Chao het nyang?

This month's blog entry is a tricky one to start because I decided I should focus on what work I've been doing here in Laos to justify my volunteer allowance. It's now over a month since I started my placement in Pakse and I'm not sure how much closer I am to getting stuck in to any true development work.

When I first arrived in Laos and was based in Vientiane, we were given a schedule of events and language lessons which took up around five hours a day. Following that, there was time for email, background research, and sightseeing. No problem and no guilt, apart from the feeling of hopelessness linked to my slow progress with the Lao language. Now I'm here in my office I'm starting to feel a bit of a fraud.  This is hugely exacerbated by the fact that for the first time in my life, I actually have my own office.  In itself this is a bit of a problem because in order to try and learn more Lao, which is a must for better integration, it would really be easier to be surrounded by daily chatter.  Having said that, the group office has arctic air conditioning and if I sit in there I have to go for a walk every couple of hours to get the feeling back in my hands and feet.  I imagine it’s fairly unusual to see an Englishwoman shivering under the blazing midday sun but I like to think it adds to my mystique.

My office

So what do I do in my office?  I send emails, I download and read documents about Laos and the region and I watch the latest editions of ‘The Apprentice’ when they’re posted on YouTube.  I’m sporadically involved in other activities and occasionally I get to stand in a field with my hands on my hips desperately trying to understand what’s going on.

I recently attended the Southeast Asia Coffee and Tea Conference, which was held here in Pakse.  It was a great opportunity to see the workings of an international conference and it really brought home to me how varied the path to development has been for different countries in ASEAN.  It was noticeable that the meeting, which was necessarily conducted in English, was dominated by those delegates who were more confident in their English language abilities and in this regard Laos was unfortunately lacking.  Having said that, there was one Lao delegate who had excellent English and regularly made pertinent contributions, but given the colonial history, he did it all with a very heavy ‘‘Allo, ‘Allo!’ style French accent, which kept me entertained for the full three days.

Some coffee

There is recognition in Laos that improving English skills is inextricably linked with development but with the current skill base it is likely that they’ll continue to lag behind their neighbours until today’s schoolchildren reach working age.  English is a difficult language for Laotians to learn, as Lao is for us in reverse, because structurally there is little in common and the vocabulary alone is not enough.  I don’t think there can be a single English speaking volunteer in Laos who hasn't been asked at some point to deliver language lessons to their colleagues.  Whilst all my other projects have been a bit slow to get off the ground, I was asked to start teaching English within days of arriving.  I have absolutely no background in teaching so the idea was pretty terrifying.

I currently teach an hour a day, at lunch, to a group of colleagues from the forestry department.  The group varies in size from two to around 8 and ages range from 25 to late forties.  Some of them have a rough grasp of English and others are a completely blank canvas.  So what on earth do I teach them?  My favourite thing is to teach them really English colloquialisms, and to date I’ve successfully got them all saying ‘ta ta’ instead of goodbye.

A lesson plan

Beyond that, I try for the standard ‘what’s your name?’, ‘where are you from?’ introduction but what they really need is to be able to converse with other non-native speakers on business subjects.  Unfortunately, there’s no shortcut, so I’ll keep going as I am because at least the lessons give me some connection with the development work I came here to do. 

One mistake I won’t repeat is playing Bingo with a 4x4 grid using numbers 1-100.  It takes bloody ages and the light relief of a game quickly becomes a tedious and monotonous slog.  I think I redeemed myself by giving out biscuits for prizes but there’s still a glint of mistrust in their eyes over a week later.

Getting back to the coffee and tea conference and my favourite moment was when the head of the Thai Coffee Association commandeered the hotel bar after dinner to make me an espresso while I waited for the downpour to stop for long enough to let me travel the couple of kilometres home.  That's definitely an experience I wouldn't have got at home and on a serious note I've found networking and building connections to be a really crucial skill here that I'll be able to take back with me to the UK. 

I’m still confident that I will be able to make a useful contribution here in Laos, I just have to remember that two years is a long time and apparently patience is a virtue!