Anyway, sometime early last week Somnuek the manager from Le Belair Resort and Hotel, took me to Nong Khiaw, a short 2 1/2 hour ride, to meet some of the officials I will be working with in the future. We met with the General Manager of Education and the General Manager of Hygiene and Water. Both expressed their gratitude for our support and interest in the Muang Ngoi District of Luang Prabang. It appears they had done their homework well and were prepared and waiting for my arrival. Before I left, I had 11 new school projects they requested assistance for, and 6 villages that still had no reliable water source. I can only imagine how the villages survive. I will be trekking to many of these villages to see for myself of course but one of them is a five hour trek each way! What is worse is that it appears that the school there is in the worst shape of all of the villages so I have no choice but to go there first.
Next was a meeting with the Governor of Muang Ngoi who was considerably late and as an apology, took us for lunch to get to know me a little better. He knew that we had accidentally skipped some of the government processes and joked with us saying that he wished we would do more like that because it saves them a lot of red tape. This is of course translated from something that if translated word for word into English would mean something like 'we stole two schools and wishes we would steal more'. The local government priority there is to build as a minimum, temporary access roads to the remaining 48 villages that do not even have that. Naturally he asked for our assistance with whatever we could do to help - otherwise it is going to take 10-15 years.
I am still waiting to receive pictures taken with these wonderful people and will edit this post when I receive them.
Now to my longest hour....
This day started one day late to begin with. The water filters were to arrive in Luang Prabang the previous day and they had requested someone to go with them to Nong Khiaw because they didn't know the way. So we sent for Khamlath's father who came all the way down from Had Chanh village - later we found out he wasn't needed. The filters arrived a day late. Once we were informed of this, there was no way to contact Pha Yong village. After many, many calls, reception to the village just wasn't there. The only way to contact them was by public radio broadcast and that is exactly what happened. By the time the radio announcement was made, all the villagers had already made the trek to the river when someone heard the radio announcement. Wow....I wondered how they would react when they saw me but there was no need to worry.
So, one day late and, an extra passenger that didn't need to be there, we left at 7am in the morning. We drove 5 minutes and found the truck on the side of the road, partially unloaded trying to fit two blackboards into the back of the truck. They had picked someone up along the way, presumably to make a little money on the side and that person had bales of string she was taking to Nong Khiaw. Another half hour went by as we mounted the blackboards to the top of the van and we were off again to pick up two ladies (Bonnie and her stunning daughter Penelope from LA) I had met at the hotel, to share our adventure.
So, everyone aboard, we headed out to catch and beat the truck to Nong Khiaw so we could hire local labour to unload the truck and load the boats. We had driven for about an hour before we heard a pop - it sounded like one of the strings holding the blackboard may have popped so we stopped again to take a peek - nothing apparent so we drove for another few km until I started to hear a rubbing noise. It sounded like the back tire was rubbing so we stopped again. Sure enough, the back passenger wheel was rubbing against the back of the wheel well. Immediately I knew what the popping noise was. It was a mounting bolt that had popped and the whole rear axle had shifted. Crap! In hindsight I should never have let the ladies back in the van - this was indeed serious. For some reason, we got back in the van and crept along for probably no more than 5 minutes and wouldn't you know it...there was a little shack on the side of the road that just happened to do motor bike repairs but was obviously versatile. He took a look, figured he could fix it although he didn't have the bolt we needed, so he welded one! An hour later we were back on the road and I was expecting to be hit hard being a 'phlang' (meaning foreigner) and all. It cost equivalent to $4. Yes, only four dollars!
Once we got to the dock, laborers were easy to find but we all pitched in. Instead of two boats we needed four. Here are a few pictures.
Now it was time to man the boats, one or two of us in each boat. Of course I got the tippy boat - not being a strong swimmer, I can tell you the next hour was perhaps one of the most harrowing experiences I have had. Even starting off I thought we were going to tip over. I think the captain of the boat did too - he had this sickly, worried look on his face the whole time. I wished I'd had a camera. Every time we came up to a turn or hit a bit of current, we both had to lean over to keep the boat ride side up. In most places the river was not terribly deep and the driver hit bottom several times so I can't say I was worried about surviving the trip...but the water filters that I had worked so hard to raise money for, the endless hours of planning and organization of various fundraisers, the stress of preparing for the trip, the upcoming projects, the meetings......As we rounded the last bend in the river and approached the shoreline nearest Pha Yong Village, my emotions got the best of me. There they were, 83 families, their kids, the two chiefs waiting on the side of the river. All of a sudden everything led to this amazing, remarkable...in fact there are just no words to describe this event. I wish you all could have been there. Even one of the ladies I think was a little teary eyed. Every bit of effort by myself, Mike and all those that helped us was all worth it. I am awaiting a couple more pictures from the ladies but I won't get them for a few weeks but I will edit this blog entry and insert them - I know that they took some pretty awesome pictures as we approached the shore.
After Pha Yong we continued to Had Chanh Village and helped bring everything up the river bank to the village. In the evening a baci was held in honour of two visiting ladies. This was a memory for them that will never be forgotten - in fact they said it was life altering for them. For once I could say I actually knew how they felt. I sure hope they contact me.
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