Wheelchairs, Weather, Work and Wonka

First week and a bit of work is done and am starting to settle right in. Since the last post things have started to slow down and am now finding my self in a regular work routine, and you won't believe it but I have been getting to work for 8 am, however lately am finding my old hat again and maybe staying up late and rushing to get there on time.

Work so far is pretty quite and I have just been preparing materials and tutorials for basic computer training such as how to turn it on, the definition of a mouse and basic formatting in word. Right now I work by myself in fishbowl of an office on the opposite side of the hallway from everybody else's closed doors. Without an Internet connection that I can used to find resources and tutorials I have been wasting an hour er so using MSN on my cell phone in the mornings so if you are online in the evenings you might find me there complaining about how hard my chair is. Cushion needed!

It is customary here that after lunch most people have a snooze under their desks. Thinking this was a little odd and that I wouldn't be able to sleep, I proceeded to pick up my copy of Sartre's Iron in the Soul and was out in a few minutes (good book for that) on my cozy wooden bench for all to see. I slept in an extra half hour and woke up to my supervisor saying that maybe she will recommend that my office gets some curtains.... don't know what I was doing but have been leaving the office at lunch as to not embarrass myself

The other night I went and watched a screening of Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth documentary regarding climate change at a local restaurant, which I thought was quite good from the standpoint of effective mass media communication of an issue that... well... is really quite depressing and re-affirms my belief that I might be lucky enough to see some really big junk go down on this rock in my lifetime... terribly exciting time to live!

Last Tuesday was UN International Volunteer Day, and to celebrate, I participated in a great game of wheelchair basketball with some hardcore Laotian players that were launching themselves at each other and falling out of their chairs every second play. It was great and was left unscathed and did pretty well except for the fact that when I made it into scoring position my arms were rubber and I kept sallying (sorry girls) the ball into the air. Most of the Laotians participating were not paraplegic but suffered from polio which is still a very common disease here.

Afterwords we all sat down for some Chinese take-out and all and all was a great experience and got to meat many people that work for UNDP (United Nations Development Project) and your typical kind spirited Laotians.


Then it was off to work at the National Stadium that houses the Olympic Committee, and the National Sports Committee (my affiliated office). So far so good... even the athletes love to pound back the Beerlao ever Friday at around 4. Oh yeah, I think Laotians have Canadians beat. Every glass of beer is to be drank at once so that the glass can go around the table, and it does, very quickly. They also drink beer with ice here which I guess is to help keep portions to a chuggable volume.

Just a football game at the stadium, I thought it was oldtimers but there were a few stars on the field.

Last Friday I went to the Lao National Cultural Hall which is a beautiful theatre to check out a Korean martial arts comedy show... quality entertainment, hard to give a good picture to ya.. zany and even zanier acrobatics.

Anybody recognize this little guy?.. It's Mike Teavee from the original Willy Wonka - Charlie and the Chocolate factory movie.


Now he looks like this and in a rather surreal experience last night I wound up having a few with him and a bunch of backpackers from B.C, Ontario, and Ireland at the old guest house I was staying at on a visit to repair a computer issue. Most of which were great, some of which I found myself thinking what the funk!?.. Who just comes to a place and does whatever they want and don't respect any of the culture of the country in which the visit? but I guess there is always a wank in the crowd.

This Sunday I will be heading up to the north of Laos to Luang Prabang for the week long CUSO Lao PDR annual meeting and rural development tour which I am stoked for as Vientiane is nice, but it is small and am starting to feel kinda weird that I flew to the other side of the planet to plop into a small city that is actually extremely cosmopolitan and find myself dealing with some aspects of city social life that make me want to run up to Parry Sound every weekend. I must say that it is not the host culture that is shocking me, but the globalized culture of Vientiane that seems to have sprung up in only the last three years that is the biggest surprise.

Coming back from Luang Prabang I think that I will spend my Christmas Holiday in Vang Vieng which offers tubing down the river, exploring caves and waterfalls in the Karst mountain scape and kayaking to calm eddies and swimming holes. It is becoming what seems to be "falang" party quarantine but have to see it and figure spending Christmas with people that do that thing back home not a bad thing at all. So lots of hopefully beauty pics coming out of that to make up for my lack of anything too exciting to show this time around. Hope all is well with all of you and in case I don't get to speak with you soon... Happy Holidays! I really should have got a few shots of the Santa's and Christmas trees around here, Buddhists are neutral and take holidays for everybody's holidays... great idea!. Oh yeah.. one more thing, before I said I was timetraveling, well it really is the year 2549 here. I havn't got a really good answer but I think that might be the last time Buddha came to the party.

Contact Deets

Mobile Phone: 856-20-201-6737 (SMS should work just fine too - UPDATE.. Don't think so also.. think you have to dial out of Canada with 001 or somehow someway to make it cheaper, but I find the conection is way better if I call you so drop me a line and I'll do that).

