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Going out in style: The wet look is IN!

I'll work on some pics soon!!!

I would like to introduce you to Lao New Year. Perhaps you have heard of the Thai Songkran Festival or the Cambodian Khmer New Year, but unless you have brushed up on Lao traditions, you probably haven’t heard of Pi Mai Lao. The New Year is celebrated in a similar fashion in these countries. They all take place in the middle of April and all of them involve watering your neighbors. The water is tossed, poured, sprinkled, or sprayed on those both suspecting and unsuspecting. This is done to bring blessing on to the other person and also to welcome the rainy season.


The parties started two weeks ago. Here is the evolution of a Pi Mai Lao Party: In the beginning of the party it is nice and quiet. Well, other than the loud music… Anyways, the food is served and the teachers are seated at something that resembles the table of honor. Everyone is drinking beer (except us ELICers) and people are having a good old time. Then comes the water followed shortly by the baby powder (or vice versa). After that, some more water and nice words then some dancing to both Lao traditional and pop music.


Today is the first day of the actual New Year. People stand in the street waiting to douse people and ride in backs of trucks with blue water in buckets tossing at walkers and motor-bikers. I made the mistake of leaving my house (ok, it was fun). We rode down to get some soup, and by the time we (Berkeley and I) got a block away we were drenched. We went down to a friend’s house and visited for a while, almost dried off and then his sister came home… and all you can say is thank you. Walked home and became smurfs via dyed water. What a fun experience


Personally I think I would have MORE fun if it were me out there sitting with buckets full of water waiting for my next prey… on that thought I could do that tomorrow. It’s only just begun!

More Engagement Photos

By popular demand... here are more pictures of the ring Berkeley gave me!!!

I AM ENGAGED!!!!!

So Berkeley told me that he was going to take me out on a date Saturday night to a nice restaurant! As I began to get ready for this nice dinner, I realized that we no longer had any water and I hadn't had a shower yet!!! Finally, my roommate Stacy figured out a way to fill some buckets...so I had a wonderful bucket shower.

Berkeley showed up at my door with a bunch of orchids, that were purple and white just like my dress!! Very beautiful! We left the house and traveled...he took a few turns and I was like "where are we going"? I think he just answered with a laugh! We ended up at this beautiful Italian restaurant. Berkeley had reserved a table for us in a wonderful spot on the inside looking out on the lawn. Very romantic. Very delicious.

As dinner came to a close, we both decided that we were too full for desert when Berkeley said that he actually had more planned for the evening. We left the restaurant and he said "so that was the romantic part of the evening and now this is the fun part". At this point, though I had been wondering if he would propose, I was like, "oh, for sure he is not!" He took me to a restaurant here that has a wii!! I have never played before and he had known that! We played a few games and I knocked him out twice when we boxed! We left there because "we needed to leave because he only rented the wii for 1 hour". It was a blast! I was thinking "ok it is over, what a great evening".

It was actually quite chilly so he said that he needed to pull over and put on his coat. Then he was like "hey, you want to walk around Patuxay (the monument in Laos that is like the arc de triumph) with me?" I said yes because I love walking there with him. When Berkeley and I were getting to know each other a little better when we first got here we would walk and run around the monument quite often. Often we would sit around a fountain and just talk. The fountain was where we had our first discussion about liking each other!

As we began to walk, he said "did you know that it has been exactly 6 months since I told you I liked you?" I was thinking "wow, that is amazing, is he going to propose?" I said "really? that is so cool!" We kept walking and I saw something glowing in the spot where we had our DTR way back in September. I was like "wait, what?" He kept talking and we arrived to our spot. There were roses and candles. He handed me the flowers and we sat down together. He said there is one flower there for every week we have known each other (34, which he says is also the amount of weeks he has known he wanted to marry me!!!)

He told me that he loved me and he wanted to seek the Father together (and some other mushy stuff) and he said he wanted to spend the rest of his life with me. He got down on one knee and as he did it he said, "with all these people here watching, Melissa Tucker, will you marry me?" and he opened the ring box. All I could do was say "yes, absolutely, i will marry you!!!!!" And then he put the ring on and I finally checked it out!

