When we first came to Laos Chou was told Hmong New Year would begin December 8 and so I kept that date in mind as we traveled and I knew it wouldn't be an easy decision to decide where we wanted to be on the 8th. If there is a Hmong village near by there is sure to be a Hmong New Year celebration close at hand. Some villages may have their own or gather at a central location. We were invited back to Muang Fuang where we visited Chou's uncle at the beginning of our travels, and Chou's young relative Dang, invited us to a big celebration at Kilometer 52. Kilometer 52 is just that, a village 52 kilometers from Vientiane and in a location where there are many Hmong villages.
As it turned out we stayed in the area of Luang Prabang the week before and I decided that we would stay in Luang Prabang for the Hmong New Year there. Having made that decision I purchased tickets that would have us fly out on Dec. 9, the day after. On the 6th Chou informed me that the 8th was actually the day when the ceremonies occurred and the actual celebrations wouldn't begin until the 9th. So I went and changed the tickets so we would leave on the 10th and then on the day of the 9th Chou informed me that yes, they would begin that day, but really wouldn't get into full swing until the weekend! Welcome to Laos. It was too late to change plane tickets and we would just have to see what it was like on the 9th.
Once he had made friends with his Hmong tuk tuk driver, Chou had been staying with him and they told me that they would pick me up at 7:30 on the morning of the 9th because the opening ceremonies would begin at 8:00 am. I was ready, having gotten up early to make sure I had time to go down to the Mekong first for a couple of morning cups of Lao coffee. I ended up waiting until 9:00 when they showed up at the hotel and said something about a flat tire. But by then I knew the ceremony was over and decided that I needed to go down to the cybercafe and see if the Internet was up and if so, try to send the reports I had written and were waiting to be sent. I told them to go ahead and come back to pick me up at 11:30.
I walked down to the PlaNet cybercafe and lo and behold it was open! And even better news was that one of the four computers was free! When I logged on the connection was okay, and after two hours I was able to write a couple of emails and send four attached text files. The one I wrote about our day traveling to a remote Hmong village where Mai Vang's mother lived wouldn't 'attach.' It wasn't a big file, maybe 40k, but it continued to hang up the computer as I tried and tried again. You can see why photos are impossibility with the current Internet situation. I decided I would have to divide it into two parts and send it after I got back to Vientiane.
When I got to the hotel Chou was waiting and informed me they hadn't even been to the celebration yet. It was only about four miles away and when we arrived I could see that it was actually located down in a little grove of trees, protection from the hot sun, which wasn't a problem this partly cloudy day. At the top close to the road were some stands selling drinks, snacks and papaya salad. It was similar to California in that maybe half the girls were dressed in traditional clothes with their many varied multi-colored skirts, which they choose to wear depending on whether they're white, green or striped Hmong, or just because they like a particular style. Few of the girls though were wearing the large heavy multi-tiered necklaces that can be either silver or aluminum. The 'embroidered bags' they wore also had none or fewer coins than were worn in the United States. It was different from the Hmong New Year celebrations I was used to in California that were quite large with the sound of the constant jingling of the girls dresses swishing with the dangling coins from their 'bags' and 'aprons.'
I would say that maybe only ten percent of the boys wore traditional clothes, which again was similar to California. We walked down the path to where they were throwing ball (pob pov) and had to cross an eight-foot log (six inches in diameter) across a small stream! Just a little too treacherous I thought! It was fun to walk around taking photos because I knew some of the girls from where they sell Hmong embroidery (paj ntaub) by the hotel. There were maybe only about 80-100 total people, which is small compared to California standards. There were no performances, no dancing, singing or playing the 'keng.' I did actually get a chance to throw ball a little (in this instance, an orange!) and then I decided to leave because I wanted to take some photos around Luang Prabang since the weather was nice and I would be leaving at 8:00 a.m. to fly back to Vientiane.
The flight back the next day was beautiful and as Chou was flying to Ponsovanh, I had the video camera and enjoyed the simplicity of using it for taking digital photos that are great for the web, but too compressed for making photographs. On this trip with the emphasis being to provide photos for the web site, I've almost exclusively used my Nikon digital camera and Chou while he was with me took a few with my Sony video digital camera. Now that Chou is on his own I'm using both the video camera and digital camera.
