A Lao love story
It is always the same with that thing called love. Cupid´s arrow hits you when you least expect it. In Laos, there is surely no difference to this. And so the story goes as follows:
I cannot even recall for which kind of coffee I asked this lady in her small shack in Phônhông.
I only remember my puzzled look when she filled the coffee into a small, transparent plastic bag full of ice cubes and then poured thick cream on top. “STOP!” I instinctively wanted to scream, but a foreign force kept me from doing so. Ten seconds later I stood there with something in my hand I had not seen before. This plastic bag full of ice cubes and coffee and cream within a paper bag within another plastic bag, a straw stuck into the first one.
Still a bit puzzled I was keen to give it a go. What followed is unforgotten. What followed was plain love; plain love for the syrupy, sweet, cold, beautiful liquid running down my throat. My taste buds could not believe what they were given to process and my mind could not believe what I was ingesting. From that very moment I knew that there would not be a single day for me in Laos without this incredible coffee. And there wasn’t.
I cannot tell what makes this coffee so special. The fact that I have a very sweet tooth might be a reason, but the others in our team also got hooked and went for their daily fix in the afternoon, for invigoration in the afternoon heat. This is how “Lao coffee” is made so you get an idea of how sweet it really is.
They fill half a glass (or half a tin can) with sweetened condensed milk. This is topped with a table spoon of coffee creamer (white powder), with a pinch of salt (oh yes!) and usually with an extra table spoon or two of sugar (!!!). The coffee is already brewed and is sitting on a stove over an open fire. For this, a big table spoon of coarse ground Lao coffee was filled into a cloth filter and blanched and then percolated with boiling water. Now this dark and oily coffee is poured into the glass with the other ingredients and stirred.
Then, a small plastic bag is filled with ice cubes. Half a tin can of evaporated milk (almost 200 ml) is added and then the coffee mixture. The plastic bag is tied up with an elastic band and placed in a paper bag which again is put into another plastic bag. Finally, you stab a straw into the bag with the coffee and take your first sip. Deeeeeelicious! Do not miss out on this! Check out for shacks which pile up tin cans like this. Alternatively, ask for ice coffee in a southeast Asian restaurant (much more expensive and by far not such a nice experience). You might get lucky and fall in love.
Text and photos by T. Mayer
Lot ják diaries – Lao street wise
Every visitor of Laos should undertake at least one trip on a Lot ják! Lot ják, Lao for motorbike, is the most common way of transport for the locals. You see up to five persons (a whole family) riding on one single motorbike. The most popular ones are sold by Honda, Suzuki (both Japanese) and Kolao (Korean) and have approximately 100 ccm engines and semi-automatic gears so that you switch the gear with a footpedal. Even if you do not have any experience with riding a motorbike, driving a Lot ják is great fun. Also, getting used to it only takes some rounds on the school yard – after school, naturally.
I had the idea to drive from Vientiane to Thakhek, before heading back to Germany. From Thakhek you can do a trip called “Loop”, which a traveller discovered in 1998. Since then, it has become more and more popular among Lao travellers and so I made the plan to take the “Loop”, too. This trip is approximately 450 kilometres long and leads through the province Khammouan and the nature reserves Nakai-Nam Theun and Phou Hin Boun, mostly on tarmac roads. Time-wise, three to four days are recommended, depending on how many stops you make on the way.
I hired a motorbike in Vientiane. Most of the lenders do not want you to go on long trips on their bikes, so it took a while to find one who did not ask too many questions. For this, I can recommend “Vientiane Backpackers´ Hostel”: they did not ask many questions and were satisfied with a copy of my passport and driving license and with 60,000 kip (6.60 €) per day – the prize is quite moderate. Furthermore, the motorbike was in good shape (make sure to always check all the lights, the tyres and especially both breaks!). The Lot ják was my baby and loyal companion for the next four days.
