I cannot believe how fast the time flies. I am two blog entries behind and only 9 days to go before I head back to Canada. I feel very sad at times knowing that I have to go home and leave so many wonderful people behind and with projects that are in various stages of completion.

A few weeks ago I ran into a lady at the Bangkok Airport while waiting for my flight back to Luang Prabang, as we were watching CNN to catch up on news that we had missed. We started a conversation and have become very good friends.

Xenia is an amazing lady who's heart is similar to mine and wants to do everything she can. I took her to some villages along with her best friend who is 82 and I am quite sure they had an experience of their lives. I knew it would be difficult to climb up the banks of the Nam Ou to get into the villages but they were really good about it.

I had to hold Xenia back at times from commitment and sponsorship towards various projects until she hade a chance to see everything I wanted to show her. Quite frankly I wish there was someone here that would do that for me! I am going broke a lot faster than I would have imagined but it is difficult when there is so much need.

Xenia became quite taken by a young fellow finishing his last year of high school. I had been sponsoring Oudom but was quite thrilled that Xenia wanted to take over the sponsorship. I have been already sponsoring two other university students and it was becoming difficult to manage a third sponsorship. So Oudom is now covered until the end of May or June when he graduates from High School. It will be up to him to present a formal request for sponsorship for university, to Xenia. I wish him luck for sure.

Here are a few highlites.

Above: Xenia and I enjoying a slowboat trip up the Nam Ou towards Hat Kham Village

Left: Candy does wonders when it comes to kids doesn't it?

Right: While painted artwork is not common among the villagers, this one was particulary interesting. You can see that they take pride in their few possessions.

Above: Unfortunately the lighting is not very good, but Xenia and Oudom, the student enjoy a photoshoot together after a bacci celebration. Note the white strings on their wrists.

Left: from the left, Myself, Oudom's father, Xenia, Oudoms grandmother, Oudoms mother and Xenia's friend Pam.

Right: A Distillery for Lao Lao. Every village has them!

Huephen Village Water Source Update

I recently visited Small Huephen Village to see how our project was coming along, in order to supply water to the 35 families. Due to the lack of water there, the village has dropped in size over recent months from 42 families.

After hiking for about an hour, I checked out the dam they were building. During the dry season, this river becomes more of a stream, but with this new addition, water can build up overnight to supply enough water to the village during the day. We also followed the various stages of the trenching in order to place the new water pipe. I am told that the water project whould be complete before I return to Canada but in my view it isn't likely. They still have to build a water tank in the village and 5 tap heads.

Here are a few pictures.

Dam: Somnuek showing off the handiwork of the villagers.

Right: Construction Site of the dam.

Local Villager posing for the picture in front of the trench. The trench, when completed will be over 3km long. It was about half completed when I saw it.

It is dry season everwhere in Laos and water is at a premium. Even at my house here in Laos, the owners installed a new water tank and a pump to ensure that I have a steady source of water. I had heard from my neighbor that the water pressure is not strong enough to make it up to the second floor.

Many of the student dormatories have dried up. The only option is to bathe in the Nam Khan (river) which is degrading for many plus the water is certainly not clean. For drinking water and cooking though, water is trucked in and delivered at a cost of 4000 (50 cents) kip per bottle, the size of a water cooler bottle back at home. The students I sponsor go through 3 or 4 of these a week. This is an amazing price at home, nevertheless it is difficult for many students to manage the $2 per week.

Visit from Associated Press

I was contacted by Jacquelyn Martin, a photojournalist from Associated Press through email. She had read my blog and wanted to visit Laos for her vacation. I was thrilled. We managed to spend a couple of days together and I know she got some great pictures as we travelled through some of the mountain villages. We were accompanied by the Director of Tourism and Madame Bountom, Director of Public Schools in the District.

I can hardly believe it but this is the only picture of Jacquelyn that I have. I had given my camera to Khamdee, my translator to take some pictures while I was working, but this is all I have. Jacquelyn, please accept my apologies! If you happen to have any pictures that you would like to send my way, I would be very happy to accept!!!

Jacqueline has also kindly offered to send me a print or two for a silent auction that I am planning this summer, in hopes of raising money for some worthy projects here in Laos

The homestay in Ban Phon was pretty amazing. After dinner and a bottle of Lao Lao, Jacquelyn retired for the evening and I thought I was too as I made my way to my homestay location. That wasn't to be though. There were about 8-10 people who followed me up and another bottle of Lao Lao, plus stories and laughter.

