Big Cucumbers and Disco Balls

Village Day round two was off to a great start.  The drive to Pakhom was only an hour and despite the sharing the backseat again with Mr. Gov, the trip was manageable.  When we arrived around 9, we sat in a building on the school property and met with the village chief and the VHV and CHTs.  While the whole conservation was in Lao, Viengmany translated to me that a four year old child had died three days earlier because it had a diagnosed disease that the parents, who had 8 other children, had decided to ignore.  Thus began the long list of tragedies in Pakhom.

We began our GPS mapping walk at one end of the village at a house where the woman was divorcing her disabled husband for his inability to provide for his family.  Later down the road, we met an elderly man who had perfect vision, but whose eyelids would not stay open.  A few houses down, we were introduced to a 11-month old girl with club feet.  To top it all off, we talked with a woman whose husband recently committed suicide by drinking fertilizer.  Despite it all, the people seemed happy and lucky for us, many of them were already building toilets.  As we walked around, families came out to give us gifts of cucumbers, and by the time we left, there were 15 rolling around the back of the truck.

Mother with her 11 month old daughter who was born with club foot.

 We were invited into the village chief's house for lunch and in addition to cutting open some of the cucs, enjoyed Viengmany's prepared lunch of string beans and chicken.  Sufficiently eem lai, we loaded into the truck and headed to Phou San.

Just a slice of your average sized village cucumber. 

I think we all fell asleep on the 20 km drive and by the time we arrived, everyone was exhausted.  Unlike Wednesday, it was dry and hotter outside, and all of the walking was wearing us out.  We stopped at the CHT's house to wait for the village chief before setting off to GPS the points that we didn't get during the CLTS transect walk.  The village is actually huge and spread out, with over 125 houses, so we had a lot of ground to cover.  By 4:00 we had tracked most of the village and went back to the house to say our goodbyes.  At this point Lahthana asked if I was ready for the night, and I got very confused.  Apparently there were plans of many drinks and happy hours/night that I had yet to be clued in on.  When the CHT asked if we wanted to stay for dinner, we politely declined.

Phou San is absolutely beautiful (when you aren't stepping in shit).

Back in the car, I asked what the plan was, but no one would give me any answers.  Having to catch a 7 AM bus back to Vientiane, I wasn't about to go and have a wild and crazy night.  the staff thought otherwise.

While Viengmany had agreed to get pizza with me at the local restaurant, the minute we got back to the office and Youla voiced his opinion on dinner, pizza was thrown out the window and we were back in the truck heading for grilled duck.  Now in Laos, if a restaurant is called the grilled duck restaurant, expect it to serve ONLY grilled duck.  Having told Viengmany that I was willing to try anything, grilled duck it was.  The restaurant was very busy and I thought I had a lucky chance at pizza when they told us there were no more tables. Unfortunately, they were able to clear one off outside by the grill and we were welcomed to sit down.

Lahthana ordered for us and before I knew it, he was pouring beer and heaping plates of grilled duck had been delivered.  Like all meat in Laos, it was purely bone and very difficult to eat.  I picked away and thus passed the "tried it" test.  After about 20 minutes of the guys talking about work in Lao, I told them they had to stop, practice english, and not talk about work.  They obliged and turned to more heavy drinking.  When they were done with the meat, the ordered eggs.  I knew these were no ordinary duck eggs and had been warned before about the Lao eating boiled fertilized eggs.  I drew the line about eating "babies" and my co-workers proceeded to make many baby jokes, none of which were that funny.

Five bottles of Beer Lao later, I was ready to hit the sack.  I had only drank one glass but the constant nagging to drink more was getting annoying and I had an early day tomorrow.  Their goal was to get me so hungover that I wouldn't leave in the morning, thus allowing for another weekend with them in Xieng Khouang.  But, it was officially time to return and I had to be at rowing practice on Saturday.

Promising that we were only going for three more beers, we drove over to the Dankmiadong Night Club.  When we walked in it was empty, the lights flashing and a lonely singer at the mic.  Viengmany ordered a round of beer and despite saying I wasn't drinking, I was poured a glass.  We went up to try and do karaoke, but because all the songs were in Thai, Hmong or Lao, I let Viengmany do it alone.  Instead the rest of us got up and danced.  At this point more people had joined the dance floor crowd and I was getting used to the slow movements with rhythmic hand circles.  Finally a dance I can do!

This went on for two hours and after 7 more bottles of beers, more songs and lots of dancing, it was time to call it a night.  We loaded into the truck, brought Viengmany home and I was delivered to the office to catch a few hours of sleep before D(eparture)-Day. 

Mom and Dad Water Buffalo in Phou San.