On 31 December I started my journey on the “Loop”. My goal was to reach Thakhek in the evening to celebrate New Year’s Eve there. Due to an important team meeting I was not able to leave Vientiane before 1.30 p.m. Unfortunately, I forgot to bring a proper helmet, so I had to use the one that came with the motorbike – the visor was as dull as the Mekong River and kept flapping down, making it impossible to see. I needed some sunglasses and something to fix the visor. A piece of plastic stuck between visor and helmet did the job, so – let’s go! 355 kilometres lay ahead.
The road was in excellent shape and my baby ran a constant 70 km/h. Quickly moving towards a scenery dominated by a karst mountain range, I only stopped two times to get petrol and to add some layers of clothes against the airstream which got colder and colder. It would not have been me if I had not had to stop to get my daily dose of caffeine in form of the unbelievably delicious, strong Lao ice coffee.
Lao ice coffee is an absolute must for every Lao traveller. Just check the side of the roads for shacks which pile up red-white and blue-yellow tin cans (see photo above). These are the places where you get the stuff (to learn more about the Lao ice coffee check the entry “A Lao lovestory” here).
Just before reaching Thakhek, I had to stop for petrol once more and became witness once more to the great heartiness and hospitality of Lao people: some young guys were sitting at the filling station, drinking Beerlao and Whiskey. They invited me to a glass of the first (a famous Lao saying goes: “Only one glass. But filled maaany times”).
The guys told me that Thakhek was only a stone’s throw away. So after some beer and a funny chat I hit the road again to finally reach my destination. Half an hour later, it was 9.30 p.m. by then, I arrived in Thakhek. For the last two hours, I had been driving in the dark, which really cannot be recommended. One can hardly see the road, making it difficult to see the frequent bump holes. The poor headlights make it even trickier. So make sure to make concentration a top priority when driving in the dark. Luckily, there were only a few nasty little “craters”, which I was able to circuit thanks to the combination of my hawk eyes and cheetah-like reflexes.
After arriving in Thakhek, I quickly tried to find accommodation with a warm shower to wash off the cold. I found the (okay-ish) Thipphachanh guesthouse which met my requirement and included Wifi for 80,000 kip (roughly 8.80 €). Not the cheapest you can get, but I was too tired and frozen stiff, so I decided to stay put. After a refreshing and rehashing session in the bathroom it was time for dinner. At a Thai restaurant, I met some travellers from Germany and Belgium, and joined them for some food, beer and Mexican style lao-lao. Lao-lao is the most famous Lao rice whiskey, in its Mexican version indulged with lime and salt. We clinked our bottles at midnight on the Mekong river bank and watched the fireworks over Thailand just across the river. After a flying visit at a Lao New Year’s Eve party, some more beer and good laughter, I went to bed to get some well-deserved rest after a long and exhausting day.
On the first day of 2016, the early birds were not on my side, waking me up way too soon. I did not complain for too long because it enabled me to hit the road and make some more kilometres. But not before a rich Lao breakfast, Foe and coffee (Foe is a delicious noodle soup with herbs, vegetables and meat, eaten with a spoon and chop sticks).
Refuelled, I jumped on the motorbike and left Thakhek behind, heading towards Lak Xao which was my destination for the day. You will find a lot of different caves just outside of town. One of them is a famous Buddha cave “Tham Pha”, which hosts hundreds of statues. As it was only 9 kilometres off road, I decided to give it a go. The road was quite bumpy, which my back did not appreciate. However, I was rewarded with an insight into Lao rice farming and the spectacular view of random villages and a school in the countryside, lush nature, as well as an old railroad bridge built by French colonists.
