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<\/a><\/p>\nBut maybe if you had told me that I would spend the most significant year of my life driving a motorcycle, becoming bilingual, jumping off waterfalls, and eating barbecued dog, I would have believed you.<\/p>\n
You see, it was no surprise to friends and family that I decided to volunteer in an impoverished nation trying to find God and heal my broken heart, nor was it a surprise that said country was, to my shame, a place I had never even heard of before. But living on the edge of crazy was just my style, and broadening my horizons was how I embraced this season of life.<\/p>\n
It was a surprise, however, that I became a full-time English teacher and community development worker. It was also a surprise that my teaching involved so much dancing! But, as it turned out, there were a few other things I wasn\u2019t expecting on this unforgettable adventure.<\/p>\n
Whether it was unanticipated relationships, getting bucked off an elephant into the Mekong River, or becoming intimately acquainted with the squatty-potty, I wouldn\u2019t have had it any other way. My ignorance about the nation of Laos was nothing but advantageous; it let the experience define itself, unencumbered by expectations. Alright, I wasn\u2019t expecting to get bucked off an elephant, but that aside, it was love at first \u201csa-bai-dee\u201d!<\/p>\n
Learning Lao life lessons<\/strong><\/p>\n The Lao People\u2019s Democratic Republic (Lao PDR, or Laos) is a small developing Buddhist country sandwiched between Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Myanmar, and China. Since Laos is one of the last remaining Communist countries, the natural beauty is largely untouched due to border closures and political tension.<\/p>\n Both the phrases \u201cdemocratic\u201d and \u201cyes, of course your luggage will arrive\u201d are used very loosely over there. A better acronym for Lao PDR might be \u201cLao People Don\u2019t Rush.\u201d Despite heinous colonial and wartime abuse, the Lao way of life is laid back, welcoming, and peaceful. In all my years growing up in New Zealand and, later, in Canada, never have I been so enchanted with such gracious and humble people and their value of simplicity.<\/p>\n I fundraised with a Mennonite Central Committee program called SALT (Serving and Learning Together), a cross-cultural exchange program that found me a job and a local host family in the capital, Vientiane, where I lived in a small dusty village often without electricity and always without clean water.<\/p>\n The lack of toilets (to say nothing of toilet paper), paved roads, and household appliances were made up for by the additional presence of ants in my bed and lizards in my shower. No, I\u2019m kidding: there was no shower. Bucket-showers were one of many cultural differences of life, like eating with your hands, sleeping in hammocks, and getting bitten by an obscure insect at least once daily.<\/p>\n I embraced all this with joie de vivre<\/i> to the point where I couldn\u2019t remember the last time I didn\u2019t have ants in my toothbrush, wore makeup, came to work on time, wasn\u2019t sweating, drove a car, wore pants, or slept using blankets. Although I missed air conditioning, tampons, and consistent internet access, I loved living in a land where palm trees are ubiquitous, traffic lights a suggestion, marriage proposals came daily, and beer costs less than one dollar!<\/p>\n I had volunteered in Mexico twice before, so it was never the poverty of Laos that shocked me. Rather, in spite of it, the Lao people were so generous and kind; this underdeveloped nation was far more developed in matters of the heart and what life is truly about. Laos was like medicine for my soul, a cosmic chill-pill; Take once daily with food. Spicy food. If irritation persists, seek extended stay.<\/i> I spent the year assuaging my grief with mangoes, sunshine, and investing in my village community.<\/p>\n Among the valuable life lessons they taught me was how to kill frogs and eat barbecued dog, buffalo intestine, ant eggs, congealed blood cubes, fish eyeballs, and every part of a chicken you can conceivably consume (head, feet, butt, half-formed fetus, you name it).<\/p>\n Rethinking education<\/strong><\/p>\n I had expected that after spending 2011 studying philosophy at Camosun, this year away would be a break from school, but my hopes of not setting foot in a classroom for a year were dashed when I was offered a full-time teaching job in two schools. So much for that.<\/p>\n However, I can promise that \u201cschool\u201d in Laos is not what you\u2019re picturing… unless you\u2019re picturing 83 screaming children filling a small concrete room, trying out English swear words at me, the air punctuated by the faint smell of urine, and me dancing Gangnam style to captivate my students\u2019 attention in 43 Celsius weather.<\/p>\n