Lessons from Laos

Who said spending a year overseas is a waste of time and money? I volunteered for a year overseas in Laos, am thankful for the experience and the Lao people for helping me learn some things now part of me!

Passing on information
In Laos I discovered my inner Asian, dedicating more time than I usually would to chatting, eating together with people and laughing. I had read an article about how ethic people in the workplace form interdepartmental networks more than non-ethnics. I’m ethic, and a woman, so I decided I may as well use these strengths and network to the maximum. Whether it be information about jobs, soccer, cycling or shopping, I’ll pass on information and connect people.

Getting to know people
The volunteer program advised spending at least a month doing nothing else but get to know people. I really saw the value in doing this, and have invested time to do this in subsequent jobs. It does make the working environment happier, and more productive I if people do. And I do.

Subtle negotiation
I used by best leadership skill to support people do things for themselves. The Dutch were pure about the development work they do, they advise but not implement. I adopted some of this mentality.

Spending a little cash for work
We had a very small budget to spend for little things to make our life more comfortable. I have adopted the same thing for my life here. I allocate $100 or so to make life better at work, and it's gone a long way. The cherries, blueberries and strawberries on the two days before last Christmas made people happy. Well, it certainly made me happy. I've bought lunch for birthdays, gifts from overseas and I really enjoy what I can do with this money to make people happy!

Spend a little time making people feel comfortable
When doing cross-cultural training to prepare for Laos, they told us to spend a couple of months to do not much else but get to know people. This is quite excessive for an Aussie job, but it's worth getting to know people to be productive.

Switching between cultures
This did take a lot of time and I still am working on this, but I do try to be more culturally sensitive and way less offended by behaviours than I used to be. And I used to consider myself a fairly tolerant person. I really didn't realise that so many of our social rules were arbitrary. My parents are from China, and I only think I learnt to be Asian when I lived in Laos. With more and more people working in Australia from overseas, it makes bridging that cultural gap just a bit easier, and get to enjoy people better. But trust me, I have a lot to work on, I have a few friends so good at this I don't compare.

Travelling to other countries
I can live pretty simple and cheap when going overseas, learning to travel a bit more simply in Laos has given me the confidence to do the same in other Asian countries. Fear no food poisoning. I think luck has had something to do with it.

Collectivist culture
I learnt that on the scale of things, Asians are a collectivist culture while we in Australia are an individual culture. I've enjoyed a bit of collectivism. If I don't place my own life right in the centre of my universe as much as I used to, it gives me the perspective that the stuff I do really isn't that significant. That's a relief - life's short, definitely so being atheist, so most stuff isn't really worth worrying about. Plus it allows me to place some more importance on making life better for others, which is good, because human relationships I think are what make us happy.


I've started to work on some things from Laos to work on this year!

Lao airlines new website

I am seriously impressed with Lao Airlines' new website. They have a schedule of prices that represent the maximum price- why don't all the other airlines do this? I want to go to Laos next year and think I will be looking up the flights here and contacting my travel agent in Vientiane to make the booking.

http://www.laos-airlines.com/index.asp

Don't get Lao airlines mixed up with Lao Air as I nearly did. I tried to add Lao Air to Wikipedia last year, but couldn't work out how. Hopefully someone has put it on there already. Lao Air flies to the more remote provincial capitals only, ie Sam Neua, Phongsali and Sainyabouli. Their their only booking office is at the domestic airport and this airlines is not very well known. I did fly with them and are a bit unreliable because they rely on sight to fly and when it gets foggy, which it often does in the mountains, they can't fly. I showed up and the airport for the flight and it was closed and instead took at 24 hour bus trip home from Sam Neua to Vientiane.

Special Lao moments

I've had some time to reflect on the moments that have been unique in Laos- not necessarily good, but things I won't forget that added to the experience.

• Having my backyard lit up with fireflies
• Children 10m up a tamarind tree next door, picking the fruit and singing Thai pop songs out loud
• Eating crickets/ grasshoppers, stinkbugs and waterbugs
• Drinking cicada infused wine
• Checking a bird for bird- flu before it was killed for my lunch- this was around 20-50km from a bird flu village
• Drinking from one of two shot glasses at the entrance to a wedding with 600 guests
• 30c coconut or soy drinks, and meals costing 50c- $1 US
• Seeing a large jar of rice wine at a festival with a straw and sign reading 'free alcohol please try'
• A baby snake sticking its head out of the drain as I had my shower
• Pigs on the roof of the bus squealing as the bus went around the corner
• Showing up at the airport and the airport being closed, flight cancelled
• Spending three lots of 24hrs on the bus during the first three months of 2008
• Wrapping a book cover in paper due to concern that the government wouldn't agree with the book
• Listening to a driver rabbit on in Lao language about having 3 wives, each in different towns and being able to understand most of it

Saying cheers

Whilst dining out with my boyfriend's extended family one of his relatives asked what is the equivalent of saying cheers in Laos.

My boyfriend and I replied 'sukaphap keng heng' which translates to something like may you be hard and strong in health. His Lao aunty who had left Laos as a child in the 1970s laughed at us. She said that's what the Communist people say to which we replied, well, they're all Communist there. Apparently the Australian Lao would usually say something usual like wishing good health, long life etc.