After getting back to Vientiane I checked with my friends about our heading south to Savannakhet and discovered that one of them couldn't get the time off from work and now I'm not sure what my plans will be. Ideally it would have been best to go with both, but Mitthila who works for the Vientiane Times, has to take the week off now. So, I'm thinking now that either we'll fly down together or she can help me with some interviews over the next few days here in Vientiane. If we went down she would stay with her parents, and I know there are a lot of things she could show me that I normally wouldn't see and have access to, plus I guess there are some special activities concerning Visit Laos Year 2000 towards the end of the week in Savannakhet. So on Monday I will check about tickets and flight times and hopefully work out plans. A flight to Savannakhet is about $80 for foreigners and about $7 for Lao.
I also saw my friend Van, the tuk tuk driver and he told me about Hmong New Year happening in Ban Tha Ding Dang north of Vientiane. I didn't commit to going, but as I later thought about it, I decided that I wanted to go. The next morning I went to the hotel where Van parks his tuk tuk when he doesn't have a customer and waited for about a half an hour from 9:00 - 9:30 and then decided to walk to the morning market. Just as I reached the next intersection he drove up and I told him I was interested in going to Ban Tha Ding Dang for Hmong New Year. He took me to the Bowling Alley where his wife works as a cook so he could drop off his tuk tuk and take his motorbike, as it would be faster and easier to drive over the dirt roads and village 'trails.' In tuk tuks you can't see out very well as there are two bench seats on each side facing inwards and the roof curves low on the sides, so riding on the back of the motorcycle was like entering a new world. Some drivers do wear helmets, but most don't, as safety laws for all vehicles are basically non-existent and on this trip I've seen grim reminders on roads of terrible accidents, but if you worry about safety I don't think you want to be in Laos.
There is a lot of needed road construction happening in Vientiane and on Hwy 13 south, but once we got by the construction and left the urban environment, the ride paddies and tree groves beckoned us onward. At 19 km we turned east on a dirt road and passed through several villages and came to two Hmong villages, each with their own New Year celebrations. We kept going because our destination was Ban Tha Ding Dang. Shortly after the second Hmong village we came to the Nam Ngum River which we would have to cross by the small boat/ferry. The river was about half the size of the Mekong, which is still pretty big, and with the gardens lining the banks it was very beautiful. North of Vientiane the Nam Ngum is dammed, creating the large Nam Ngum lake and generating electricity primarily for sale to Thailand and then for use here in Laos.
There are so many issues concerning the dam building projects Laos is considering. The one resource that Laos does have in abundance is water, but at the close of the 20th century there is a much greater awareness of potential hazards and detrimental effects of building dams and Lao PDR is sensitive to criticism generated in the press. In the most recent Vientiane Times (Dec. 10-13) there is an article discussing the criticism of power pricing agreements Laos has made with Thailand concerning their Nam Theun 2 project. In the article though, Mr. Xaypaseuth Phomsoupha, Chief of the Secretariat Bureau of the Lao National Committee for Energy stated that with this project, "There have been extremely extensive public discussions on all aspects of the Nam Theun 2 project to the extent that this public consultation process has been quoted by international agencies, such as the World Bank, as a world-class example of obtaining proper inputs by all stakeholders into a major infrastructure project."
The importance of hydroelectricity to Laos is seen by its inclusion in the National Emblem which is a circle depicting, in the bottom half, a cog wheel and red ribbon with the inscription of the Lao People Democratic Republic and decorated with two crescent-shaped ears of rice with red ribbon stretched inscribed with the words: "Peace, Independence, Democracy, Unity and Prosperity." A picture of That Luang Stupa is located between the tips of the rice ears. A road, a paddy field, a forest, and a hydroelectric dam are also highlighted.
For those who are interested I know there are more articles at the Vientiane Times and the Bangkok Post web sites I've listed on my links page.
It only cost 1500 kip to cross the river and as we continued on the road became more "trail-like" and I was really glad we were on the motorbike. After a few wrong turns and stopping to ask some people we finally arrived at the celebration. It was in an open space by the village school and as we walked in there was a crowd (maybe 200) gathered around four men playing the 'keng,' which is a wind instrument which comprises a double row of bamboo-like reeds fitted into a hardwood sound box. "Playing the keng" not only entails playing the instrument, which is similar to the Lao khaen but which has curved reeds, but there are dance-like movements that as the playing progresses become more complex. I shot some video and when it ended the four men stood in a row where they were awarded (my interpretation) bottles of different kinds of soft drink which were set down in front of them.
