Sweet home Vientiane

Ed writes:

Returning back to Vientiane form Cambodia was like going home.  Vientiane is really a small community.  The other night we in the center city walking to dinner, and twice ran into people we knew.  After dinner we walked thru the town, and felt as safe and comfortable as if we were walking through Old Saybrook.  We have learned to get around the city, and even know the best short cuts to cut out traffic. 

Just two months ago we came to Vientiane.  It was strange and different, and at first we approached things with a certain level of caution.  Now, it seems like we have lived here for years, and everything is familiar and comfortable.  We know which restaurants to go to and what entrées to order.  I commented to Charlene when we were walking the other day how odd it is that Vientiane feels like home.

I came with a large agenda including coaching managers, developing project management software to organize and automate their processes and generally walking around and getting involved with what ever we thought we could help with.

The software development turned out to be much more than anticipated, but I am happy to say it is completed and implemented.  We were told that folks would resist change, and on the contrary, we found people who opened their minds and their hearts to us, and have bought in and embraced the opportunity to improve their processes.  I involved everyone in the development and included great suggestions from their entire project management team.  In the end, the result has been a collaborative success for which everyone on the team can feel that have had a part.  I was given their friendship and trust, and together we have done some very exciting things.

We worked closely with many of the managers, and I feel we were able to do just what we came for. 
I just finished two Team Building PowerPoint presentations to help the young trainees and computer operators to learn to speak up and share their ideas.  The Lao culture puts such great emphasis on politeness that most will avoid confrontation to the extreme that they will say that they agree when they do not, so as not offend..  Teaching them that the courtesies that they value at home are different than the behaviors that they need in business is a great challenge, but these are bright young folk that we are preparing for successful employment in real world and they will learn.

Charlene chose to spend her time teaching English to the students and operators. At work, Charlene is loved by the students, who are learning all about the United States; and English in the bargain.  They crowd into her class day after day to be with her, and have formed a strong attachment.

It doesn’t seem possible, but one by one, we have check off as successfully completed the long list of objectives that we came with, and it is now time to return to our other home.

Fairwell luncheon after the Basi ceremony

This morning the staff held a BASI ceremony, a Buddhist ceremony to thank us and wish us a safe trip home.  We came together with there beautiful, gentle and loving people that we have worked with over the past two month to share a very touching moment.  They took us into their lives and have become our friend and we theirs.

Charlene writes:

Today we said good bye to the Parkview Executive Suites and packed our gear into the DDD van.  We drove our motor bikes to the bike shop to drop them off after using them for seven weeks.  Yesterday and today there is rain, the first real rain in the two months we have been here.  As the rainy seasons in the past few years have been far below normal, the rain is welcomed.

Yesterday, the office staff and my students honored us with a touching ceremony, called Basi.  Basi, is a traditional Buddhist ceremony performed in honor of an important event in a family or home.  The pictures show the magnificent basket centerpiece with a lit candle standing on top.  There are numerous strings attached to the large basket/centerpiece.  A religious man with a scarf draped around his shoulder chanted budist prayers for forty minutes.  As he chanted, he was holding a string attached to the centerpiece; and we were also asked to hold strings, as were a few others.  At times duing the chanting everyone reached forward to touch the basket; which was filled with fruit, rice, bananas, cookies, water, etc.  When the last chant was finished, he graciously came to Ed and tied a string around his wrist wishing him safe travels, good health, all things good.  He then repeated the same chant and blessing to me.  It was very touching. 

When the ceremony ended, everyone came up to thank us, wish us well and a safe journey as they tied strings to our wrists.  My students were so sweet as, one by one, they each came up with strings to tie on my wrist.  I will miss them.

This morning we say good-by to all our friends in Vientiane and travel to the airport to board a plane at 1.50 pm to Bangkok, and thence to home.

A week in Phnom Penh

Charlene writes with help from Ed:

So the week in Phnom Penh was, thankfully quick.  Phnom Penh is a city of 2million, with an average age of 25-33.  The Khmer Rouge killed nearly all the citizens between 1972 and 1986; it is a city with a sad and tragic past.  During the Vietnam War with the US, Nixon ordered bombing of Cambodia under the misguided belief that Cambodia was supporting the Viet Cong, who they actually hated.  The result was a destabilization of an already fragile monarchy/dictatorship government, allowing the extreme left and right to have open combat. 

Pol Pot emerged as the leader of the communist party, declaring that all people should return to an agrarian society and work the fields.  The middle class, the educated, and basically anyone who wore glasses were killed.  Approximately 2 million citizens were tortured, starved, and killed during this horrible time-about 25% of the population of the country.  The genocide was so massive in scale that people were ordered to dig their own graves and were buried alive, as Pol Pot was quoted saying don’t waste a bullet killing them.  

