Governors, Officials and a New Village!

Pauline was pretty dissapointed at not being able to join us in our overnight visit to the villages so as soon as I got back I managed to get lucky. We were asked to join Somnuek (The General Manager) and the owner of Le Belair Resort, to visit a new village, along with the Governor of Luang Prabang, the ex governor (who sat behind me!!), the deputy governor and the heads of Education and Water and Hygiene. What a treat!

We had heard of the needs of this new village. The Government is attempting to move over 300 families consisting of Mong and Khmu, although the Mong tribe has declined. Still, about 100 families have made the move and are awaiting for land to be given to them for purposes of farming. They currently have three water tanks with taps coming directly off them although the underground piping has not been completed. Other than that nothing is finished yet. The road is a misery to ride, but they have plans to build a primary school (about 20% finished), secondary school, market, bus stop, and hygienic toilets. Many of these villagers have to travel back to their own farmland up in the hills and down in the valleys until they get new property.

We have been asked to assist of course with a secondary school, and clean water. There is a one room secondary school about 5km further up the road and the local village plans to build one more room each year. Our thought was that if we could provide the travelling students with bicycles, then only one secondary school would be required.

The villagers are extremely poor, some worse that others - most do not have latrines of any kind and just go in the bush. It reminds me of a poster in one of the villages I had seen that shows the Government trying to teach the children from pooping in the middle of the street and directing them to a nearby bush! Hmmm.....enough said.

Pauline and Lisa from A Mine Free World Foundation and Adopt A Village in Laos donated 80 mosquito nets to the poorer villagers, and Le Belair Resort donated 100 blankets.

Here are a few pictures of the memories.

This picture is of the Luang Prabang Governor, Lisa McCoy, the owner of Le Belair and myself being presented with a certificate of thanks for the mosquito nets.















Above - The villagers from Ban Nong Bue Kon patiently awaiting the start of the ceremonies, celebrating their first anniversary of the village. This village is lcoated about 2 hours southwest of Luang Prabang.

Somnuek brought a bag of goodies for many of the kids, ranging from books to clothing in an offering of hope to the new village.

From the left: Somnuek Bounsa, The owner of Le Belair Resort, The Governor of Luang Prabang and me.

This is a makeshift school run from volunteers from Canada who have since departed. If you look closely at the sign sitting on the ground you can make aout the words 'Canada'

On the way back to Luang Prabang Somnuek took us to this small village of Nong Hepe. It was a three room school but in need of some major repairs. The Primary 4 and 5 kids without bicycles need to walk 1 1/2 hours each way to go to primary school. Once that is done they can go to secondary school if they can afford it. There are about 10 kids who cannot afford the 85,000 KIP to go (about $10 US). In the primary school there is no latrine at all.

I will be asking for a proposal for a school latrine and for costs to re-parge the outside of the school - at least it is made with concrete block. For the kids that can't afford to go, I will make sure they are able to go next year and if all goes well, Rotary Wheels for Learning will be able to sponsor bicycles for those that cannot afford them. These will cut the travel time down to 30 minutes each way.
















Other than some translations that need to be done, I am in a bit of a holding pattern for this years projects. Specifically,
1) Huephen Village needing a water source is in the final stages of approval - we should receive the final stamp any day now so we can start on the project.
2) LadThahae Village needing access steps for the school and underground piping to their latrines for the school is revising their proposal - they just elected a new village chief so there is much for him to learn I guess. The revised proposal is expected in about two weeks. Other than the chiefs stamp, nothing else will be required for the project to start.
3) Done Lom School - I received the document back that needs some translation but most of it is what I gave them. The did get a village and a Department of Education stamp but they did not get a Water and Hygiene Stamp - I think they forgot, plus there is no estimated costing. Once I get some crucial diagrams from the Water and Hygiene department expected today or tomorrow, I will rework their proposal and get the final costing done.
4) Hygienic Toilets - I am waiting for the diagrams from the water and hygiene department as mentioned and will hire an official to map out Had Chanh and Pha Yong Village to determine where to put the latrines. Depending on the condition of the diagrams I may be able to start this within a month.
5) Water Filter - final distribution. This will be done immediately following the completion of the new water source in Huephen Village.
6) School Teachers - I find that one of the schools never did get a second teacher so I won't be paying for that and will save it for one of next year's project. Once I am successful in opening a bank account here I will arrange for payment of the teacher in Pha Yong Village.

