phoudindaeng

since i last wrote i've spent 4 days building the mudbrick house, one day intertubing down the namsong river, taken one hike up into the mountaintop regions, one afternoon playing frisbee (a guy on the farm is a pro), and one more bike trip to the western valley to hit that cave again.

the mudbrick house is going up fast. when i arrived they were just finishing the walls of the first floor. it had taken them about 5 months to build the foundation and make the thousands of necessary mudbricks. the house itself was only started 3 weeks ago. today we almost finished the walls of the second story, and i actually spent most of my time working on an artistic bit - empty wine bottles lodged in the mud between the bricks in nice patterns. splotches of green light will shine through.

today i quit early today because ward (who runs the school program) needed an extra teacher. so back to the school, all the kids screaming and grabbing to hold my hand. after lessons we busted out a foot ball and my frisbee and played mob-style catch/chase. hugs and handshakes and see-you-tomorrows, which hopefully will be true. i put my name down on the whiteboard under the afternoon teaching section, holding my spot. there are people showing up every day wanting to teach, and ward turns them away.

a german named peter, who runs the mudbrick project, has been here 4 months, and speaks lao very well. i asked questions about politics, and he had lots to say. in his opinion: this is the best government lao has ever had because it generally has left the people alone, skimming a bit off the top for their own corruption, but that's it. now, however, they are cooperating more with the institutions of neoliberal globalization - the imf, world bank, foreign capital, etc - which is making things worse. standard developement-of-underdevelopement force-countries-into-debt funnel-money-out-to-western-contractors maneuvers. works every time. the labor market is largely unregulated, leaving wages at about $50/month (so says sam franey). no minimum wage, no government guarantees of standard of living. the health system is dysfunctional. number one rule at mudbrick house is no getting hurt, as past trips to the local hospital have revealed incompetence and lack of resources. most resources for education and health come from ngos. most police are indeed in plain clothes, and there are lots of them. people aren't necessarily afraid of them, as they are their neighbors and they've coexisted for decades now. people don't care about national politics (perhaps they've been trained with negative reinforcement to not care), but are very dedicated to local politics, for which they are not supressed.

on saturday most of us volunteers took the day to go tubing down the namsong, on which our farm sits. on the 4 km stretch between the farm (where all tubers are dropped off) and vangvieng, there are probably 15 to 20 bars, and more all the time. one was built just in the last 3 days - a rickety bamboo roof, bar, massive speakers and a couple coolers is all they need. most tubers don't make it past the first few bars. they get too drunk to continue (for the record i made it to town). in fact, i am told that there are several drownings each year. pretty straight-forward there, hard to feel bad for people who bite it that way. there are huge rope swings (too high for me - after the arboretum bridge i've lost all taste for long plunges), volleyball courts, shaded decks, huge sound systems pumping out mostly bob marley and techno. the bars have staff with ropes and bamboo poles literally fishing for customers as they float past. mix in little kids helping tubers through the shallows where they get stuck (then demanding money), herd of buffalo trying to swim across and playing chicken with tube traffic, and the absolute scum of the already inevitably scummy tourist crowd, and you have quite a scene. once is enough.

that night we attended a show at the youth center (also supported by the farm). they played a video of a teen soap opera made by local phoudindaeng actors. then a powerpoint presentation (they had projector, screen and laptop) the local environment. then presentation of kid's newspaper, the first issue, covering local issues. then boys playing acoustic, singing and dancing western acoustic emo pop. then girls singing a few songs. then full troop of about 20 kids, most in full ceremonial costume, singing and dancing to traditional music. most of the performers were young teens, most of the audience was younger. it was embarrassing of course, because teenagers are just so awkward, but the lao culture took the edge off at least for this particular farang.

on sunday i forded the river, walked across the farm fields, and up the mountainside. the only established trail served some tiny farm fields nestled into tiny valleys in the saddle of two peaks. some lao were also digging up edible roots on the trail. i tried to push past the trails, but the thickness of the undergrowth bested me. i was covered in sctratches, bruises, bugbites, sweat, dirt, floaty seed puffs, gnats in eyes, hair full of burrs, sharp grass leaves (20 ft high stalks) cutting into my arms and face. i've never been so itchy in my life. also found some decent faces for bouldering, but most of the rocks up there are just far too jagged to play on. extremely sharp, almost no large surfaces, just pitted, spiney, craggy gnarls of blades. all followed by a couple hours of tossing frisbee. these days are very good for me.