Day 37 to 41 Pa Va and Plan UK - Imogen's 8th Birthday

Following or experience in the jungle we were now back in Hauy Xai, back in our basic backpackers Hotel, but at least Air Con was included in the price and our friendly host had been storing our rucksacks in her living room for the past 3 days. We had shared our jungle experience with another 16 backpackers, all young enough to be our children, but as we had our own tree house the jungle was big enough not to keep bumping in to each other. They were a good bunch and some of the girls decided to stay in our hotel on the return night, all disappearing off in different directions the next day.
Today we were heading back into the jungle, with a Charity, Plan UK. They have a Laos Office in Hauy Xai and as we sponsored a little girl in one of the distant villages, we had arranged through the UK, to visit her and the village community, for both us and the children to meet her and understand more about what Plan UK were achieving and how the community lived and benefitted from the Charity. Organising the final details in Laos was slightly tricky, partly because we had just been living in a tree house for 3 days and also internet connectivity in Laos was at best intermittent. We had received an email saying we had to pay an extortionate amount of money for the hire of 2 pick up trucks to take us to the village. On the basis we had just been driving in and out of the jungle with 12 people in each pick up truck we couldn't understand why we needed 2 for a family of 5!!. We eventually thought we had resolved the situation at 11pm on the hotel telephone that evening. On meeting Mr Khamack in the morning, he then gently informed us that we also had to cover the cost of the private driver for one of the trucks and the cost of the fuel for both of them!! Over Breakfast and after a few phone calls, Mr Khamack, or 'Kee' as he was happy to be called, made a few calls back to his office, and after a while we negotiated a satisfactory conclusion and after buying a few more pens, books and a football for the village we were on our way.
Our trip was to be a little longer than we had anticipated, 2 1/2 hours drive predominantly on dirt track before reaching the village. Also we realised that we were to have an entourage of officials coming out with us for the day!, various educational officials, a representative of the government educational body and various others to ensure our safety! ..................... safety!!! ...... we had just been living 120' up a tree for 3 days, swinging from zip wires!!
It was quite comical in a way as 'Kee', our very friendly and helpful Plan contact, informed us that we would be making a stop for lunch and it was usual for the sponsor to cover the cost of lunch! ................... this was a surprise! ............. Although 'Kee' assured us the food would be quite simple, we now realised why we were being escorted by so many officials!! ................. a free lunch!!! Our first stop was at the Regional Government Education Offices, where Plan rented a satalite office and we were introduced to all of the staff and invited for questions. Following this group session, we were escorted to the large office at the end of the building, where there were coloured plastic chairs arranged in front of a desk where there was a very official looking man, settledat his desk . As he didn't speak English, 'Kee' introduced him as The Director of Education for this Province ............................. ok, ........ we said our pleasantries and introduced the family. ................................. then it all went uncomfortably silent!! ............................. We weren't quite sure what was supposed to happen next as nobody had told us! ...................... Kee then broke the silence with a smile ....................... "you may now ask questions" he said ....................................... I felt as though I was having an audience with the Pope! and looking on the wall next to us was the picture of all the government officials of Laos, in their military uniforms and I suppose we were in a communist country and this is how things were done. Deep respect for those in high places ..................... He hadn't met the children yet!! ............... ok, so put on the spot we managed to string a few pertinant questions together, avoiding the obvious of " did you watch the Liverpool match last night!!' which I know Harry was dying to ask him. A couple of times we had to phone a friend and ask the audience, but all in all we completed our task quite well and left just before the children were about to start a water fight!
After completng our official bit, we then headed off for the next part of our journey and had managed to pick up a few more officials, who had obviously heard about the free lunch!! Our next stop in our 2 1/2 hour journey was lunch and a pre-arranged destination had been booked. This all looked very local, and just down the street there appeared to be a huge party going on, with very loud music. When Jo asked what it was, we were told it was a local wedding. Well, with Jo's powers of getting us in to all the right places, within 10 minutes we had our own table in the middle of the wedding reception, where there must have been about 300 guests, we met the family and the bride and groom and who we thought was the father, turned out to be a very important man who had organised the wedding. Boy was it hot!! but he kept filling our glasses with cold "Beer Laos' and after making our wedding offerring (no, not one of the children!! ......... along with all the other guests, a financial offering) we had to drink, as all the other guests had done, from the small gold goblets, handed to us by the bride, one for me and one for Jo, not knowing what was in them we quickly had to slug it back ................ then I noticed, the almost empty bottle of Johnnie Walker 'Black' Label in the grooms hand, as he topped up the gobblets for the next guests. The children were provided with plates of melon and we managed to skip the local food by insisting we had lunch waiting for us back in the restaurant. However, our important wedding organiser felt it would be rude to leave before the first dance and he informed us that he would dance with Jo and I would dance with his wife. ......................... oh well ............. "when in Rome!!!! .......Although the lead singer of the band was doing his best to make it as a rock star, the pace of the dancing was rather different from the tempo of the music!!! with the oldies dancing first, obviously a respect thing, don't know why I was up there with them!! ........... something akin to a slow japanese dance movement with wavey hands and slow turning circles, all 20 of us moving round in a larger circle. .................. that was entertaining!! ..........................