So there you have it.

Village visits with Lisa and Pauline, Khmu New Year

No rest for the wicked as they say. It has been a really interesting time with Rotarian Lisa McCoy from Canada and Pauline Johns from Australia. While it was a bit difficult to organize and visit villages over the first few days with Christmas and New Years celebrations in the way,I am told that the Lao people celebrate their own New Years around the same time as ours but they also celebrate everyone elses holidays too - an excuse to let loose and party I suppose.



From Left: Mike Yap, Rotarian Lisa McCoy, yours truly and Pauline Johns


I was also in the middle of trying to work on my projects in between visitors but I needn't have worried. Lisa and Pauline are no strangers to hard work. It has been a lot of fun to share stories together about the hiccups and difficulties we experience along the way. A famous saying here is 'same same...but different'. It sure fits with what Lisa and Pauline have gone through in Cambodia as compared with I have gone through here.


I haven't told you much about Lisa and Pauline. Lisa is a Rotarian from Gravenhurst, Ontario, Canada. Lisa along with the Gravenhurst Rotary Club International Committee implemented the Rotary Wheels for Learning which provides bicycles for children to get to school in developing countries. Their web site is http://rotarywheelsforlearning.blogspot.com/.

Lisa and Pauline are researching locations in northern Laos as expansion to their program. I suppose it goes without saying that they didn't have to look very far to see the desperate need but more about that later.


Lisa and Pauline are directors for A MineFree World Foundation. I was humbled by the knowledge of Lisa's involvement as education co-ordinator in the Landmine Museum Relief Fund. For those of you who have been to Siem Reap, many of you would have seen Lisa's work at the museum. The funds were raised for a six room school project named the Muskoka school.
http://schoolsforcambodia.blogspot.com/.



I am a little delayed with this posting because my notebook got stolen. Fortunately I have copies of everything because almost everything I do is related to email, either directly or document preparation for emailing. The story goes a little deeper but my overall experience here remains positive and hopeful.


Pauline has now returned to Cambodia for a few days before heading back to Australia but I am still lucky to have Lisa remain with me for a couple more weeks and yes, I do intend to keep her busy.

The days seem to run together but shortly after Christmas I took the ladies to the derelict hospital, another village needing a water source and the infamous high school that really needs our attention. I am worried that some of the support beams are going to collapse. There is one critical junction that will cause quite a collapse if it goes.


Here is another view of the high school.

It should be noted here that the white block part of the structure was intended as storage rooms but has been converted into classrooms due to space restrictions - there are four classrooms of this nature and it looks like a dark dungeon in these rooms. There are three other classrooms that are primarily bamboo located elsewhere on the property and used as temporary classrooms unless it rains.

We returned to Luang Prabang, relaxed and snack-shopped for a couple of days but then prepared for a visit to HuepHan Village that is in the final approval stage for a new water source (should be ready to go within a week) and to Ladthahae Village to review the requirements for a small project at the school property there.


Huephan villagers took us on a one hour hike that we weren't expecting, to show us where their new water source was going to come from. We didn't know this at the time but we were glad we saw it. Quite frankly there wasn't much to see but the villagers were pretty excited about it. Below you will see a tall tree that stands out above the rest of the foliage and at the bsae of the tree are two rivers that intersect and merge. This is where the water pipes will originate from - that is a lot of pipe!




I was feeling guilty about taking Pauline and Lisa on such a long journey because I didn't prepare them for it so we didn't go all the way to the foot of the tree. Also we were told that the UXO (unexploded ordinance) office had been there and determined that this was one of the few areas that escaped the heavy bombing raids so they saw no reason to clear the land and left. The path was considerably narrower so we decided not to venture further.