Watering system
Busy rice field
French railroad bridge
Lao school
Buddha cave “Tham Pha”
Jungle
Farming
The Buddha cave, on the other hand, was a disappointment. I had to crawl through the very small entrance of the cave to find some … you will never guess … Buddha statues. The cave is a Lao pilgrim site and taking pictures there is not allowed. Along the lines of “been there, done that”, I headed back to the main road. The karst mountains piled up on both sides of the road like the back teeth of titans: what an unreal and spectacular scenery! I passed many villages with their wooden shacks and houses painted in the Lao-typical neon colours. Smiling children were waving at me and a herd of buffalos blocked the road. After the NTPC water power plant I ascended various serpentines to enjoy a magnificent view over acres of dense jungle and beautiful mountain lakes, always caressed by wind and sun beams.
Herd of buffalos
NTPC power plant
Neon painted houses
Mountain lake
Random village
On the second stage of the trip, the roads were still in excellent shape, and the motorbike kept running. However, 30 kilometres before Lak Xao it all changed. The road turned into a dust track and my petrol reserves went towards zero, with no petrol station in sight. After running some minutes on “empty”, I asked the next garage for some petrol. He pointed to a small wooden shack next to his shop… ”Great, just in time”, I thought.
A bit further, I noticed that construction workers were busy turning this last piece of uncomfortable gravel road into tarmac, adding bridges over some valleys. I guess this is because Lak Xao is one of the main gateways to Vietnam, only 50 km to the border.
The road got better just before I reached Lak Xao, after 150 km and 6 hours of driving. I quickly booked a room in Souriya Hotel (60,000 kip/6.60 €, hot shower, Wifi), took a shower and went to the local market for some food. Even though there is no problem of getting food along the way because the roads are studded with food stalls of all sorts, I had not eaten for quite a while. Unfortunately, all the entrepreneurs at the market were busy closing their stalls. I managed to find one who offered papaya salad, grilled squid, and boiled eggs – yummy. I ordered one of each, sat down and tried to open the egg by hitting it at a metal pole. Suddenly, some liquid ran over my back hand. Checking the egg, I found that it was not a hard boiled one.
After I finished the food (the egg was not exactly a gourmet highlight), the people from the stall invited me to have more food together with them. They asked me to sit down behind the stall and we enjoyed fish soup, noodle salad, and grilled pork. Authentic and delicious. With the basic Lao I have acquired by now, I was able to tell them how good it tasted and how great their hospitality was. In the end, they only charged me 20,000 kip (2.20 €) for the whole meal. Satisfied and exhausted, I went to my room and fell into bed.
The second morning, second time for Foe and coffee; the right way to start into a Lao day. On today’s list: 180 km, a trip to Tham Kong Lo, a cave a little longer than 6 km, and the final destination Ban Vieng Kham. As I had no time to waste, I checked out and left Lak Xao behind to make it to the cave quickly. This plan changed when I saw a temple at the foot of the karst mountains just outside of town. I literally smelled the opportunity for some nice pictures of the temple with the rock formations in the background. On arrival, I was greeted in broken English by a young monk. Suddenly, another four curious monks gathered around me. I asked them about some flags and a Buddha statue on top of one of the nearby rocks. They told me that they installed them and that you can climb up there within 20 minutes only. Should I go or am I in a hurry? I considered my options and decided to give it a go. After all, I expected a wonderful panoramic view from up there – and how long is 20 minutes, really. The next moment, I was surrounded by paths marked with scraps of monk-orange clothes, giant boulders, trees, vines, deep holes, and razor sharp rocks. Sometimes, I even got a glimpse of the landscape through the bushes.
See the flags on top
Marked paths
View from half way up
Proper rock climbing
Dangerous holes
It soon turned into a free-style climbing session where at some point I had to admit that there was no going further. I attempted a steep rock formation close to the top three times, but it was just too dangerous. Full of adrenaline and some frustration I had to tackle the descent. In total, it took me more than one hour to reach the monks again, my clothes dripping wet. The kind monks supplied me with water, bananas, oranges, and apples. Also, we took some pictures and I got a small insight into their lives.
After my clothes were almost dry again (which took at least another 45 minutes) I was back on track. At 2 p.m., I reached Khoun Kham (see photo), a small town which serves as the starting point for trips to the Tham Kong Lo cave, which is another 40 km south.