Back in the restaurant, the food was simple and left a little (no a lot) to be desired!! Kee at one stage told me that the fish salad with corriander, onion and chilly was a speciality as it was made from the rare mekong river catfish and was very expensive!! ............................ on the basis we were now a table of 11 and I was catching the bill, I didn't know whether to laugh or cry!
Fortunately, (after raiding the bride and grooms financial offerings!!), the food bill was manageable and we all moved out for the hour trip to get to the village. The Village was called "Pha Khoy" and the tribe was called the "Hmong" people, who were a particular ethnic group. On arrival we were greated by the head of the village and a messenger was sent to the school to fetch all the children, who soon came running down the hill to see what was going on. Pa Va, the girl we sponsered was then found and introduced to us and we were then invited into her home to be introduced to her large family. Pa Va had 5 brothers and 1 sister, 3, 6, 8, 10, Pa Va 11, 13 and 15/16 and when we were asking their respective ages this seemed to prove a little difficult with certain members as the father could only tell their age by the number of harvests he had completed and sometimes he would forget, or add a couple (plus as he was only 30 he seemed a little embarrassed to own up to a 16 year old son, at least his wife was 35!). Their home was a single storey bamboo hut with an open plan living and eatng area and a small fire going in one corner that made it fairly smokey. There were then two raised areas to make the bedrooms. Pa Va understandably looked rather shy as she sat in the middle of the house with her family seated on one side on very small stools and us seated on the other side, on very small stools and behind both the family and us were all the children from the school, followed by the rest of the village. It was fairly hot in there!! with the sweat running down our backs and in true Laos style it was now our chance to ask questions of the family and Pa Va.

After a while Harry went out side to present the football to the local children and get a game going - he did need a translatror as he struggled to organise 2 teams, but this eventually happened and the match began, joined also by Freddie. I joined in at one stage but was no match for the local boys and in this heat, a couple of tackles was all I could manage!!

The visit was a success and "Kee" was soon keen to get us back on the road as he was worried that we needed to be back in town before dark. Although Laos didn't have a specific 'curfue', most of Laos shut up at 10.30pm and it certainly was not advisable to be driving after dusk as if you were involved in an accident there was nobody to call on for help!!! - I think everything, including Hospitals and Police were closed at dusk until the following morning. ................... although I am sure my AA roadside assistance card would have come in handy!!!!
We said our goodbyes to the village and learnt that this was in fact the ONLY visit any sponser had made to this Village, hence the interest from both Officials and Locals alike and the school were pleased with our humble offerrings of books and pens and the local boys were very happy to receive a football from Harry and Fred.
The journey back was long, with a couple of stops on the way includiing one at the accomodation block where everyone from 'Plan Laos' lived. We were offered coffee and Harry joined in with a game of the traditional Laos sport of 'keepee uppee ball' (don't know its real name!) over a badminton net. He was soon joined by Fred and Imogen. Meanwhile I had crossed the road to what looked like a local garage where the husband and wife were sitting outside. The children were hungry and I was looking for snacks, Kee joined me to help with the translation but they didn't have anything. The husband then invited me to share a 'Beer Laos' with him and clearly it would have been rude to turn him down, we sat down for an hour drinking beer with him and some of the Plan guys while his wife kindly fed the children with fresh mango and bananas, before saying more goodbyes and travelling the final hour back to our hotel in Hauy Xai.

Plan was founded in 1937 to assist Spanish Civil War Orphans and is today one of the world's organisations working for children's rights. Plan operates in 49 countries. In the village we visited, Plan had achieved a great deal, partly by educating the parents to ensure their children are sent to school, by assisting financially and also helping the family in other ways. Plan also provides education material and impliments 'WASH' (Water and Sanitation Hygene). Pa Va's father is only 30 and has 7 children. The eldest at 15/16 now boards. This means he has to walk 5 hours to school and because it is so far he has to stay at the school and walks home once every couple of weeks. The family moved to the Village as the father used to farm Opium but since Opium production is now prohitbited many people lost their livelihoods and have been resettled.


Our next journey was to get to southern Laos and the Four Thousand Islands and this was a long way down the map!!
We took a Laos Airline flight to Vientienne Capital of Laos - (Huay Xai has 8 flights a week, 4 in and 4 out) in time for Imogen's 8th Birthday celebrations and decided to book into a very nice Hotel to celebrate the occassion as the children were getting desperate for a swimming pool! - a good time for a welcomed wash and brush up before reconvening our journey!!

Imogen's 8th Birthday celebrations at The Stetha Palace Hotel (special occassion and time for a wash and brush up!!)

Following our comfortable night in Vientienne we still had to travel 800km to get to the 4000 islands and as a cheaper option than flying we decided to rent a 4x4 and drive the distance. We were soon on our way and assured that roads would be tarmac we headed for route 13 and a long drive. We picked up good speed and found route 13, which was probably equivalent to the A3, but with a difference!!! .......... I compared it to one of the boys video games as at any time you would have to slow down, or stop, for Water Buffalo crossing the road, cows, chickens, geese, dogs and pigs, not to mention scooters that rode straight out of a side roads without looking ................... why did they need to look!!!! ... The average age of the driver was about 7!! and they were usually 3 up!
The journey was eventful and with an overnight stop at the local motel!! we eventually made it, right down to almost the Cambodian Border.

On the way down we stopped at various places of interest including one of the many waterfalls of the Bolaven Plateau, 1500m above the Mekong River, where they grow tea and coffee. Here we were able to have a dip to cool off and Harry and Fred enjoyed jumping off the rocks with the local school boys. It was quite amusing to see most of the school children jumping in still in their trousers and others with complete uniform on. ............... I suppose not only would this save mum washing it but in this heat it would be dry by the time they got home anyway!!!