Opening Ceremony

Last night was the Opening Ceremony of the National Games.  I almost never thought this day would come.  The city is filled with people so Tom and I thought it best to watch the opening from a bar without all the crowds.  We had heard conflicting reports about the start time.  We heard 2 and then 5 then 3 so we really didnt want to sit packed into the stadium all day.   Around 2:30 I am told that a sky dive team was dropped into the stadium.  This was not televised around 4pm Tom and I headed to the bar.  The staff gladly let us in but said that the games werent on tv yet.  So we waited.  At 4:50 the first sign of the games on tv appeared.  5pm came and the ceremony abruptly started with all the teams being led into the stadium by the sign holder and a marching band.  The president entered to a large applause.  After all the teams had been introduced the officials started giving speeches.  Around this time Tom and I decided to go to the Shinta Mani hotel which is situated above the stadium.  Ted a friend of ours teaches English to the staff so had reserved a spot to sit and watch the ceremony.  We left the bar and drove across town.  We could see the hotel when the police told us to turn back, Tom did and I drove on the other side of the police officer who gave no effort to stop me.  Tom drove around for a while found a parking spot and dropped off his bike before walking around the stadium to the hotel.  I continued on and drove up the hotel where I parked my bike and walked past no less than 10 security guards, most with guns, without being asked a thing.  I found Ted who had a great spot perched high above the stadium.  We watched the ceremony with all its pageantry and dances while Tom finished his trek and met us.  The dances included monkeys grooming each other, beautifully dressed women and some villagers fighting each other.  The finally was one of the most impressive fireworks displays I have ever seen.  The fireworks ended and we had dinner after being escorted to a different room.  The balcony we had been on was now being used by the President of Lao and the other dining room was being used by the Beer Lao officials.  Their tags say VIP.  Service was slow considering we were the low group on the totem pole.  After dinner we said our goodbyes and then I drove Tom to his bike.  When we arrived there was an empty lot with no motorbike and no attendant who had given Tom a ticket.  Collectively our hearts sank.  We walked around to some guys drinking beers and they laughed and took us to a makeshift police station across the street where luckily there was Toms bike.  The cops called the number on Toms ticket and then we rode off into the night happy we didnt have to share a bike back.

Now for the good part.

 Tom and I from our perch above the stadium.

 Fireworks.

Elaborate dances.

 Roman Numeral 9 for the 9th Luang Prabang Games.

 Monkey People.

 All the colorful flags.

 The finally.

Tom at the bar before we left to Shinta Mani.  On the screen in the back is the Luang Prabang team entering the stadium.


We are one week away from the end of the games and the end of my time here in Laos.  I am thinking of keeping the blog but changing the link and losing its affiliation with CLI.  But if I stay on with CLI I will keep it going.

One Week Away

This past week has been a roller-coaster of sorts.  First the team started to look pretty good and we were preparing to start easing down on the workouts.  Our group of 6 male sprinters came up from Vientiane and they look like the biggest, strongest, and fastest Lao guys I have ever seen.  They have a swagger which I have only seen in big time college or pro athletes.  This obviously was a high point.  Then the low points started to come.  First off one of my girls got sick and has spent 3 days in bed.  Ok not good.  3 other girls on the team got cut.  Next I met a film maker who made a good movie about a Lao soccer team going to Sweden. He goes out of his way to set up a showing for the team and then at the last moment the team ditches and I look/feel like a complete jerk.  Last off yesterday my only female hurdler lands awkwardly on her ankle and rolls it really bad.  Within 4 minutes its the size of an orange and it only seemed to get worse.  She later gets taken to the hospital to check it out.  With all likelihood she will not be competing in the games at all.  This leaves our already thin team very thin.  Meaning we are using a back up runner for both the 4x100 and 4x400 with no female hurdlers.  I guess I just am not that good of a coach if people are now getting down to race time and everyone is injured.  All the other teams have shown up and the police are out in full force.  Vientiane looks like the only legitimate team.  Somlath told me that Vientiane expects to take 21 of 40 possible gold medals.  They are obviously going to be the team to beat, which is not all that surprising considering they get to run year round and half my team never ran before 3 months ago.  On the other hand Bokeo only brought 3 runners who started working out 12 days ago.  By the end of the workout today the Bokeo coach had his crew doing drills with us.  We should beat teams like Bokeo, the only question is how many teams will there be like Bokeo.

The Police presence is so heavy now that there are cops on almost every large street and many more at the stadium.  They have just installed a metal detector which is almost more sophisticated than what they have at the Luang Prabang Airport.  Luckily Tom and I received our badges so that should help keep us from being stopped every 2 minutes. 

