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| I ended up
being in Vientiane after the beginning of Hmong New Year and
my friend Thavivanh took my to Hmong New Year in Ban Tha Ding
Daeng Tai on his motorcycle, about an hour's ride from Vientiane.
To get to the village we had to cross the Nam Ngum river by ferry.
The top photo shows Thavivanh and his motorcycle on the ferry.
The bottom photo shows us heading back with a group of friendly
men. Smoking is too common of a habit among Lao men... |
When we arrived
in Ban Tha Ding Daeng Tai there was a large group gathered around
four men playing the kheng. The festiivities were taking place
on the school grounds and you can see the school in the background.
We watched for a while and I took the above photo of a young
man dressed in traditional Hmong clothes. |
While I was
taking photos the two men in the top photo came up and introduced
themselves. The man on the left is Youa Bee Lor, the village
leader. The man on the right is Lee Xeng, one of the two teachers.
They told me that I was the first falang to visit during Hmong
New Year and they invited me into the school to talk. Thank goodness
I had Thavivanh to interpret. It's a long story told best in
the "Hmong New Year Report" under the Reports Section. |
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| When we were
on the back roads heading to Ban Tha Ding Daeng Tai we passed
through several small Hmong villages holding their own Hmong
New Year Festivities and it was fun to pass groups of boys and
girls walking down the road, some dressed traditionally. |
Photos taken
at Hmong Year Festivities in a village along the way to Ban Tha
Ding Daeng Tai. |
These two photos
were taken at Ban Tha Ding Daeng Tai during the Hmong New Year
Festivities. |
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| Ban Tha Ding
Daeng Tai School Sign |
Ban Tha
Ding Daeng Tai School |
Students in
one of two classes at Ban Tha Ding Daeng Tai School |
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| After I decided
to buy supplies with the $300 given to me by the Refugee's Educators
Network I had to find a store that had the supplies I wanted
to buy. I ended up at the Ministry of Education's store where
these clerks were extremely helpful. |
A photo of
the bundle of 2 million kip (1000 2000 kip notes) that was the
total of the supplies I was to pay for. |
Here in Thavivanh's
tuk tuk are all the supplies I bought. One of the items that
Lee Xeng said they needed were small chalkboards and I bought
180, plus notebooks, pencils, chalk, and color water color pens. |
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| These are
photos taken during the handover ceremony on Dec. 27. In the
top photo I'm explaining why I was making the donation and who
the organizations I represented were. In the bottom photo is
a photo of me with the village leaders and teachers in the school. |
In the top
photo an official from the Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare
is speaking about the donation. In the bottom photo all the students
who were hanging outside the classroom were invited in for a
photo with the donated supplies. |
I became involved
with helping the village apply for SSGA (Small Scales Grant Assistance)
through the Japanese Embassy to build a new school. My role was
basically a facilitator, and most of the work was done by Eliabeth
Kirton, Repatriation Officer for UNHCR and Michiel Peyra (I don't
have his photo). Elizabeth's photo is the top one, and Ayako
Akamine, a Special Assistant at the Japanese Embassy who is checking
out the grant application in the bottom photo was extremely helpful
too. |
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