At LadThaHae School, I investigated the site a little closer and while the water tank is complete, the pipes do not run to the toilets. Instead there is one tap and a sealed pipe at the water tank so the water has to be carried to the small holding tanks beside the toilets in the three latrines.
I also obtained more information about the access steps to the school.

Since then I have requested a revised proposal that is expected within a couple of weeks so we can get started on it. This will not require government approvals because it is a small project and the water tank itself is done.

The next day Pauline was a little under the weather with sore feet so she was unable to join us for the overnight visit to Had Chanh and Pah Yong Villages. Nothing ever goes exactly as planned but for some reason it was the closest I have managed to come to a perfect schedule.

We left early in the morning with Lisa, Myself, Phet (our translator for the trip), two lady friends of Bounmy and his mom who had recently visited the hospital to see about a swollen foot, and a water/hygiene 'specialist' who was hired to review the village requirements and compare notes with me to make sure I understood how they build hygienic toilets.

We made it to Had Chanh without incident and rounded up the chief, several elders and village builders so I could teach them (with the assistance of the 'specialist'). It went surprisingly well. In fact the 'specialist' kept commenting about how great I was doing (translated of course), in response to questions I kept asking him to confirm that I was correct is certain assumptions. Once I noticed that he was copying my chalkboard diagrams into his book, I began to realize that while he had some knowledge, he really didn't know enough about designing hygienic toilets at all to be able to help me prepare a proposal on behalf of the villagers...Not Good! I have the theory correct but when it comes to developing the calculations required to size the sceptic tanks and subsequent sceptic fields and piping, I am at a loss.....just what I need...more research....


Still, it was a success in that whenever I get my information, approval should happen quickly. I have asked the department for the schematics they have on file but suspect they are identical to the ones I received from the Department of Education which means....you guessed it...more work.
Above is a picture of Bounmy's mom (left) and Phet (right), our translator. She was there also to learn about the projects so she can be of much more assistance to me in the future. She will also be able to assist in costing and proposal preparation, hygiene training and a lot more. What a personality! She reminds me of Sammy from Bualai Taste of Thai restaurant in Port Hope - bubbly, happy all the time and a very quick wit!






On the right side, above, are a couple of the workers that helped to build the school and the village chief as we debrief after the meeting at the school.

We had intended to leave right afterwards to hike over to Pha Yong (along with a tractor to take our backpacks and luggage). We had planned to spend the night in Pha Yong village but that wasn't to be. They had actually been waiting for us to finish our meeting so they could bring in the new year with a traditional Bacci in celebration of the Khmu New Year which usually happens in December, although the exact date changes in accordance with the village priorities.

Here is a bit of a treat for you. By the way, the images above and below, including the video was taken by Lisa McCoy.

I tried downloading but gave up after several hours. Here is the link;

This is Part 2 of the video where you will see some of the traditional dancing.

Overall we were all pretty impressed. Apparently there is a school they can attend to teach this kind of traditional dancing. There was lots of drinking at this one..that is for sure.

Rather than load this video that would take me forever, please click this link;

That night we had a second Bacci in celebration of a visiting friend of one of the families - apparently there are many reasons for Bacci in Laos. The following morning there was a Bacci held for two more that we were requested to attend. One was for Oudom, one of the students I am partially sponsoring who had returned to his village for a visit after several months.

Immediately following that we headed by boat across the river and got dropped off at SopCham Village where we caught a tractor ride to Pha Yong Village to meet with their chiefs and elders for discussion about their toilet needs and more training. Another positive experience for sure. I found out later that the villagers had actually sent Bounmy's mom for a second reason. It seems that they were afraid that I would head home after Christmas...for what reason I don't know but the thought never crossed my mind. They know I get along very well with the mom, but I treat all the elders of the villages that way....with total respect. Strange isn't it? I have to admit that it was a little tight around the house. My house is a three bedroom and all bedrooms were fully occupied over the New Years period so there were three of us sharing my bed - talk about squishy!!!!