All that being said I am excited and nervous for our team.  We have one week, as the title would suggest, from the opening ceremonies and another week until we leave the country.  It seems crazy that the end is so near.  We finally did our most touristy thing by going out to the Kuang Si waterfall.  It was beautiful and if you make it out to Luang Prabang its a must see.  Hopefully like most roller-coasters there will be a turning up point soon with the most recent events being rather negative.

The 21st Century Here We Come

CLI finally has a facebook page.  If you have facebook be sure to follow the link and like CLI.

CLI's Facebook Page

More Akha Trip Photos

Here are some more photos for your viewing pleasure.

 The fearless crew (Boutan, Kerstin, Bob, Tom, Ling, Yoxa and Me.

 Yes thats right that is a picture of a puppy riding on a pig in the Akha village.

 This is the picture of the only water source/shower in the Akha Village.

 In a city on our way which has a lot of Chinese and more foreign tourists this sign was posted.  It says "When in Laos make your payment kip"  In the background students doing some practice dances with communist flags.

At our lunch spot Tom is sitting under what we hope was a dead beehive.

 Another View of the Akha village huts.

 Yoxa, Kerstin, and Tom sitting around discussing the future projects.

Bountan entering an Akha home.  Each house is surrounded by a fence with a block or stone on either side.  As you enter you are not allowed to step on the actual fence because the bad spirits will travel with you.  There is some thing very similar in other cultures around the world.

Akha!

The Akha village experience was a two day trip that seemed to take weeks.  Starting out early on Tuesday around 6 am a crew including Tom, Bob, Kerstin(a german intern with Tiger Trail), Yoxa(a friend of ours plus the director of development(I think that’s her title) with Tiger Trail), Bounkham(a guide with Tiger Trail), Boutan (an older lao man who works with CLI also one of Laos preeminent writers, who likes translating Hemingway to Lao), Ling (our driver) and me.  We are an interesting bunch setting out with one goal.  That goal was to see an Akha village which few other foreigners see.   The Akha are an ethnic people who originated in china and have worked their way down in to Phongsaly and Oudamxay provinces in Laos and other parts of Vietnam.  

This particular village has no electricity and according to Bob the people don’t like to bathe.  They can be attractive but age quickly with the rough lifestyles they live and wear beautiful bright colors.  This bumpy and dusty trail took us almost 9 hours to get to the Akha roman village.  It was at this village on the side of the highway that we left the van (Ling was not too pleased or secure with the idea of leaving it there) and walked the 40 minutes to the remote Akha village.  We walked along the ridge tops until we got to a gate of bamboo and wood that we enter the Akha village.  As we entered no one greeted us we just let ourselves in until the guide took us to the village headman’s (nayban in lao, sorry spelling lao karaoke is very hard) house.  He was out so we took a stroll around town to get to the old naybans house.  On our way we ran into a sign that listed things built in the village by German donators and the United Nations Office Drug and Crime.  Directly behind the sign was a school which was in disrepair.  The reason for the trip was to see if Tiger Trail and CLI could work together to help supply this village with a school. 

We walk through the town on the way to the old naybans house and it is very basic.  Small paths between houses with pigs, cows, dogs and buffalo sharing the paths.  The village is set into the hillside and as we would find out later has one bathroom and one shower.  We arrive at his house and are warmly greeted and led upstairs where over the next few hours we would talk about the village and eventually eat dinner.  I took a tour around town while it was still light out with the guide Bounkham and Ling.  

Bounkham told me some very interesting and shocking things.  This next section is not for the faint of heart.  If an Akha woman has twins the babies are left out in the sun to die while the parents are exiled from the community for a month while all of their belongings are burned.  They believe that twins are a bad omen.  After a woman gives birth she eats a black dog.  Not sure why exactly but we did see a large number of black dogs and puppies running around and now we know why.  They don’t care about divorce.  Yoxa told me about one man who had three wives, first one died, second one he divorced and is currently married to the third.  His second wife is now on her seventh husband.  When women get married normally around 15 they put their hair up in a bun sort of thing and don’t wash it until the husband dies or she gets divorced.    

The sun went down and we had to find our way back to the house for dinner.  Dinner was served under a light powered by D Batteries.  Its amazing how nice things like indoor plumbing and lighting really are.  You don’t miss them until they are gone.  We found out more information about possibly building the school and Bob seems to think that it is viable as long as the funding is there.  It will be difficult because it is such a remote location but doable. We did our shots of Lao Lao with Yoxa and Kerstin doing their best to fake taking the shots.  It was a homemade brew which really was not very good.  They served us dinner and we ate a raman type noodle dish with some Laap and some vegetable soup.  Good but most of it was a little spicy for me.   