Our introduction to this history was a 1984 movie called The Killing Fields staring Sam Waterston that pretty accurately told what happened.  The last time we were in Phnom Penh we visited the Killing Fields and the Tuol Sleng death and torture camp in the city that was turned into a memorial museum.  The memory still haunts me. Grisly- 

Currently, 25-30 years later, the country has been rebuilt with the help of outside non-profit agencies, and NGOs, who have established schools, infrastructure, along with micro banking which has spawned small businesses and marketable enterprises.  Note there has been little aid from its communist government which has generally been dysfunctional. Communist in name, it is actually just a dictatorship that runs the country for its own benefit. 

There is still a lot going on, prostitution, drugs, human trafficking, so it is not an easy place to relax and enjoy the tropical scenery; you just can’t pretend it doesn’t exist.  Visibly there are huge differences in the economic conditions of these people, there those who are the well connected to the government who own businesses; easy to tell these guys, as they all drive Lexus, Escalades, BMWs Cayenne, and Land Rover SUVs. 

The majority of the population is just trying to eke out a living.  Our tuk tuk driver is a good example; one day his three kids rode with us to work.  On the way home the kids were still with him, when I asked why the kids were there and not in school he said he did not have the $15 to play tuition for the next few months.  Well, after that he did, but he did not ask for help and was truly grateful for such a small amount of money. 

On the last day, while I was riding to work, I saw a disturbing and lingering image-a street cleaner was sweeping debris from the road, and shoveling it into his large push cart.  In the back of the push cart surrounded by trash was a small toddler, no more than Lily’s age, that he was caring for during the day.  I was shocked and saddened to think of this child’s life.  On one hand, the child was not left wandering the streets, but on the other hand how horrible.  In the evening it is common to see young kids with boxes hanging around their necks selling-books, DVDs, etc.  Seemingly, there is no adult supervision for these little kids 6-10 years old, who wander the streets until late in the evening when they should have been in bed hours before - even worse to think that there might actually be adult supervision directing these kids to work that way at night. 

Setting aside its dark past, Phnom Penh today is a beautiful colonial capital city with open parks and monumental buildings such as the royal palace, magnificent Buddhist temples and government buildings.
Dispite some of its negative aspects, we did have some spectacular adventures while we were in Phnom Penh.

The DDD people were generous and fun to be around.  Saturday morning we met up with a few folks from the office and visited the Palace with its magnificent temples and gardens.  One really cool place in Phnom Penh is the FCC;-Foreign Correspondents Club.  Situated in a colonial three story building, you climb up two flights to the terrace with expansive views where the Mekong and Tonle Sap Rivers converge.  There is great history to the place, particularly with the haunting photos of Phnom Penh’s past.  The bar restaurant is certainly a favorite site for western visitors, including me.

Our friend a former DDD employee from Vientiane, now living in Phnom Penh, was our “guide” while we were in the city.  The afternoon following our visit to the palace, a number of us went for a sunset cruise down the Mekong River.  I’m pretty sure the Coast Guard would not have certified the vessel, but the views were lovely and the company was really fun.  We went to the evening Market and enjoyed bartering with the shop keepers, who clearly had a lot more experience than I did.

Sunday was so great!!!  We had rented motor bikes so we could spend the day exploring the countryside on the opposite side of the Mekong from Phnom Penh.  There were four of us, Hetel, Rueben and Ed and myself.  We headed out on rented motor bikes about 10ish and boarded a barge that crossed the Tonle Sap and Mekong Rivers.  We drove for hours along DIRT unpaved roads with orange dust clinging to every part of our clothes and bodies.  We looked and felt like “pig pen”.  We passed through jungle, banana plantations, rice paddies, farm land, and grazing cattle along the dusty road. 

 We even drove by two weddings!!!  Weddings are held in pretty nice tents right along the road-you really can’t miss going thru them. 

The road was so bumpy and the dust so deep, at times it was hard to keep the bikes from fishtailing.  It was really a cool adventure, even at 63 years old.  After being lost for a while, we did eventually find the small barge to take us to another island before reaching the mainland in Phnom Penh, just before sunset.

I must discuss the traffic situation in Phnom Penh.  One word, INSANE.  Motorbikes, tuk-tuks, cars, bikes, push carts; all converge into each other at the same time. There must be half a million motor bikes in the city.  If you want to make a left turn across oncoming traffic, you must start on the wrong side of the road until eventually, you make all the way across.  No one pays attention to traffic lights, so when they get to an intersection, they just go without looking.  Tuk-tuks carry more stuff than anyone could possibly imagine (see picture with the one stuffed with refrigerator, TV, computer and who knows what else).  I came to the conclusion, peoples drive like they walk-so no matter where you are you just move slightly out of the way of oncoming vehicles.  Not for the weak of heart.

I was really HAPPY to leave Phnom Penh, and when we landed in Laos I immediately felt the calmness of the country in stark contrast to Phnom Penh.

So today is March 5, 2011, and we return home on March 19th.  I could not imagine that the time we have spent here would have passed so quickly.  It has been a privilege to work with these people who are so dedicated and work so hard.  My students get to DDD at 6am and study and work until 5pm; six days a week.  After work they all are enrolled in local colleges, (Paid for by DDD), and are in class for another few hours before going home.  Sunday, their only real day off, they wash their clothes and help with family chores.