Here is another image of Pha Yong School.

Traditional Dress

Lisa McCoy from Gravenhurst, Ontario and Pauline Johns from Australia arrived on Christmas Day. In fact their flight arrived a half hour early - unheard of in these parts! What a pleasant surprise. I expected that we would be waiting close to an hour before we would see their faces through the arrivals window but they were waiting for us! We had our own entourage including Bounmy's mother from Pha Yong Village to greet them at the airport.

From the airport we dropped off their luggage at the house and enjoyed a celebatory drink with them before heading downtown to a French restaurant and cafe to get them something to eat. They were a little shocked, OK well may be quite shocked at the whole experience. They had been to Laos before but were not expecting private bedrooms, let alone private bathrooms and internet, and a French Bistro to enjoy a Christmas dinner. I would imagine that their accomodations in Cambodia were similar to the village huts we stay in during our travels. Anyway, they are anxious to get into the villages and prefer to skip the touristy things that I had planned for them so that is what we will do AND they will have the experience of celebrating Khamu New Years at Had Chanh and Pha Yong village, complete with traditional costumes.

Speaking of traditional dress, I promised you some pictures of the Mong tribe traditional dress. When we did the official school opening in Pha Yong village, the Mong tribe showed us deep respect by wearing the traditional uniforms and their children in school uniforms.

Above: Chief's Administrator

Upper Right: 1st Chief - Pha Yong Village

Bottom Left: Mother and Daughter all dressed up for the occasion.

These are pictures of the 1st and 2nd chief of Had Chanh Village

The following are pictures of some of the school children, taken with the school water filters.

Pha Yong School (Above)

Had Chanh School childrent in front of their school (Bottom)

So we are now off for breakfast on Boxing Day and hope to show our guests a high school and a hospital so they can get the true feeling of the struggles facing them.

Tours with Ted, Jennifer H, Jennifer M and Mike

Now that our first group has left and I have successfully managed to email most of our wonderful sponsors for the forst two villages, namely HadChanh and Pha Yong with a photo of family members with their new water filters, it is time to relive the experiences and time for reflection.

Of course there had been a lot of preparations for their arrival but it was so wonderful to be able to share real experiences with our truly amazing guests. As a short recap, Jennifer Mercer, proprietor of Jenn's Dance It Up Studio, Jennifer Hawthorne who offered to teach English and Ted Amsden our infamous photojournalist from Northumberland Today.

Ted was a real trouper carrying his camera luggage everywhere he went - I seriously doubt that I would have been able to lug it around and still enjoy myself but he did and never complained once. In fact he stated a couple of times that he would love to come back. I asked him to tell us what his greatest memory, good or bad, was and he said the destitute feeling he had when visiting a 10 bed hospital about 25km from Luang Prabang. I think all of us were in shock over that one. We had never experienced anything so bad.

Note that this was the cleanest room of the entire hospital and with no water except when it rained.

Being the cleanest room, imagine the birthing room and the examination room - we were told they do surgery there but I think it is more for cuts that require minor stiching after looking at the tools they use. Nothing was clean and everything hazardous is either burned or buried on site in the backyard of the hospital. Needless to say we won't be putting a well there.

In fact nobody complained at all and just went with the flow. Jennfer Hawthorn was game for anything, wanted to experience everything and I believe, enjoyed every single experience. She mentioned that her most joyious moment of her trip was the teaching of English in Pha Yong Village to the school children. I tried my hand at it because there were two classrooms of students to teach and I certainly didn't have the knack that she did - If I sang like she and Jennifer Mercer did I can tell you the kids would have run out of the class howling. I will post a couple of pictures of this once Ted has had a chance to review them.

Jenn Mercer...better known as Diva Jenn. What can I say about her? She was cheerful the entire time and it couldn't have been easy while expecting a child. She was a bit taken back by some of the food that was being offered like a pigs head and wasn't too impressed with the hygiene in the villages but Diva Jen came through with flying colours. Lots of pink to be specific. The kids loved her as you can see below.