On the way, you pass a couple of villages, acres of fields (rice, vegetables), and giant karst mountains on both sides of the road. At the cave, you can buy a ticket for a boat which ships you through the cave. Such a boat holds up to three people (guide not included), and you can share the price of 100,000 kip (11.00 €). The entrance fee is another 10,000 kip (1.10 €) per person. I met a French guy with whom I shared the trip.
The cave is quite spooky and its size is massive. It hosts passages which are more than 50 metres wide and have 100 metres in height. At some stages you have to leave the boat to carry it over rapids or to walk around magnificent stalagmite (standing) and stalactite (hanging) formations. After 6 kilometres the mouth of the cave releases you into lush jungle and gives way to dramatic rock formations. After a short stop to refuel energy, you go back the same way.
Entrance to Tham Kong Lo
Stalagmite
Quite dark in here
Dramatic mountains
Back at the entrance, I gathered my stuff and drove towards Ban Vieng Kham, my destination for the day. It was already getting dark, which made the drive a bit uncomfortable, even difficult, a fact to which the multiple serpentines also contributed. Nevertheless, three hours of hard work later, I reached the village, checked into the cosy Vansana guesthouse, took a hot shower and had a Lao meal next door.
Not only I had to work hard
Bathroom
Bed
Sunrise: Vansana guesthouse
Time for breakfast
Foe and coffee
Spice it up!
On the fourth day, there was no exception to the daily morning routine: Foe and coffee (see above). The road back to Vientiane was dead straight. I only stopped to refuel petrol and coffee. The drive was rather relaxed so I could enjoy the landscape and the goings-on in the passing villages. I arrived in Vientiane around four o’clock and went straight to the sauna (check out the herbal sauna plus massage next to Wat Sok Pa Luang), a well-deserved reward after four days of exertions. The trip was over and I was very pleased with my motorbike. It kept running and running and luckily I had no breakdown during this tour. Nice! Khop chai lailai (Lao for thank you very much)!
Conclusion
1.100 kilometres within four days, always on the small back of a motorbike, are hard and exhausting. Struggling with dust and exhaust gases is daily routine. You always have to watch out for massive bump holes which could damage the motorbike and in the evenings every muscle aches.
Nevertheless, traveling by motorbike enables you to enjoy Laos in a completely different way. When you drive through a village and slow down, you get a glimpse of the real Laos, of the Lao way of life. Animals cross the road, you see children play or ride their bikes, the adults play Sepak takraw, drink beer and sing karaoke, families walk back from their field work, equipped with their tools and the yield of the day. Others herd their cows or buffalos with – you might have guessed it right – their motorbikes. You breathe in the nature, can stop wherever you want. Overall, a motorbike trip is something I really recommend to Laos travellers. Travel safe and drive carefully. Accidents are always the foreigner’s fault, because Lao people expect them to be wealthier. Still, it is absolutely worthwhile!
Here are all impressions summed up again (plus some extra).
Magnificent Mekong!
Relict from times of war
Happy New Year!
Lao Happy New Year party
Sin jum (Lao fondue)
Lao roundabout
Busy rice field
Lao school
Buddha cave “Tham Pha”
French railroad bridge
Watering system
Farming
Herd of buffalos
NTPC power plant
Jungle
Neon painted houses
Random village
Mountain lake
View from half way up
Proper rock climbing
Dangerous holes
Marked paths
See the flags on top
Entrance to Tham Kong Lo
Stalagmite
Quite dark in here
Dramatic mountains
Bed
Bathroom
Not only I had to work hard
Sunrise: Vansana guesthouse
Spice it up!
Foe and coffee
Time for breakfast
My ride on the way home from Vientiane
Text and photos by T. Mayer
Thanks to our supporters!
Dear supporters, friends and colleagues!
