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Hi, after a long 8 hr coach journey through beautiful mountain scenery we arrived here, a one horse town that is thick in dust and building activity. The roads were narrow alpine ones with no protection at all on one side, and frequently the rains and landslides had washed away the surface so the going was rough and tough. Once or twice I was biting my finger nails when we met something but fortunately that did not happen too often. However, there were frequently local farmers walking along carrying their heavy loads of implements and sacks of rice. All the villages were sited on the road edge so children, animals and poultry wandered freely too. Although thehousing was poor electricity has reached them and most huts seem to have the ubiquitous satellite dish. Rice and chillies were drying along the roadsides and in unbeleievable places there were market stalls selling quite a variety of fresh greens, pumpkins etc.
Phonsavan is the new regional capital and has many of the gov offices here and it is where the army is based so smartish homes are being built amongst thelocal life. The original centre was completely flattened by the American bombings on the Ho Chi Min Trail and so when it was over it was decided to rebuild elsewhere.
We stopped to look around one village and were fortunately able to look in a school, it had five classrooms, each with one teacher and supposedly attend each day from 730 - 11:30 and then 1:30 - 4:30. The class I visited had 58 children from grades 3 to 5 and the blackboard was halved with work for each grade on the appropriate bit. Whilst the others were listening to our guide and the teacher I started getting the children to count in English and they loved that. We gave a rattan ball and exercise books for them to use. Their homes were grim and they were so isolated so it is unlikely that their education will continue after they are 11 or 12 and have to go to the nearest town for Sec ed.
This morning we have visited the Plain of Jars and as you can see they are enormous stone pots as tall as me and archaeologists reckon they are about 2500 yrs old but no one can agree on their purpose or find sufficient evidence to support their theory. If their origins can be agreed then it will become another World Heritage site. Unfortunately, this area was the most heavily bombed one during the Secret War and so much of it is still off limits as the bombs still need to be cleared. Many of the homes and hotels in this area are using bomb casings etc as plant holders or purely for decoration. Later today we are going to view and see films about what happened.
This place is not one to relax in, neither is it possible to find a good coffee shop - beer is really the only decent drink apart from water and canned ones which I do not like. I'm desperate for a decent cup!
Now is the time of the rice harvest and many people are out cutting with a sickle, threshing the grain by hand and then collecting the straw in bundles and carrying to makeinto stacks for food for their cows and water buffalo. The water buffalo love lying in the muddy parts which separate the paddies.
I haven't tried to load pics, may be able to in Vientienne where we fly to tomorrow pm. A bit nervous as the airport is one shed and the airline is Lao Airlines! Looking forward to the capital city and hopefully will be able to see some of the water festival on the Mekong - it is a major festival in most Asian countries - where I was working will close for twodays because everyone wants to participate.
Need to go now and get ready for the serious bit and learn more about the dreadful time this beautiful country had.
Apparently Laos People's Democratic Republic really means Laos People Don't Rush!
Take care, love to all, J
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