Here is a sampling of some of the other highlites and lowlites of their visit.

Having fun with the Governor of Muang Ngoi District during the official opening of Had Chanh School. Wonder who had the most Baci strings?

Obviously Mike - he cheated because he still had the ones on from our previous visit.

What a sight. This is what we saw as we arrived after a 1 1/2 hour trek to the school in Pha Yong Village. New addition to the school looked perfect, water filters for every family and the school and the Canadian Flag flying high. Jen Hawthorn went a little soft when she saw the flag.

This is the new location for the school in Done Lom Village. It is waiting to be checked for bombs and landmines before clearing the land.

In this barren area a school once stood. In fact I received a picture of it back in June and it was in desperate need of help. The school finally succumbed to the rainy season and it had to be taken down completely for safety purposes. The village has borrowed the open aired community centre from the government, seen in the distance.

These pictures are of a secondary and high school for a district located about 20km from Luang Prabang. The left picture shows class being held in a storage unit under the school. We discovered major termite damage. Even some of the beams looked like they were rotting right through. they have only asked us to help them finish off a separate building to hold three classrooms at a cost of about $6,000USD plus there are only 6 toilets for 1300 students.

They not only need classrooms and toilets, they need a new school.

There are so many more pictures I will be sharing with you. In my next entry I will provide pics of the village chiefs and traditional costumes in celebration of their New Year, held early in honour of our visit.

My Longest Hour

This last week has been interesting, frustrating at times, emotionally fulfilling at other times. For some reason all the days run together - I cannot remember one day from the next because they do not take weekends off, except for the banks and government institutions.

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.

Return to Laos - November 2010

Its Official!

We are now an incorporated Not-For-Profit Organization. It was a bit of a wait but certainly worth it. Now our next step is to apply for charitable status and be able to issue tax receipts for qualified individuals. This is estimated to take at least a year. Meanwhile a few dollars can go a long way in Laos. For example a $50 dinner for two buys a water filter for a family of 6 or 8 for years to come, saving the agony of illness caused by water borne bacteria.

Please note that our current directors are as follows;

President: Steve Rutledge
Secretary: Cleve Pendock
Treasurer: Ron Coleman

As we prepare our next submission to the government, I am currently in Luang Prabang preparing for a revisit to Pha Yong and Had Chanh Villages. I have now purchased school supplies and will be purchasing gifts for the children of these villages. We already have donated Tshirts, toothbrushes and toothpaste. While we didn't have enough space to bring more, there will be at least two new toothbrushes per family - currently they share one toothbrush per family!

Tomorrow I am off with Mr. Somnuek Bounsa, manager of Le Belair Resort to visit the District Vice Governor, a Hygiene official and an Education official from the Muang Ngoi District, followed by a vist to three villages including the one village that currently uses a mud hole as their water source. This is the village that I will likely be giving final approval for the sponsorship or a new water source.

Following that, on Tuesday we are expecting a large shipment of 155 water filters to arrive in Luang Prabang and onwards to Nong Khiaw. Then they get loaded onto boats and shipped up the Nam Ou (River). Some will get dropped off to the riverbank closest to Pha Yong and manually transported one by one to the village approximately 2 hours away. The rest will be shipped to Had Chanh Village, thankfully right at the top of the river bank. So yes, it will be another very long day.

I will be returning to Luang Prabang on Wednesday to complete our shopping for the guests coming on December 6. This also needs to be shipped to the villages in advance of their arrival!
I almost forgot - somewhere in the mix I will be moving to a Salanoy located close to downtown Luang Prabang. I signed the lease today but just haven't figured out where I am going to find the time to move everything.

As you can see, my schedule is a little daunting but everything always works out, just not quite the way I imagined it. I expect that my next posting will include lots of pictures.

Pha Yong Village Update

This summer and fall has been a whirlwind. All of a sudden it is time to leave for Laos again.

