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).