Here are a couple of pictures.

I should mention that while the men tend to sit in the foreground, the women are perfectly welcome to join in but they tend to stay in the background as shown below.

Khamdee was my translator for this leg of the journey. He is also a university student but goes to school at 4pm, then starts an overnight shift at a hotel to help for his studies.

I have just over 4 weeks to go before I leave for Canada.....and things are moving quite quickly. I can't believe I have been here since the middle of November! Anyway, I now have Government approval for all of the remaing projects and am working very quickly to make sure that all of the projects are well underway before I leave. These include Done Lom School which will begin construction on March 14th, the hygienic toilet project for Pha Yong Village which started last week, the toilet project for Had Chanh Village school where construction will start immediately following the Pha Yong toilet project, and there are a couple of other smaller projects already underway.

The Hill Tribes with Governor Bounsom

Last week was pretty exciting for me. With Huephan Village Water Source construction well under way, I was free to return to the Muang Ngoi District to continue my efforts up there. Once I reached Nong Khiaw, I managed to purchase and transport about 1700 metres of barbed wire fencing to Pha Yong Village. This was to be able to clean up the school yard from grazing water buffalo, pigs and chickens. While there I met with the Mong and Khmu chiefs to discuss plans for the hygienic toilets for the village. We walked through every potential site and fortunately they have lots of land for sceptic fields. I will just be building one bank of toilets this year and see how the villagers maintain it before committing to and adding 10 more banks of toilets throughout the village.

I did the same with Had Chanh Village and while there, took a closer look at their school to see what needed improvements. I finally revisited Done Lom Village to give them an update and see the progress of the land they were to have prepared for the school. I was pleasantly surprised to see the land was ready to begin building. The problem was that I was not! I was still waiting for the final approval stamps which I had been told just needed the chiefs stamp. Deciding to take matters into my own hands, I returned to Nong Khiaw, met with the various Government departments and managed to get approvals for Done Lome before I returned to Luang Prabang.

It was Valentines day and Madame Bountom (the governors wife who is head of the primary school education department) was in Luang Prabang, so the governor had invited me, along with some of his deputies and friends to join him for dinner, followed by a game of Patong. The more drinks I had, the worse I got at Patong and I was the Governor's partner in the game. Okay so I really sucked at it BUT once I stopped drinking and sobered up a bit, I actually did much better.

I also spent a day visiting Khew Khan Village and Huena. These are two villages that had requested schools but none had actually provided a proposal. Still, I knew I wouldn't be back there before I left for Canada so figured I would take a look. Tell me what you think. Do you think they need a new school?

Kew Khan - This one room school is in relatively good shape on the outside. They have asked for a 3 room school with toilets.

Left: Huena Village School - my translator took the picture and I should have had it taken from a different angle. During the rainy season, you can see why there would be no classes held. It would be pretty hard to stay dry with the driving rains and wind. They have asked for a three room school with washrooms and a kindergarten.

I should note here that these two schools are the best you will see.

The following day I headed up with the Governor, his wife, a deputy, a school teacher and my translator to the mountain tribes of Ngoi. Wow, what an experience. I can't say that I have ever been closer to a governor in my life....physcially. There we were four of us squeezed together in the back seat of a pick up truck. the back of it was filled with vegetable and food offerings to the poorer tribes and family of the Governor. We visited 6 villages in one day, namely Phon Kham, Phon Savanh, Ban Phon (The governors home village), Heu Kheun, Lao Souh and Pho Vieng.

Here are some highlites of the trip.

Left: Do you think these guys would stay away from joining us for lunch? No way, despite many attempts at shewing them off.

Right: Main Street in Ban Phon, the Governors home village.

Above: Ban Phon Primary School. There will be at least two more villages moving to Ban Phon, one of them due to the fact that their village will be 35 metres underwater when the Nam Ou, 7 Tier dam gets built. They have asked for a primary school and secondary school.

Upper Left: Amazing scenery in between the mountain villages

Upper Right: Village folk in Ban Phon.

Upper Left: From Left - Deputy Governor, Village Chief (in front), our driver, Governor Bounsom, a teacher from Lao Sou and Director of Primary Schools for Ngoi District Madame Bountom.

Upper Right: An inside look at Ban Phon school

Upper: village kids and some amazing mountain scenery.










Phou Vien Village School - they are asking for 2 more rooms - what they need of course is a 3 room concrete block school.

