid-June and once recently. What I saw on my way to the village recently took me by surprise. I remember back in mid-June when people were praying for the rain as the lakes around the city were dried up and the once beautiful tourist spots were turned into cricket fields. On the way to the village, I saw the trees on the hills dried up and all I could see was a brownish gray vastness. Someone told me that with one drop of rain the whole hill will come alive. Recently I saw that magical transformation happen. The once gray and brownish vastness has turned into a mosaic of different shades of green and yellow. As I listened to the Hindi music playing on the bus and a cool breeze touched my cheeks, I really felt that "water is the source of life.”
I went back to the center for the second time with an important purpose in mind. The first time I visited center, I was shown the various works of the youth ranging from glass paintings, tiny arts and crafts to the magazine published by the youth. These were no doubt amazing works, but what really grabbed my attention were the photos that the youth took after receiving a photography workshop. The photos told so many stories; a picture of the view of the grand palace hotel in the area was juxtaposed with the locals wearing worn out saris on the streets, carrying baskets, who would never be given the chance to even see the lobby of the hotel; a picture of a wooden table covered in a turquoise silk cloth with offerings and other religious ceremonial equipments on it, with bright magenta flower petals spread all over the table and the floor – a representation of the culture and the religious life in the area.
This reminded me of the documentary “Born into Brothels” which documented how the photographer Zana Briski taught the children who were born in brothels in Calcutta photography skills in order to give them self-confidence and allow the outsiders to see the tabooed red-light district from the children’s eyes. The photographs they took were exhibited and are even on sale on the website of the non-profit “Kids with Cameras.” The education level of these village youth may not be very high but with their new acquired skill, they now possess the tool needed to express their opinion and to raise issues in their community. Pictures may even be a better medium to present these issues, considering the low level of education of the majority of the villagers.
I went back to the village wanting to ask the youth if they would like to submit their photos to online photo contests so that an even larger audience can see their work. They were very interested in doing so and I will be going back to village next week to talk directly to the young photographers. Even if photography skills wouldn’t bring them income, it gives them a sense of self-worth and a sense that they are part of the community. The moral of the lesson that I learned is that empowering the youth is not just about giving them vocational trainings that would give them economic power; it is also about training them on critical thinking skills and social responsibilities so that one day they can become leaders of their own community.
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