James has been doing a lot of work in the garden over the past month and the results are starting to show. It’s the end of the rainy season, so it’s a great time to start planting vegetables that would have drowned if you planted them 2 months ago (like lettuce, cilantro, dark leafy greens, green onions . . .)
So far the most exciting part of our garden is the okra – “tua lek” in Lao. It’s kind of funny that there’s a word for it in Lao because most people have never seen it or heard of it.
Categories: Lao culture · garden · produce
Yay! It’s the beginning of the rainy season! The rainy season in Laos isn’t very predictable and it’s not going to rain non-stop now that it’s started. But I’m pretty sure that today is the day because it has rained about 2 or 3 hours already. 2 nights ago there was a short drizzle and there was a light rain about 3 weeks ago. Before that it had been months since it rained!
The reason I’m glad it’s raining is that it’s been so dry, dusty, and smoggy recently. On my bikerides I’ve barely been able to see the hills around the city and my throat has been sore from all the stuff in the air. People burn their fields before the rainy season to get rid of weeds, and the smoke has made the sky so dreary! I’m looking forward to beautiful mountains and clear air tomorrow.
Also, we started a vegetable garden about a month ago and some of it is doing quite well! I hope to post some pictures of it soon.
Categories: Lao culture · weather and seasons
So my friend Meghan told me about this show that she was watching and my city was in it! I was surprised because most foreigners don’t bother coming here and there are few tourist attractions. I was so excited that I found it on iTunes and downloaded it. I’m glad I did – they did a great job thoughtfully portraying life here and had an appropriate attitude about the war that happened here. I showed a portion of it to my Lao language tutor and she liked it too and was even more surprised than I was that they came here. Anthony Bourdain’s tour guide in the Phonsavan part owns a beautiful hotel and restaurant here (Auberge de la Plaine des Jarres) and we know him! They picked a great local guide.
You can find it by going to the iTunes Store within iTunes and searching for Anthony Bourdain. This was Vol. 5, Episode 1 “Laos”. It’s $2.
Categories: Lao · Lao culture
Our province is a great place to grow avocados, but they haven’t really caught on here yet. I think that’s because people haven’t figured our how to eat them. They’re not sweet . . . they’re not sour . . . so what do you do with them? Some people have tried making smoothies with them, which sounds gross to me, but maybe I should try it. I love avocados, so I’m a little sad that they’re hard to find here, but we found some a couple weeks ago in Vientiane! (more…)
Categories: Lao culture · Latino · produce · sauces · vegan · vegetarian
Our organization is doing some new work in a remote province in Laos, so we went to check it out. The work hasn’t really started yet. Right now they’re working on building an office and staff house there, but that’s going slowly because the trucks carrying the construction supplies can’t make it on the really bad road which is really really bad during the rainy season. The rainy season lasts 2 more month at least, so it’ll be a while. We did get to visit some of the villages that they will be working in though. It was amazing because I’ve never been to a village of this ethnic group. The Akha people live in remote villages in Northern Laos and have kept a lot of their cultural traditions while living there. There is a lot of work that needs to be done and I’m excited about the potential difference our organization can make. In one village, a wedding was happening, so we were invited to part of it. They had this hot drink I’d never had before and I found out that it was a tea made from the roots of the cardomom plant – delicious! A man in another village served us popcorn cooked in pork fat and salted. Possibly the best popcorn I’ve ever had. If might have tasted extra good because we were tired and hungry from walking. (more…)
Categories: Lao culture