Berkeley and I, March 14, 2009!!! Below are the flowers he gave me! What a wonderful night!

For Christmas, I invited some of my students to come and celebrate with me, in the next two posts, here are some of the takers. Right now I am in Thailand. I got the opportunity this morning to see some of my old friends (from my internship in 2002). When I return, I promise to take some pictures of my campus and post them! For now, I will try to keep you updated on things here in Thailand!

Year 4 Class 2 Christmas Party

Year 1 Class 1 Christmas Party

Km 52 Hmong New Year #2

The next Hmong New Year was actually on New Year’s day. It was very nice and very similar. A notable difference would be taking pictures with fake scenery, my outfit was on MUCH tighter, and the rat roulette. The rat roulette was a game where they would make the rats afraid and bet on which hole they would run into. Um, you kinda have to see it to understand it…

Sook Dee Pi My Means Good Luck in the New Year

The ball toss...keep reading!
So far, since being in Lao I have experienced three New Year’s celebrations. One is the international holiday in which we all know of and I should hardly make mention of because it was really nothing too exciting, I just did what I usually do and stayed home and watched television (minus watching the ball drop). The other two were Hmong New Year celebrations in two separate villages. Nothing western about these celebrations.

Hmong people are a minority in this part of the world. They reside in the hills. At one point they were heavily persecuted and fleeing the country.

Early December was the first celebration I attended. I went (with a few others from my team) to a students village (I forget the name) about an hour outside the city. We went to his home and one of his mothers (yeah, his dad has two wives) was making for us what they called Hmong pizza. Hmong pizza is really more like a Hmong pancake: it is sticky rice grinded and then mixed with water and pan-fried. It is quite a gooey, sticky, and delicious snack that you dip in a sugary substance. After a very sap (Lao word for delicious, imagine me saying it beginning with a high tone and falling slightly) lunch that I am sure was full of MSG, our student made announcement, “My mother will dress you and then we will go to the stadium.” Has anyone ever heard that statement before? If so, maybe we can have a little chat sometime.

Anyways, I got to dress in Hmong traditional wear! It was so fun and I think quite beautiful. They only wear their traditional wear for weddings and Hmong New Year. When we were dressed and ready to go, we headed to the stadium. It was fun to see all of the ladies dressed up and some of the men as well. The stadium looked a little like an art fair would in the states, mostly with food booths and a few games.

The greatest thing was the ball toss. The ball toss is also known as flirting. Apparently many young Hmong people find love while tossing the ball with a suitor during new year every year. No, I didn’t find love, but I did do some ball tossing. People were very excited to see us in our Hmong-wear and just couldn’t resist flirting!

My student's family.

Happy New Year!!

My House...

The outside of the house.
The downstairs toilet. See the bucket? There is a water scooper in there and that is how you flush...

The kitchen.

The living room. My dad's tile is way way way prettier.

The dining room.

Looking out from the upstairs balcony. That mud hole has since been filled in.

The balcony.

The upstairs bathroom, or should I say outhouse?

The upstairs balcony.

Galia's Wedding

I recently attended the longest wedding ever! Before I begin to even tell you how long the wedding was, I will tell you how long I waited for it to even begin. I waited for an hour and a half! Apparently most weddings start that late, next time I will know better and try to be something like arriving 45 minutes late.

I have not yet been to a traditional Lao wedding. This wedding was in a fellowship of the Father and the bride was wearing white. Ordinarily, this is not the case. Don’t ask me what a traditional one would look like because I don’t know, all I know is that was not it. Too bad too because I was invited to a wedding today, but could not attend

This wedding was about 2 hours long. After the teaching from the shepherd of the fellowship and the thought time, and the two choirs with two to three songs each, and the lighting of the candle, and the giving of the gifts, and the singing of the songs (all the while the bride and groom didn’t touch or look at each other, but rather just stared at the crowds, standing the whole time) they then had a reception without dancing (what?, no dancing at a Lao party?). Whew, did I miss anything?! That was a run-on sentence (for a run-on wedding). It was actually quite enjoyable (you know, how when it is your first time doing something it always goes a little faster). I am so glad I was able to go!

The people pictured here are some of my friends from Candlelight language school (with CAMA).

Motorbike Ride Into the Country