The old nayban seemed to look about 14 but he had already served as nayban for 2 terms.  The current nayban was selected by the village elders and he also look about 14.  The reason he was selected because unlike many other Akha people he had passed the 6^th grade.  Currently the academics in the village there were four grades and two teachers and 75 students.  After the 4^th grade kids had to go to another village and then for high school had to completely move a few hours’ drive from home.   The nice part was that during a good portion of the discussion most of which was in Lao I could understand/follow along.  It felt empowering and rewarding to know just enough to follow basic conversations and across the room tom and I shared looks of satisfaction at our comprehension.  

After dinner and Lao Lao drinking, Tom, Bounkham, Ling and I made our way back to the actual Naybans house where we kept drinking Lao Lao, lipton tea and eating oreos.  Weird I know.  The naybans house was the only one in the village with electricity and they only had a single light in the middle of their upstairs.  Then the drunk father of the Naybans says “OK massage time”.  At first Tom and I are reticent because we don’t know if some young girls will be forced to give us a naughty massage so we respectfully decline but then the girls come in and it turns out just to be a massage.  Not the greatest massage I have ever received actually felt a lot like just full hand pinching but its not like I would turn it down.  Then on to sleep.   

I awoke with everyone around me gone and wandered downstairs to see Ling and Bounkham cutting up what turned out to be deer meat for Laap.  Laap for breakfast is not my favorite meal and considering I don’t normally eat my first meal of the day till 11 this 7 am deer laap mostly raw was not my idea of starting the day off right.  It was good and we did our best to eat some while the Naybans father keep trying to get us to drink Lao Lao with the Laap.  Only thing worse than raw Laap at 7 am is Lao Lao.  Luckily we were able to persuade him we didn’t want any lao lao.   

Breakfast was finished so we walked back to the other house and passed all the kids sitting outside of the school house waiting for school.  I got Bounkham to ask them if I could take a picture and they all ran inside screaming.  The Akha think that if you take their photo it will steal their soul, sadly this means I have very few photos of Akha people.  We made it to the house and then were forced to sit down for another breakfast this time of chopped up chicken.   We bolted before they busted out the Lao Lao bottle and went to take a look at the land they had prepared for the new school grounds.  It was easily large enough with about 4 cows asleep in the middle.  We said our good byes and trekked out.   

We drove back which took about 10 hours because we had to drop off Bountan in Mung Kua which added a few hours the drive.   We arrived in desperate need of some showers and very happy to get out of a bumpy van.  I am sure we will all appreciate the running water and the light switch in the house a little more often.  

Our van at the Akha Roman village.

Our trek along the ridge-line.

The view from the ridge.

Our group almost there.

Our first view of the Akha village from afar.
Below the current school in the village.

 Tom receiving his Akha massage.

 Ling cutting the deer meat for breakfast Laap while Bounkham jokes.

 A view of the village from the bottom field where the new school might go.

I tried to be sneaky taking a photo of the women as we left.

Well it was a busy few days but back in civilization messaging you all around the world.

Creative Heading

Well its been a long time since my last post and for that I appologize.  Things have been going well here in Laos.  The weather has gotten colder.  Practices have been moved from 6:30am to 8am to 8:30am.  Afternoon practice have also been moved up.  This morning we were surprised to see the stadium full of people with music blaring.  The group of students were preparing for the games and the opening ceremony.  We had finished practice before they actually started doing anything but I hear they will be there this afternoon so I will take some photos.  The stadium has been completely repainted and they are now doing work on elaborate metal structures which they will add lights.  The city has changed also.  In the past few weeks the laborers have been going crazy repainting the lane lines in the streets and completing a city beautification project.  Things here are looking very nice for the peak of tourism season starting. 

Last week Tom and I took a quick 3 day excursion to Vientiane which was a nice change of pace.  Its amazing how after being here in LP for just a few weeks all other cities seem giant and so busy.  There was actual traffic and it took more than 15 minutes to get across town.  Crazy.  Next week the CLI staff plus some people from Tiger Trails are going to trek up to Phongsali province up to an Ahka Village.  The reason for this trip is that CLI along with Tiger Trails will be working together to build a school..  The Ahka are an ethnic minority and we will actually have to pick up a guide who speaks Ahka.  They dont speak Lao.  I am excited to see this village where things are still so primitive.  It should be a three day trip.  There will be many photos. 

By all accounts the CLI donor hosting went well and the donors seem excited about CLI and the future.  Hopefully this will lead to CLI being able to expand and keep reaching more and more kids.  It sounds stupid but the work that CLI does has a much bigger impact than most of us realize.  There are other organizations that do similar work to CLI but none put the infrastructure in place by actually employing Lao people to be the librarians.  Sometimes living over here we get caught up in the bureaucratic bull**** that happens on a daily basis.  These are the times when we have to take a step back, look at the work that actually gets done and the effect it is having on these villages. 