Address: (CUSO office as there is no door to door delivery)

Erik Schmitt c/o CUSO Lao PDR
Saphangmor Village Unit #15
P.O Box 3517
Vientiane Capital
Lao PDR

My Name is Eh-lick

So... I'm all done my language training and will start work Tuesday after a game of wheelchair basketball with disabled students as part of UN International Volunteer day festivities. Over the last week and a bit I have had the opportunity to take in the sights of Vientianne and share beers with my new Lao friends that work at the guest house. They have been incredibly good to me so in turn I designed some business cards and even got up early this morning to mop the floors of the restaurant. As per usual I had trouble waking up on time and missed my chance to go the busy morning market at 6:00.

I have found a place to live and now have a sweet Giant mountain bike - no rules on the road so didn't think motorbike was a good idea, a new model Nokia mobile that does all sorts of awesome whizz bang stuff with the computer that companies in Canada disable on their phones so you have to pay up, and have found a place to live, a big safe house with gates that I will share with an Aussie lady named Kelly who has been working in education here in Vientiane for a few years.

Tomorrow is a holiday in lieu of Dec. 2nd (Saturday) which is the National Holiday, celebrating 32 years since the Lao people defeated the so called "U.S. Imperialists" and the Lao People's Revolutionary Party came to power led by "Uncle" Kayasone as they call him. I have had the chance to visit both the national museum and the Kayasone museum both of which have substantial amounts of weaponry and photographs of villagers that shot down American planes with a single rifle shot. It was actually incredible to read about... thousands of people lived in caves in the Karst landscape where they housed manufacturing facilities, printing presses (... coool!!.. geek it's true), and schools. Laos is the most bombed country per capita in the world and was often simply used as a place to dump ordinance with no particular target if a mission could not be carried out in Northern Vietnam. The Yanks thought it was better to just drop bombs in the Lao country side than to risk trying to land their planes with their payload. I watched a documentary and presentation last week at "Sticky Fingers" (an Aussie owned pub where alot of "falang" - foreigners go, of which I am now a regular I suppose) that was put on by MAG (Mines Advisory Group) which is understandably very active in the Lao country side. I can't believe they still use cluster bombs.. I got to hold a few "bombies" - the small bombs that come out of the cluster bomb shells.. gave me shivers.

So yeah.. that is pretty rotten stuff... now for some nice pictures.

A couple monks walking home from the Wat (temple) where they do all sorts of things from construction and carpentry to chanting and laughing and of course meditate.

Patouxay - Patou means gate, Xay means victory. The cement was donated by the French for road construction but hey, it was French-Indochina so maybe the when in Rome principle at play.. don't know if that works. (Note: 2nd shot Photoshoped)

Panorama looking North from the top of Patouxay, It is flat in Vientiane but about 100 km's away the karst mountains start, I'll be spending Christmas in Luang Prabang, said to be the most beautiful place in the country and was the old capital and home to the oldest temples in the country


Naga at the steps to Wat Sisaket - the oldest in Vientiane. Lao people are said to be born in the beginning from a Naga. Other than that the Naga is the protector of Buddha, especially on Saturday. There is a Buddha for every day of the week. Saturday Buddha has Naga over his head and is protected. Tuesday's Buddha is lying down on his/her (I'm really not sure, the Indian style Buddha seems like it could be both) side sleeping. Depending on what day you were born on you are said to have that strength of the Buddha. I think I was born on a Tuesday, it explains alot.

Me at Wat Sisaket.. It think my eyes are closed.


That Luang - A stupa surrouded by several Wats. It is used for festivals and is said to have contained the sternum of the Buddha itself.. although acheological digs have yet to reveal anything. It has been destroyed a whole bunch of times by the Burmese, Thai, and yes.. damaged by the Americans as well. At one point the Stupa was built of solid gold... but now it is painted cement.



Some great Commie momuments and Uncle Kayasone's museum


I went and visited a smaller village where they build cisternes for rain water collection as the poor have no water of course. It costs about 40 bucks a tank and there are about 200 houses in the village that can use one. The dude beside me is the owner that I have been having the odd pop with at the guest house. He was telling me that the Rotary Club has donated 500 dollars so far and they are trying to find more funding, however, I'm not so sure how much of the money would go to the villagers for tanks and how much would go to Mr. Sisavone here and the Village Chiefs beer fund... But it is still a great idea and they are doing a good deed for folks.

Me and my best bud so far Joy (in english means tin) He is an English teacher at the secondary school and is excellent at grammar and speaking is well on it's way. Hopefully he will pass his English exam to get scholarship to study computers in Malaysia.

So that is it for now... hopefully when I start work I will be able to get smaller posts in more frequently as my butt is sore from sitting in here waiting for pictures to upload. Soooo slooowww... so lots of time to read up on Canadian news.. Stephane Dion.. I DIG!!