I wandered around taking photos and then two men came up to me. With Thavivanh interpreting they introduced themselves as Youa Bee Lor who was the village headman and Lee Xang, one of the two teachers in the school. They wanted us to sit down and talk and so we sat down at a table in one of the classrooms. This school had two classrooms, but was very similar to the school in the Hmong village of Ban Phu Leuy I visited. Dirt floors, locally made wooden benches, tables, and two chalkboards. That's it. They brought us some soft drinks and one Beer Lao, and then Youa spoke about how I was the first foreigner to come to their New Year Celebration and that it was quite an honor. He also wanted to let me know that he was sorry that his village was so poor and he couldn't offer me more. I told him that I thought his village was very beautiful and that I was very pleased to be here and was interested in learning more about their village and school.
Lee Xang, the teacher, told me that he had attended three years at a college in Saisomboun after graduating from high school, and that he had first taught in Leng Xan close to Long Cheng, but had come here to teach because his family lived here. This school is a primary school only, with about 150 students divided into three classes with only two teachers. About 60 of the students are girls. The upper elementary school is in the next village and maybe about one third of the students drop out rather than going to the upper elementary school. The high school is located in a village on the other side of the Nam Ngum and at present there are only 26 students attending high school, with five of them girls. They are often unable to attend during the rainy season when they are unable to cross the swollen river, which gives them more of a reason for not going. As for college, right now there are only six students attending schools in Vientiane.
At this school they are not given a budget for buying materials and families have to buy all supplies for their children. At the primary level they desperately would like to have the small chalkboards for students to practice writing their letters, but are limited to the small notebooks they buy at the market. A school like this is almost entirely community funded, and this school was built by the villager's eight years ago. Lee Xang, who presently makes 110,000 kip a month ($14), would very much like to study English in Vientiane, only an hour's drive away, but there would be no teacher to replace him, so his only chance to continue his studies is during the three month summer break.
In our discussion I learned that some American man had previously come to the village and had implied that he was going to provide them some kind of assistance. They thought his name was Mr. "Greet" and that he worked for the US Embassy and wanted me to contact him. I thought that on Monday I would attempt to contact the Embassy and see if there was someone by that name, and if so try to talk to him and see if I too can help them out. The Refugee Educator's Network in Rancho Cordova provided me with some funds to develop education networks. If I can actually find a wholesale source and purchase some of the chalkboards and various supplies and take them back to the village I know the teacher and students would be very appreciative.
It's so interesting, I come to photograph Hmong New Year and end up in this somewhat serious discussion with village leaders. After about an hour we decided to ride back to the other two Hmong villages. By this time it was around 1:00 p.m. and at both the other locations there were very few people as they were all eating lunch. We stopped at several stalls and Thavivanh kept asking if they had sticky rice and all said no. But finally, we came to one that had sticky rice and we ordered laap and tam mak hung. Most of these restaurants are little family affairs and where you eat is an extension of their home, and as the front of most of these small restaurants is completely open to the front of the street, when you sit at a table you have the best of both worlds, observing street activity while witnessing the comings and goings of family activity.
Here Thavivanh had me observe how they made laap and I was especially intrigued with how they fried the sticky rice till it "popped" and then put it in a little machine that ground the burst kernels into a flour. The flour had a nutty smell and I never realized that with the meat, lemon grass and green onion they also added this sticky rice powder, or otherwise it wouldn't be laap. It was delicious (saep lai!) and it was nice to relax in this little village restaurant and observe the different people walking by with an occasional group of Hmong girls dressed in their traditional clothes walk by.
After an hour or so we drove back to the Hmong villages and stopped at one in the shaded dirt yard of another school. There were maybe about 40 boys and girls throwing ball, with mostly mothers talking amongst themselves on the outskirts with little kids running all around. One of the girls told Thavivanh that there were going to be special activities tomorrow at Kilometer 52 and that we should go. Sunday was Thavivanh's day off and he was taking his wife to Catholic Church for some kind of special religious training, but I thought maybe I'd take the bus and go by myself. I don't think many of the Lao are Catholic, but both Thavivanh's father and his wife's father are Vietnamese, who with the greater French influence, are much more likely to be Catholic.
We shortly left this group and when we went to the second Hmong village around 3:30, there was a little merry-go-round machine little kids were riding, but little activity otherwise. We decided to head back to Vientiane. Coming into town as we slowed down for traffic I noticed something in the road ahead. As we came closer, right in the middle of the road, I saw that there was a rolled up mat and plastic handbag of produce, and about a foot away was a large pool of blood. It gave me a squeamish feeling, I didn't see where the person was, nor did I see a motorbike or vehicle, but it was a grim reminder of the somewhat dangerous life on Vientiane roads, which I've read several articles about in the Vientiane Times.
In the second part of this report on Hmong New Year Celebrations
I will report on my bus trip to Kilometer 52 on my own.