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

That Luang Festival

This week was a holiday of sorts in Laos. The That Luang festival here in Vientiane. That Luang is a Buddhist temple, or stupa which is a place where someone important is buried. It is rumored that somewhere in the big stupa is a part of the Buddha. It could be considered the Mecca for Lao Buddhists. This time of the year many people from all over Laos come to Vientiane for a big festival where apparently, they buy things, get blessings from the monks, and walk around the stupa three times.

This week the traffic was crazy!!! I will never forget thinking “wow, this is not Vientiane” I felt a little like Dorothy. Ordinarily Vientiane is not such a crowded city. My first experience at the festival was at a concert that one of my friend’s friends was singing in. Stacy (my roommate) and I were waiting for the rest of our group and actually got followed by a student at the university I am teaching at, who proceeded to hit on us. That was… interesting. The concert was great.

The next day I went with a friend to the temple. My friend is not a Buddhist. She told me all about how many Lao people do this every year to gain merit. We had fun going there, she made about 5 u-turns before she finally parked my motorbike. Then when we walked a little further she changed her mind and decided that she would move the bike and park somewhere else. Also on the way, we were headed there with some of her friends, which I was hoping to get to know, but we lost them in the traffic. It was really fun to spend some time with her and meet some of her other friends that we saw there. They all had to do an interview with a foreigner as an assignment, so I helped some of them introduce themselves, in general, Lao people are so shy!! It was so interesting getting to experience a little Lao Buddhist culture. When we were in the festival, it was seriously crowded at times I just stood there, because I have nowhere to go. My friend and I ate, and she changed her mind about a couple more things, I changed into my Lao skirt from pants out in public and then back into pants (which by the way is acceptable here) and we had a great time. I was so glad I could spend this time with her!

Motorbikes, parties, rain, and the weird things we do in Laos

Yay, this week I got my motorbike. Aside from my horrible reaction time and the subsequential running into of the giant post in front of my students, it has been pretty fun. Yes, I alredy ran my bike into something. It is not easy driving here. It took me 20 mins to get my bike started that morning and then on the way, I got mud splashed all over me. By the time I arrived to school I was a half an hour late for class AND BONUS I was crying my eyes out! So I missed class. I thought only one of my students saw, however, today I got a call from a concerned student asking about my accident. Sweet, and yet, embarrassing!

Last night we had a party for my roommate Kat. It just so happened to be on Halloween, so we got dressed up into costumes! That was fun. But the best part of the night was when one of Kat's co-teachers was watching Kat do DDR (dance dance revolution, courtesy of Doug and Mirinda Cole). She was laughing so hysterically that she had the rest of us pretty much rolling on the floor.

Meanwhile another one of Kat's friends was stuck in the mud outside our house. The rain just will not stop here. I suppose I should count my blessings though, because I heard in Hanoi they are flooded up to the top of their motorbikes. I've not yet said anything about my street. Doug and Mirinda have said that it is the worst street in Laos. Read: the worst street in the world.

So, all day today it rained, hence, I didnt leave my house. Hence, the flooding will probably be too bad tomorrow to leave the house again. No worries though, Brad and Berkeley walked over from down the street where they live and we (Kat, Berk, Stacy, Brad, and I) had a rain party. First, Berk walked over and their "little brother" as they call him followed him very stealthlike, so we hung out with him for a few hours. His name is Guidong and he is a pretty amazing little kid. He is very curious and into everything! I was doing my Lao homework, and then I wasnt anymore because he was doing it for me. We have some pictures of people on our fridge, and after he left I noticed that he had covered all the faces with magnets.

Anyways, we played some games once Brad came and then he had the brilliant idea to try putting a tablespoon of cinnamon into our mouths. DONT TRY THIS AT HOME. That wasnt very fun! I cant even explain to you how long we were spitting after doing our puff the magic dragon impressions. A little while later we sang some camp songs and spent a good deal of time making up tongue twisters. Dumbo's dumber brother. Say that 10 times fast!