Thank you for your support and remember that your donations have changed the lives of every child who picks up a book.  Photos to come soon since I know none of you actually read what I write just look at the pics.  We are working on a facebook page and hopefully revamping the CLI main web site in the next few weeks.  Remember any topics you would like me to write about let me know either by commenting or sending me an email.  David.m.berman02@gmail.com

Wedding season

As many of you realized yesterday was 11/1/11.  Although this alone has no particular meaning it did mean that a lot of people had wedding parties yesterday.  Tom and I were invited to two and attended two.  The first was for the education department ministers son.  Tom and I were the token CLI/Falang representatives.  It was a good time and many of the other CLI staff attended such as Chanta and Somlath.  Next up we had some Lao Lao friend's wedding.  This group was much more our age and there were a surprising amount of foreigners there.  This led to only one coach attending practice this morning...me.  Somlath didnt shows, Tom isnt feeling well and Sompien our other lao coach showed up for the last ten minutes, gave me a hug and told me he was hung over.  Ohh the joys of a 630am practice. 
In CLI related news tourist season is starting.  Over the next few weeks Bob, Tom and I will be at our tour guiding best trying to keep the supporters we have and trying to make some new ones to keep CLI and the Library Boats afloat.  We will be going to Chompet where the girls dorm is finished and up to Nom Kiaw where one of the more picturesque learning centers is.  Wish us luck and when the funders arrive I should have some more photos and actual CLI news. 
Chanta and staff have been working feverishly finishing some puppets for a new puppet show they will put on for activities.  They are papier-mache and each head is about the size of two fists together.  Not a great description sorry.  I will have Chanta throw up some photos on her blog.
http://lpblibraryboat.blogspot.com/


I hope all is well.  To those of you who celebrated halloween, I hope it was a good one.

Update on a Nice Cool Morning

Today I woke up(barely) at 6 am like normal and then quickly passed out.  Tom and I have established a system where if the other one hasnt opened their door by 6:15 the other one knocks. Luckily Tom woke me up and we headed to practice on one of the coldest mornings.  The mist/fog was very thick and yet the team wore less than they do when its 95 and sunny outside.  They really care about keeping their skin white.  Sorry about the lack of posting lately.  The last week has been more of the same 11 practices (we canceled saturday afternoon practice) and a lot of time spent at the library.  We did end up going to a sports banquet at the Vocational school where all the athletes are staying.  There was even a show with our dinner which featured some good local dancers. 

Today Bob arrives and CLI gets back into the full swing of things.  Most recently he was back in the states for the annual CLI board meeting.  Everything I have heard said it went well and it was actually held at my moms house in Arizona.  Made me miss home hearing about the updates.  I should hopefully have more substantial updates about CLI after Bob arrives here in LP later in the day.

For the team I have been talking with Carol who runs an NGO library here in LP.  Carol has helped us get real gym access so hopefully that will be happening this week.  She is also the one who set up the interview of the athletes for her yearly newsletter and the film students are part of a class there.  She is a great lady who has been living in LP for about 8 years now.

Life otherwise has been good the weather is starting to cool down, which is nice.  I should have more updates soon.

Remember to check out the http://lpblibraryboat.blogspot.com/ for more photo updates from Chanta.

Library Boat Blog

Just as a reminder I set up Chanta with a blog so be sure to follow the link and check it out.


http://lpblibraryboat.blogspot.com/

She is not much for the writing aspect but does upload some great pictures!

Library Posters and Pics of the Stadium

In preparation for the National Games all of Luang Prabang is being cleaned up and a whole new athletics complex is being built.  There is no track at this new complex so all of the running event will be held where we practice.  The have repainted it and are now adding plastic chair to the large concrete steps.  We also finally put up some new signs that months ago Chanta had told us we werent allowed to.  I guess she forgot and now we are allowed to put them up.

Now for the photos.

 The new plastic covered chairs being put into the stadium.

 The athletes on their warmup lap happy to be in a photo.

 The freshly painted stadium in a beautiful day in Laos.

 Preworkout stretching.

 The team doing drills.

 Our two new signs that just recently got put up.

 Chanta showing off some of the new cloth and scarves we got from Pakxeing district.  All proceeds go back to the kids.

My homemade weight set which worked great until someone took them!!!!

Practice Update and Restaurant Review

For the last 3 days practice has been moved up to 6:30 and needless to say this isnt my favorite decision ever.  I like to sleep! The running joke with some of my friends is that its the only thing I could legitimately do professionally.  With 6 am wakeup it means bedtime is around 9 which really cuts into what movies tom and I can watch each night. Watching the new Harry Potter would have kept us up way past our bedtime. 