The year 2015 marked a significant change in the history of the Angels for Children foundation, through the new cooperation with the University of Education Karlsruhe. The pilot project “Teaching English in Laos” devised by Prof. Dr. Isabel Martin and carried out by her team, five graduates of English (primary and secondary education), started in October and ends in January. It now provides the basis for a long-term English education program in the Sikeud area – and possibly in Laos.
The test phase spanning 12 weeks began with a long list of open questions, some educated guesses, some whistling in the dark, and a comprehensive albeit tentative work plan. Within a matter of days, observations and discoveries were made, with more complex revelations and some obstacles to follow. Every day was packed with new exciting or revealing experiences, which were shared and discussed among the team so as to continually reassess and readjust the original plans.
The didactic, linguistic, structural, and organizational weak spots in the school routine were identified as well as cultural idiosyncracies and assets. Modern teaching materials and communicative methods were successfully introduced and demonstrated to the Lao English teachers, who soon started trying them out themselves. At the same time, Christian Engel and Prof. Dr. Isabel Martin introduced themselves and their project to the relevant representatives of Lao Education Institutions.
The initial goal of professionalizing the three governmental schools supported by AfC by combining the modern infrastructure and organization with professional teacher support in pedagogics, didactics, linguistics, and methodology suddenly seemed desirable on a larger scale. Why would we limit ourselves to improving education in a few schools? Could the project not be used as a role model for new developments elsewhere? The responsible Lao Education Institutions seemed to welcome the project for their own reasons and were quick to supply suggestions and comments. First visits were soon returned, small conferences arranged and workshops held. The outstanding possibilities of growth generated in the AfC schools might serve as an example and thus help to improve the Lao education system for the subject of English by improving the methodology, teacher training, and curriculum. English is the language for international communication and needed to help Laos connect with the ASEAN community and the rest of the world, but unfortunately hardly anyone can speak the language – and this sorry fact includes English teachers.
Lao state institutions are not known to be reliable partners. But it seems as if the significant change brought about in a few schools by a new successful framework encouraged new partnerships and opened up new perspectives, which are now being developed through continuous communication and cooperation. Potential new partnerships are forming with the English Department of the National University of Laos, the Teacher Training College Dongkhamxan in Vientiane, the Foreign Language Resource Center of the Research Institute for Educational Sciences, and the Ministry of Education and Sports. During the last two months very promising steps were taken for a future long-term engagement in Laos, signed and sealed by a “Memorandum of Understanding” between Angels for Children and the University of Education Karlsruhe on 15 December.
Follow our blog for information about the project, our team, as well as quotidian and extraordinary events.
At the end of the year and at the beginning of a long-term commitment, our thoughts go back to all our supporters in the hope that we will continue along this road together for some time.
On behalf of Angels for Children and the University of Education Karlsruhe we cordially thank you all for the help you gave us in the form of expertise, time, work, material, and other donations. Without you, this success would not have been possible. We are looking forward to working even harder in 2016 to ensure lasting results.
We wish you and your family and friends all the best for the New Year 2016: “Happy New Year” in English, “Frohes Neues Jahr” in German and “Sok dii Pi mai” in Lao!
Text by J.Zeck & I. Martin
Photo by D. Hartmann
Essay from Phovang “Noy” Inthavong
“What were your expectations, hopes, and fears when you heard that five German volunteer teachers will come to your school?”
At the moment i´m my life is the best for me is so much, but I will talk a litle bid to you that is when I first see you in this school that make me to the heppiest, funiest. and for the worse is when you are going to back home that much. So sad for me and other teachers and students, too. and in my life I also need to improve my knowledge regarding to my knowledge is a little bid bad, and if I really can improve my English knowöedge that will be satify for me, I can use my English to talk and my work to facilitate all the concerning work, and luckily so far I have some good foreigner teachers to help us, too, and I need to get some scholarship to study foreign country., that while I use to hope to get much and much that I can communicate with them and get more knowledge from them, too, expecially I will get more knowledge to return back for improve myself, students and our country as well.