Upper Left: Phou Vien School with a scenic view

Upper Right: A Cloud of dust followed us wherever we went.

Above: Lao Sou Public School. As you can see,it is falling apart. Note the black goat!

Another view of Lao Sou School.

The visit to the last village was pretty amazing. It was a Mong Village and once they found out that we were there to discuss the provision of a new school, to say that they were pretty happy would be a gross undertatement. We did not have the time to stay for Bacci, but they delivered a live goat to the back of the truck. I definitely should not have looked into its eyes, knowing that we were going to be eating it!

So much for the black goat!!! Why did I have to look into its eyes!

I felt pretty guilty the next morning.....barbecued goat is absolutely mouthwatering, but I kept seeing the big black eyes. I was with many of the Governor's closest aids and friends, a couple of whom spoke English which was a real treat. Mind you the Governor himself is getting pretty good at English too.

After a full meal of the best barbequed (black) goat I ever tasted.

The Governor and myself are at the back - the rest are deputies, close aids and friends.

A last memory of the trip.

Rotarians from Whitby Sunrise Club

I can't believe how fast the time has flown by, with only 6 weeks to go before I head back to Canada. What is worse is that I haven't updated this blog in over a month!

It was only 3 days after Sammy and Kate left, when 7 Rotarian friends from the Whitby Sunrise Club came for a visit. Their adventure started right in the airport. Poor Mark and Leslie! There they were, sitting in the Immigration office looking quite forlorn and trying to use Canadian logic to talk their way out of a $200 fine each for not checking the expiry date on their passport before they left. With some luck I had brought the hotel manager to greet them and with his influence we were able to knock the fine down to a total of $300. Perhaps a minor consolation but better than nothing for sure.

Left to Right: Rotarians (and spouses) Buncha Putchana (president of Bangkok Rotary), me, Leslie Burton, Mark Chipman, Craig Howie, George Punyaprateep, Deborah Murray and husband Robert Ellis.

The picture on the right is Le Belair Hotel Manager Somnuek Bounsa who negotiated a discount for Leslie and Mark.

They were only here 3 full days and I knew that Rotarian George Punyaprateep had taken them on a grueling adventure in Thailand, so I didn't want to overload them with too much.

The first day, I took them to a couple of villages, the main one I wanted to show them was Ban Huephan, where the villagers have been forced to trek kilometres to get water. Fortunately, I had received all necessary approvals the week before to be able to officially announce this and the start of construction to run a new water source to the village from a river located about an hour's trek away. The villagers were waiting for us of course, including the Ou District Governor, with open arms and our Rotarian Guests had their first Bacci experience. For those of you who have not read in my earliest blogs about Bacci, it is quite an extraordinary experience and quite humbling I might add. We are generally treated like their Buddah with prayers to us, lots of chanting, and lots of ritual involving string tied around our wrists as they pray to us. I have really shortened this but if you would like to understand more, please take a look at my earliest blog entries.

Here are a few highlights;

(left) The fellow in the centre is the Governor of Ou District. The district is located North of Luang Prabang.

During Bacci, the Rotarians were watching me very closely to see what I would dare to eat, since the hygienic conditions were non existent.....yet. I can certainly tell you that they ate very lightly and some were quite good at hiding the food handed to them so they didn't have to eat it. We have plans to distribute a water filter system to every family in the village and to teach them about hygiene, but more about that later.

Here are some highlights from Day 2 of their visit and it features the new village of Nong Buekhon whereby 300 families are being moved here from several villages around. The Government has found a sponsor for building two water tanks that have been installed already, and various Taps throughout the new community. They are still seeking sponsors to finish a primary school, secondary school, hygienic toilets and the completion of a road system throughout the village. This is a huge project. With equal personal donations from all of the visiting Whitby Rotarians, we managed to purchase and distribute 200 blankets and mosquito nets to the village, to add to the 180 blankets and mosquito nets I donated along with the owner of Le Belair Hotel a couple of weeks earlier. They are still in need of more so that each family has a blanket and net. I might add that I received a couple of phone calls the following day saying that we were seen on the local TV station.











The fellow on the right is the Governor of Luang Prabang District.





















Below is the District Governor and staff with
the blankets and mosquito nets























The final day was open for everyone to see and feel the heritage city itself. Some went golfing, others went bicycling and we all met up for dinner together that night. I am pretty sure that Laos left some lasting impressions, and they have vowed to help me further our cause here.