Tuesday we had our quintessential American meals (although neither of which are actually American).  Lunch was a Cheeseburger at the Arthouse Cafe on the Nam Khong.  The Arthouse has in my opinion the best burger in SE Asia. Mind you I havent tried them all just most.  This two story cafe has mostly deck sitting which is elevated over the road around the peninsula.  It is run by Debra.  She is an exmarine drill sergeant and you can tell if her staff get out of line.  She has been in Luang Prabang for over a decade and is always open for some friendly conversation.  She helps make Arthouse a regular spot for some of expat community.  Plus the food is really good.  Dinner was a take out pizza from Swedish bakery.  Swedish bakery is on the main drag in the center of all the restaurants.  This little two story building holds some of the best pizza, sandwiches and baked goods in the city.  Swedish is a chain with other locations in Vientiane.  The staff are very friendly and have gotten to know tom and I over the past year.  Sometimes we are there twice a day we truly lack creativity.  The pizza are thin crust but not flaky more doughy if that makes any sense at all.  The sandwiches are made on home baked bread and the one I like has Salami the only place I have found it.  Their super sandwich, my personal favorite, is make your own on a foot-long baguette.  I choose to put salami, lettuce, tomato, cucumber, with mayo and mustard.  Hits the spot every time.   These are just two of our favorite spots in Luang Prabang and I have decided to keep giving some restaurant reviews in up coming weeks as story of practice become eerily similar.

We had some new people come to practice yesterday.  Both were 14yr old girls who spoke the best english of anyone on the team.  As we got to talking their line of questioning went like this. 1. Where are you from? 2. Whats your name?  3. Are you married?  I dont know why but I am still shocked that 3 questions in every Lao person asks the same thing.  Then I find out they think I am 14yrs old too so thats a complement right.  Both girls are 4'10 and maybe 70 pounds suprising they would think we are the same age.  Just another day with the Luang Prabang National Track and Field team.  Sounds pretty awesome right?

First Week of Practices

We finished our first week of two a day practices with a completely unrelated pork dinner. The pig had been living behind Chantas house since I arrived.  Finally yesterday it was taken to the butcher.  I was glad I didnt have anything to do with killing this animal.  Brad and Yoxa joined Tom and I at Chantas house to have the feast.  After multiple plates of pork came out I asked jokingly where all the good parts went because most of what we got to eat was very fatty.  Then Chanta comes out with a bowl of the "good stuff" and it was spectacular.  Just wow. The fatty parts were good but the pieces she brought out after were amazing.  One of the best meal I have had in Laos.

The week of practices went well.  We had one day where it rained during practice.  My team changed sizes every day but the last day was the largest.  I thought we needed some free weights so I bought some PVC pipe and then got some cans.  I cut the PVC pipe and put it connecting the cans.  I then filled it with concrete. Needless to say I was very pleased that it worked out.  They have been used at both practices almost every day since.  The weights have added a new dynamic to practice which I hope will pay big dividends at the end of the season. 

Starting on Thursday Tom and I started helping the team with their English.  Some of these kids arent going to school so they can live in LP and train everyday.  The level vary greatly but it was good to have them help me with my Lao also.  My daily schedule is wake up at 6:30 then get to practice around 7.  Around 9 I head home or out for some food.  If I head home I check my email then around 11 head to the library check in with Chanta then get some lunch.  At 1pm I head over and teach Chantas sister in law english for an hour.  When 2:30 comes around I head to the stadium to teach the students then we have practices starting around 3:30 till 6 at the latest come home relax read some and then head out for dinner.  For me this is exhausting considering I am someone who loves their sleep and since it has started to get cool at nights it has made sleeping much easier.

Just finished a book called Scorecasting.  It is basically Freakonomics about sports and it was really good.  I suggest you check it out if you have any interest in sports.  One of the best chapters is about the Chicago Cubs.  You will probably not watch sports the same again after reading this book.

As always be sure to comment with questions or musings of your own.

Toms Arrival

Today was/is an interesting day made no easier by the fact that I was out a little to late last night with some of the lao college friends. Tom arrived as the heading would suggest and it was nice to see that friendly face and shoot the breeze.  I was in desperate need of some food so we decided to venture out.  The problem was that Toms bike was a complete mess.  First both tires were flat then it turns out that there was something wrong with the starter and none of his gauges worked.  I left him to deal with that while I got food expecting him to join me shortly.  This would not be the case after I finished lunch around 2:30..it was a very late lunch.  I was driving back and saw a man yell at me as I drove past.  It was Tom who was walking and enlightened me to the problems with his bike and that he was walking to meet me.  Luckily we ran into each other and I gave him a ride back home.  None of his keys actually opened the house so he was stuck with nothing else to do but find me.  We got the key situation fixed and then were talking with Chantas sister when they decided we were going to have duck tonight

Preface the next part is not for the feint of heart.We changed our previous dinner plans then sat outside holding two ducks by their wings.  While one person held the ducks another person, luckily tom and I were neither of the people, would cut open its neck and bleed it out.  The blood went into a bowl for some duck blood soup to be cooked later.  The duck at this point was not dead so they put it into a bucket full of water.  At this point I was disgusted with  their terrible treatment of this duck who after a minute popped out of the closed water bucket only to be shoved back in.  Later after it was finally dead they dipped it in boiling water and then plucked out all of the feathers.  Sorry about the graphic nature but I am just telling you what I saw.  Later tonight we will be having those ducks for dinner.