Text by P. Inthavong
Photo by T. Mayer
Essay from Mittaphone “Mit” Sichampa
“What were your expectations, hopes, and fears when you heard that five German volunteer English teachers will come to your school?”
When I heard Miss Linda saids about five German teachers will come to Ban Sikeud Primary School to teach and work with me I fears and worry about my english not good enough. to communicate with them but I am glad and happy to hear that. because in my mind when they are here I can practice my english by conversation and can speak more english everyday. One day when they leave I think my english will be better than before. And I expectation with them. They will to like to work with children. by make them happy, funny, make them like to study english more. And help me to improve my english.
So, I hope my english will improve, pronunciation will right when I say and talk. I want speak English well and I want to be a good teacher in the future.
Text by M. Sichampa
Photo by T. Mayer
Lao essays
At some stage during the Teach-the-Teacher classes, Sandro came up with a great idea: he asked his students Souvanh and Bounleud to write essays about their hopes, fears and expectations when they heard about our project. Following his example, some of us asked our students to do the same. We asked them for their permission to publish some of these essays in their original form (the essays are copied without any changes) and got their permission. You may enjoy an insight into their ways of thinking and writing, their ideas, hopes, fears and expectations in the entries posted here.
“Memorandum of Understanding” between the Angels for Children foundation and the University of Education Karlsruhe
On 15 December 2015 the new cooperation between Angels for Children and the University of Education was formalized: the Chairman of the Foundation Christian Engel and the Head of the Institute of Multilingualism Prof. Dr. Isabel Martin signed a joint Memorandum of Understanding. In this paper the areas of cooperation were determined, such as the development of the schools supported by Angels for Children, the training of the Lao English teachers in didactics, methodology, and the English language, the support with modern teaching material and media, and the ongoing fight against illiteracy.
While the core of the Memorandum revolves around the schools supported by Angels for Children, the larger focus is on the Lao education system in general. Through close cooperation with the responsible Lao state institutions, i.e. the Teacher Training College Dongkhamxan, the National University of Laos, the Research Institute for Educational Sciences, and the Ministry of Education and Sports the new aim of improving English teacher training and the English curriculum can be pursued at the national level.
The combination of first-hand experience of Laos gained by the foundation since 2003 and the artistic and creative approaches to language teaching employed by the University of Education Karlsruhe will help to deal with some of the existing obstacles and problems. For starters, the modern infrastructure and organization provided by Angels for Children in three governmental schools were an excellent basis for trying out new teaching methods and material. The promising first results of the pilot phase of the project can now be built on with the help of the Lao state institutions to improve English lessons outside of our hitherto modest range. We are looking forward to exploring how far this joint venture might take us over the next five years together!
Text by J.Zeck & I.Martin
Attatched by you find the pdf file of the Memorandum of Understanding:
2015-12-15 MoU between AfC and PH Karlsruhe
Photo by J.Zeck
Six special task managers
Besides teaching, our five English education graduates from the University of Education Karlsruhe have some additional tasks to fulfil.
First of all, there is Julia, who is our pharmaceutical expert. During our preparation to go to Laos, her job was to make sure that we are equipped with all necessary pharmaceuticals like healing ointments, different pills against headache, fever, cold, and diarrhoea, insect repellent sprays, as well as a wide range of plasters, patches, and the sorts.
Sandro is our multimedia manager. He is in charge of the music sector, such as instruments and CDs. Moreover, he manages all the pictures and videos we take, and organizes and saves them on a common hard drive. This is of great help for all future volunteers, as this organizational system helps them to build up on the things we did.
Franziska assorted and listed all the didactic material (more than 40 kg!) which we brought to Laos – this had all been generously donated by our German publishing contacts (they are all listed in our “Thanks” entry at the bottom of this page). Thai Airlines donated 30 kg of excess weight to our group for this purpose, which would normally have cost 1,500 €.
