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.