After seeing the ducks start to get plucked we headed out to meet a friend whose birthday it was.  We sat around on the floor in his dorm room and talked.  Tom and I decided to head out when it turned into karaoke night. 

Tomorrow is our first day of real two a day practices and we get into the swing of things bright and early at 7:30.

Titles are getting to be difficult

The last few days the team has started to get into the rhythm of my unique, I assume, coaching style.  I am realizing that I have probably broken every single cultural rule at some point.  I am sure many times I have touched athletes, stretching them, when social norms say I shouldnt have.  I cant tell you how many times I have been stretching and showing people the bottom of my feet...very bad so I am told.  Part of me thinks that my athletes are just too nice to say anything to me and another part of me thinks that inside they are just bubbling up waiting to explode because I have broken so many norms.  I hope its the prior rather than the latter.  I found out that a good portion of my team will actually be spending most of the season in Vientiane with a different coach and only show up a week before the meet and compete for us.  This just shows how important winning medals for the province is.  Somlath is literally buying athletes who he thinks will win from other provinces.  I hope it works out for him and the province but inside I really hope my athletes kick the imports a**!  Sorry but its true that would really help validate what we are doing.  Somlath yesterday asked me to write up my workout schedule for the entire three months.  Luckily I had one written up already from the high school games so I just copied and changed the dates.  Just a few hours after I give it too him he drops it off at the government and receives all the back pay for the athletes.  Sometimes is the little things that the government wants.  What the government will do with my 3 month schedule I may never know but they better not hold me too it because a schedule must be flexible due to multiple factors such as athlete health and weather.

Most of my other time is spent bugging Brad and Yoxa.  They have been super nice allowing me to annoy them for all sorts of meals and free time.   Its always nice to have those friends to help you readjust or adjust to an area.  Through them I have met all these people who are also living in Luang Prabang.  There is a funny small network of expats here and they all seem to be very friendly.  All of these things make it seem so much easier to see myself here long time.  Who knows what life will bring.

I hope you all are doing well and remember if you every want to have a post on a certain topic write it in the comments.

Musings

Just a few thoughts:

We all have/have had jobs.  There are times at those jobs that you love doing what you are doing and then there are other hopefully much more rarely that you hate your job.  Hate is a strong word.  Today I had those emotions both the high and the low. The low is really not that low.  We had a test today where a few athletes ran some races which decided who would make the team.  There were many athletes and government officials who showed up.  One of the athletes that Tom and I had been training since January was there and he ran a great race and won.  Every lap he would glance at me and I would give him some pacing advice mostly it was to stay calm and slow down.  He was racing the 10k which is 24 laps on the track and some of his competitors ran their first lap so hard they didnt even finish the first mile of the race.  Tia ran smart and very consistent until a great last lap and won by about 7 minutes his only real competition dropped out due to a foot injury.  This was a high I got to coach and athletes were looking to me for advice.  The low came shortly there after when I was asking Somlath for some information about the team and he told me nothing.  Either he didnt understand my question or just didnt want to answer.  He had a long discussion with the other coaches about the team and scheduling but I was left out.  This of course is by my own doing because I am not fluent in Lao.  The thing that makes it more tough is that without Tom here yet I have no one to converse with.  I am too low on the government hierarchy to garner much of Somlath attention which is the way it should be because they control the team.  There are just parts of running a team in the states that I would be more involved and know much more of going on.  I am sure it wasnt his intention of ignore but that is just the truth of the matter because I am foreigner, young and I dont speak Lao.  An older gentleman called me out on it today.  He said in perfect english "why dont you speak Lao".  My response was that its F@%#$%#%# HARD!!! Minus the expletive of course.  This got me thinking that I had failed them in some reason and only helped them think that I was incompetent to do my job.  This will make gaining the athletes confidence and respect that much more important.  The ones who know me know what I can help them do but for the new ones the barriers will be much harder to break.  When I said above that I hated parts of my jobs its more that I hate myself for not being able to interact and communicate the way that a coach should and I would like to.