When we returned from Luang Prabang at the end of the spring, I had no idea what the summer would hold for us. I knew there were a lot of desperate pleas from various villages to assist. When I received pictures of the one village with just a mud hole to drink from, my heart just sank then a little determination took over...OK...a lot of determination. Raising funds for a local cause is one thing but raising funds for another country half a world away just seemed the impossible dream.

Both Mike and I just couldn't believe the response. We had our first function and sold out in two weeks from launch and good-hearted citizens just seemed to come out of the wood work. It was then that I realized just how many people I actually knew and how many people wanted to help by doing their own fundraisers. In three months there were 5 fundraisers. On the other side of the coin I started working with some of the Rotarians that I knew. Every club I presented to, donated or committed to donate. Further, through a blog I set up (OK so I had some wonderful help) it was amazing to see just how many people have been reading it and how many new contacts I made. In fact one of them will be visiting us in Laos over Christmas. This wonderful lady from Gravenhurst has indicated serious interest in helping us to build more schools, buy library books and do a bicycle distribution in Laos. Even more amazing, through her contacts I was also asked to put together a much larger proposal for next year - to put this in perspective, it would be equivalent to sponsoring 12 schools! Another highlight was that we are just waiting for our Not-For-Profit official paperwork. As of today we are told that it will probably be another couple of weeks before we see it.

I think the largest driving force for me was to see our pictures on the front page of GO magazine (a quarterly magazine of the Northumberland News) and the accompanying article. The article was well thought out and written. Now we have no choice but to live up to that. The magazine is certainly well read in our community. Since then I still get a lot of positive comments.

Before I continue though, I wanted to give the latest update on Pha Yong village. I think the pressure is on for them as they try to finish before all the local Government Officials arrive with us to officially open the school in just four weeks. Remember this is all manual labour. Here are a few pics of the progress.















They still have to parge the entire left side of the building but it is looking pretty good. They have also had a problem matching paint colours. After two visits to Luang Prabang (over 6 hours each way), the supplier still hasn't managed to match up the colours.

It will certainly be wonderful to see our first two projects there completed.


So there you have it in a nutshell. I was going to give special thanks to some of the special people who helped us make this happen but to be frank I am not only likely to miss someone and regret it forever, but there are over 200 special people and organizations that did whatever they could manage ranging from $3 up to thousands. Every single dollar will go a long way and I am getting excited to be able to share with you exactly where your money will be spent.

Still I would like to thank the various Clubs of Rotary including Whitby Rotary, Port Hope Rotary, Northumberland Sunrise Rotary and Oshawa Rotary. There are additional Rotary Clubs also that we have made good contacts with. Thank You to All.

Next, I have to figure out how we are going to take 544 toothbrushes, over 200 tubes of toothpaste, over 200 T-shirts, solar garden lights and a host of other things, in our luggage. Cathay Pacific has been kind enough to sponsor an extra bag but they only fly to Bangkok. I am trying to work with Bangkok Airways to see if they will help for the last leg of the journey but it doesn't look good at this stage because we don't have our official status yet.

One thing about the tooth brushes, I wanted to first of all thank Dr. Roxana Popa for being the first to jump in with her own generous support. Then, the next time I went into Altima for just a teeth cleaning, the entire staff had a donation ready for me when I arrived. It was a heart wrenching moment. In fact there have been a lot of those. One couple saw our presentation at the Capitol Theatre and once they saw a picture of that mud hole, that was it. They personally donated the rest of the money needed to fund a new water source. They did this as an anniversary gift to each other.

I also wanted to thank Dr. Anna Tucka for her personal donation plus the toothbrushes and toothpaste. She would have given me floss too but unless I show the rural villagers how to use it, they are likely to use it to tie branches together or something. I am told that she has even more stuff for us to take. Fortunately Mike, Ted Amsden, Jennifer Hawthorn and Jennifer Mercer are flying Air Canada so guess where my next baggage request will go?

Just five days to go and a 26 hour flight (ugh!) before we can all start fulfilling the dreams of the village people. I will update you as internet access allows.