After our arrival, Franziska was in charge of setting up our Lending Library in Ban Sikeud Primary School. Then she recorded all the text books plus material for the teach-the-teacher lessons that arrived by post later and 20 kg of dictionaries and novels that Prof.Dr. Isabel Martin brought along on her second visit, which had been donated by members of the University of Education Karlsruhe.
Then we have Laura. She wrote some additional reports together with Julia. The two of them also created a wonderful booklet for our Lao cooperation teachers. This booklet documents all the activities we have done so far, accompanied by didactical comments and flashcards.
Last but not least, there is me, Tobias, your humble narrator. I am responsible for the blog, its maintenance, and most blog entries. At this point, I’d like to thank Johannes Zeck and Klaus Drechsler (both BHS) and Prof. Dr. Isabel Martin (PH Karlsruhe) for their help with establishing this blog. Furthermore, I want to say thank you to Heike Müller (PH Karlsruhe) for proof-reading. Finally, I’d also like to thank Franziska, Julia and Laura for their contributions.
Our Laos experience would not have been even half as successful without the hard work and great efforts of our Prof. Dr. Isabel Martin. She has been an amazing head of our project, a great support, and an exceptional role model and motivator to us. Thanks from the five of us. May this project become an even greater success.
Text by T. Mayer
Photos by J. Bauer, T. Mayer and J. Zeck
Merry Christmas!
Merry Christmas to all our friends, families and supporters all over the world.
In the name of Angels for Children and the University of Education in Karlsruhe we wish you a happy and healthy Christmas with your beloved ones! Thank you all and enjoy some thoughtful days.
Our Christmas tree
Our pre-Christmas night sky
Text and photos by T. Mayer
Mission: VISA run, once more
Today it was back and forth again and we successfully renewed our VISA. Every 30 days we have to cross the Thai-Lao border and go back to Lao to get a visa extension for another 30 days.
Text and photos by T. Mayer
First farewell
Unfortunately, Julia, Sandro, Ann-Kathrin, and Steffi had to head back to Germany this week – their time was up. Before leaving, our group wanted to thank our hosts for their amazing support, hospitality, good mood, smiles, love, hard work, patience, and the great times we shared with them. Thank you so much for everything! Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
PS: We thanked and celebrated with our Lao colleagues on the weekend before (see article Farewell party for “most of us”).
Text and photos by T. Mayer
… with Madame Engel…
Square Dance with Lao pupils at the Ban Phang Heng Secondary School 17/12/2015
During my last week in Laos I got the great opportunity to try out Square Dance with the pupils of my school; this time without Lao teachers but with a great class of 13-year-old pupils instead. I was very excited and asked all of the other volunteers and Prof. Martin to come and join me, so we had a handful of semi-professional dancers in between the Lao group. (Such helpers are actually called “angels” in Square Dance parlance, which fitted our project very well.) The students seemed a little confused to start with when we asked them to leave the classroom and meet in the schoolyard. (Lessons are normally not conducted outside.) Nevertheless, they were eager to find out what was going on, and soon some teachers were observing the strange goings-on outside as well.
We started with the easiest dance for the day, just like we had done in our Square Dance workshop with the teachers. Distinguishing between the different commands was as difficult for the pupils as it had been for the teachers, also because some moves seemed to be completely new (e.g. the partner swing). However, after a few minutes they managed the formation changes and we moved on to a more difficult dance: the “Maine Mixer”. We practiced command by command and put the steps together. It wasn’t easy but after a while the pupils were able to dance the different formations.
However, there was always a problem with the partner change and soon we found out why: The pupils behaved just like German pupils of that age group. They were too shy to dance with partners of the opposite sex, and additionally, physical contact between dance partners is not common in Lao culture at all. As we could not address the matter by talking about it, our only option was to ignore their embarrassment – and after a few minutes they overcame their initial adolescent anxiety and we all had a nice final dance.
Text by J. Bauer
Stills by I. Martin
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