In other news the rain goes on for spurts every day which sometimes causes the river in front of my house to raise about 4 feet yet a few hours later it might be completely gone.  Chanta's brother got a pig which is tied up behind his house for a party later this week.  The party is in honor of Somkits husband returning for a vacation from his work in Korea.  Somkit as you may remember is the owner of my house.  The house is now almost completely finished they added a shed in the back to house the motorbikes which is a great improvement on bringing them in the house. Tom will arrive on Sunday to great fan fare because everyone has asked me when he is arriving.  Most people like the new haircut (Chanta says that now instead of looking like a thief with the long hair I look like a teenager, Thanks?)and everyone thinks I look fat.  Maybe its some joke that I just dont get.

Here for some pictures. I get to meet the whole team this afternoon.

The addition to the back of the house.

 A stupid truck came down to turn around and got stuck for almost an hour.

 LingLing holding her younger sister Namoun (round face).

 Another rainy day in Luang Prabang.

During the rainstorm a view from my porch.

 

The river after it drained.

 

The new haircut.  I dont think look that fat.

I have enabled comments sorry for the confusion before with no commenting.  

If you have a certain topic you would like me to write about please let me know and I will do my best to write a good one.

First Few Days Back

The rain has been sporadic but torrential.  It was so strong last night that the street were pool and I almost had to swim home from a dinner with friends.  The lightning was like something I had never seen before it lit up the sky and then the thunder came and at times felt like it rocked the house.  Just hours prior I was at the stadium sweating with out doing much and then the skies opened up. 

These last few days I have spent a lot of time with Brad and Yoxa my friends from boulder and their ever expanding social network of expats.  We went to a gallery exhibition and saw some amazing handmade wooden houses made by Ken a retiree from Flagstaff Az.  They were spectacular and completely made from wood around Luang Prabang.  At the show we met some people like Andy the ex east coaster who is living in LP teaching yoga.  He made dinner last night which was great and attended by the list above.  I started coaching a few days ago and had a meeting with the Sports Committee and Somlath discussing visas and scheduling.  We started some practicing two days ago and only had 2 people show up yesterday (saturday).  Supposedly we start training camp on Monday so thats when the real fun begins.  I havent met the whole team yet but with Somlath on board it will make communication much easier because sadly my Lao has slipped.  The problem is that it wasnt very good in the first place.  Because of the rain we have had rolling black outs which is always nice.  Luckily they havent been lasting much longer than a few minutes at a time.

I have been readjusting to life over here and waking up at 7 am each morning which means I have a lot of the day ahead of me.  I hope you all are well and don't be afraid to shoot me an email if you would like a certain topic for a post or to just talk.

I have Arrived

After nearly 21 hours of flight time and a few more hours of airport waiting I finally arrived back in Luang Prabang.  My expectation on arrival was to have a six month visa along with Somlath waiting for me.  As it turns out neither was true..only cause Somlath was a little late.  I waited in line for a visa then asked if the government official had a longer term visa for me.  He laughed and told me they dont do that and that I must get a 30 day tourist visa.  I tried discussing this to no avail.  As it turns out 6 month visas sponsored by the government no longer exist.  The visa that I will be on is a tourist visa for one month and each renewal will be paid for by the government.  Makes sense right???  Anyways that is the case and Somlath explained that to me as though he had known for this long while when I know that is most definitely not the case.  I got back to the house and started to settle in before visiting the library and retrieving my new phone.  My old one had expired which I didnt know phones could do.  I saw some people who all seemed happy to see me but that could be their perpetually sunny disposition rather than actual excitement at my arrival.  Anyways its nice to be back with the really hot and humid weather tempered only slightly by the afternoon showers.  I will be going to the stadium today in hopes of meeting some athletes and meeting the sports committee tomorrow morning.

I have just hit that point called the wall where I could crash at any moment.  The only problem being that its 2 o'clock and if I nap now I know that I will not be able to sleep at all tonight.

I hope you are all doing well and if your in the neighborhood be sure to stop by.

Laos Again

Its that time again.  I am sitting here pondering life and Laos in LAX awaiting my 18 hour flight to Bangkok.  I had a great time in the states and got to see a ton of the country.  I also got my fill of golf working down my handicap around 6 strokes over this summer alone.  For those of you who dont golf it means that I went from terrible to mediocre.  I got to catch up on HBO and baseball.  I got to see friends I hadnt seen in years and some I hadnt seen in only months.  I got to catch up on all the burgers I hadnt been eating and dark beers I hadnt been drinking.  I got to drive a car.  I got to drink water from the tap.  I spent a long time on planes.  I got to use my cell phone and call more that 4 people.  I got to watch football.  Sometimes in life its the little things that really mean alot.  Not great stories but just being able to get back to the normal life.  Tom and I have discussed this alot in our hours spent together in Laos.  He brought up a great point which I am sure I have written before. There is such an emphasis today, atleast where we have lived, to push yourself out of your comfort zone.  What is wrong with being comfortable?  Obviously there is nothing wrong with comfort but the push today is to keep going somewhere exotic.  I feel like I have lived and am returning to an exotic local and you know what.......sometimes I just want to drink tap water!

