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| Last Christmas |
The past month has probably been the most busy, serious and
work filled month I’ve spent since I arrived in Laos and at the last count, I’d
worked through three consecutive weekends.
It’s been brilliant but has left me with little time to reflect on how
many bugs I’ve killed, where dogs shit or how to develop my friendships with
amphibians. I did find a bit of time to
squeeze in a couple of lovely, relaxed days in the 4,000 Islands with my sister
when she visited, so it hasn’t all been nose to the grind stone but my focus
has definitely being more work-wards than anything else and it looks set to
continue in the same vein until the end of my placement.
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| Civil servants living it up |
Amongst other things, we’ve been building a greenhouse to
allow for production of disease-free fruit tree seedlings. We designed, budgeted, found the funding and
hand built it, which is quite a satisfying way to round off the year. It’ll be even more satisfying when I find a
suitably shadowy corner to carve ‘Susan was here’ into the woodwork.
The most amusing moment of the build probably came when my
sister looked at a group of about ten of my colleagues all busy with different
jobs; concrete mixing, chiseling, brick laying etc and said rather
incredulously ‘so this is what Lao civil
servants do on their day off’.
So anyway, I’m feeling quite pleased with life at the
moment, although it still has its ups and downs. No matter how hard I try to ignore it, one of
those downs is being away from home for Christmas.
So, you heard it here first, whatever happens in between, I
will be at home for Christmas next year.
I will eat stilton and mince pies and roasted things and drink port and
dark coloured beers and mulled wine of dubious origin and I will do it all
while wearing a paper crown that slips slowly over my eyes.
Having said that, I think I might be warming* to the idea of
Christmas in a hot climate because this year’s most sentimental Christmas
moment came courtesy of a moist eyed moment listening to 'white wine in the sun'
by Tim Minchin. That took me by surprise
because I don’t really like white wine and I definitely don’t like too much sun,
so I suppose I just really like Christmas.
It was also only November but we’ll gloss over that.
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| Thanks Mum |
After having safely navigated through the last couple of
years when everyone has been getting married, from next year it looks like we’ll
be moving into the years when everyone has babies and while it can be fun to be
the globe-trotting guest at weddings, babies need you to be around for a bit
longer if you plan on making an impact.
One of the most disappointing things about having spent the last two
years in Laos, has been missing all the milestones as my nephew gets to the
point where he can start to understand and really enjoy what’s happening at
Christmas.
Having seen his terrified visage in the photograph of his first
meeting with Father Christmas, I’m not sure I’m missing much. Nevertheless, I hope I can be around a lot
more next year, for both my family and friends, especially those who find
themselves wittingly, or unwittingly, up-the-duff this Christmas.
To conclude, my toast this year is to the offspring and
foetuses of all of the people I wish I was spending Christmas with and to all
the other people who aren’t where they’d like to be this festive season.
And so, in a post where I was trying to forget about
Christmas, I’ve used the word 15 times and here it is again,
Merry Christmas!
* You only demean yourself by laughing at that terrible pun.
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