So much for tap water.  I do like it in Laos and I am feeling much more prepared for this step in my life.  But the question is always looming after the national games in December...Whats Next?

I will try to keep the updates coming.  Next updates will be coming from across the pond.

Minneapolis to the District

The trip thus far has spanned 11 days and 13 states with one district thrown in for good measure.  At last update we had just arrived in Minneapolis at Toms house.  The day after arriving we got to go to a twins game at the beautiful new target field.  We had great seats thanks to Toms mom and we made sure to get there early enough to get a tour of this new facility.  Peter and I kept a score card but the twins got their butts kicked.  We followed that up with some beers in downtown before heading to an Irish pub to meet one of toms friend and play some trivia.  Emma was very excited to have Tom back in town.  Trivia was really difficult.  The next morning we took our journey via light rail to the "MALL OF AMERICA".  We went begrudgingly because I still did not have glasses.  I got some new ones aLand we made sure to get out of there quick.  It was surprisingly packed for a monday morning and it seemed like there were atleast 2 of every store.  Later we meet up with toms friend and biked to uptown to get some dinner.  My buddy Mike who I havent seen in 5 years stopped by and it was good to reconnect.  We biked home but Tom got a flat so Lauren waited and rode the bus with him.  The big development was that Tom decided he would join us on the next section of the trip and then fly back to Minneapolis on the 16th so Lauren had someone to drive with. Tuesday morning we headed off bright and early to Chicago.  We made our way through Wisconsin making a quick lunch stop in Madison and then dealing with our first toll roads which would end up eating a lot of money on this trip.  Getting close to chicago was crazy.  The amount of people on the Miracle Mile where we stayed seemed to equal that of everywhere else we had been combined.  I was very happy I didnt drive that section.  Tom met up with an old friend while Peter Lauren and I walked around before taking a cab to the MapRoom which is a really cool little beer bar.  Tom and his friend eventually met up with us and then we headed off for some sushi.  After sushi we jumped in a cab and headed back downtown to the Hancock tower which is one of the tallest in the US.  On the ride I got to talking with the cabbie.  Abdi was a nice guy whose family lives in Nairobi but he is from Somalia and his dream is to Motorbike from Cape town to Cairo.  Pretty cool idea.  We took the elevator up to the bar and the view was amazing.  After the bar shut down Peter decided to plank a series of different structures on the way back to the hotel.  The next morning we got up and headed out for Youngstown Ohio.  We collected our beers in different states then drove through all of Indiana and Ohio.  Midway I though that I had lost my wallet and freaked out...not my best moment. Lauren saved the day and the trip and my sanity by finding it crammed between some seats.  We arrived in Youngstown after almost everything was closed so got our Ohio beer at Chili's.  All of our eyes were bigger than our stomachs but around 10:30 pm that can happen.  The next morning we woke up and said our goodbyes.  Tom and Lauren were off on their 9:30 hour journey to Stores Connecticut and Peter and I were headed to Washington DC.  Friday we will all meet again for our weekend in the Big Apple.  We made our first stop for lunch in Pittsburgh were I got to meet up with another friend I hadnt seen in 5 years.  Again it was great to catch up after such a long time.  Peter and I actually got our beers comped at the lunch spot because the manager liked his car and the story of our road trip.  We found our tattoos then headed to Maryland where we got an early dinner and were stuck in the worst traffic of the trip.  Who would have thought that Fredrick Maryland would be a stand still on a Thursday at 4:30. We stopped for our Maryland beer and an early bite to eat before our last little stretch to Peters new life.  We made our way around the belt way and finally pulled up to his house in the District.  His house is situated about a mile from the football stadium, down the street from a high school and right next to a homeless shelter.  The house is pretty nice but his room is miniscule.  Basically it is less wide than the MJ wingspan poster by a few feet.  We unpacked the car and started to get settled before buying our bus tickets for tomorrows trip to NYC for the weekend. And now for the part you only look at anyways.

 Our seats at target field.

 Sitting on the dugout at target field...before we got sent back to our section.

 Drinking after the baseball game at a rooftop bar in downtown Minneapolis.

 Tom and his mom.

 Outside Toms house leaving Minneapolis.

 Chicago along the water front.

 At the MapRoom with our Illinois beers.

 Cheersing in Munster Indiana at 3 Floyds.

 Our first goodbye the real one comes later.

Our Maryland beer and as you will notice in most of the cheers photos on my hand ever appears.

Peters house, much nice than the photo would lead you to believe.

Tomorrow NYC for the weekend then back to DC then home!