I grew up in America so the holiday seasons will always mean turkey stuffing, the smell of pumpkin pie and dreaming of a white Christmas. It's hard to transfer that significance to 40-degree heat, spirit ceremonies with boiled eggs and free-for-all water fights, but that's the way of the world in Laos.
As with New years anywhere, it’s about washing away the old and bringing in the new. What better way is there than using water? Buddha images are washed with water and water is cupped into parents’ hands in a gesture of gratitude. Then for three days, you will be drenched by water anywhere you go, be it with buckets, hoses or water guns.
Most students at Savannakhet Teacher’s Training College (TTC) go home and I can get a sense of where they come from. One student says he’ll bring me back a wild animal to eat. I request that it be cooked first. The real sense of remoteness though is the fact that most of these students are often the only ones to have left their village in search for an education.
I’m told that in villages just ten kilometers from the city of Savannakhet, it is common for parents to send their children, sometimes as young as 12, to be laborers or sex workers in Thailand. Sometimes they’re married off before they’re 15. Sometimes they’re never heard of again.
The whole story, as I’m told, is that the money sent back is often used to build a house or buy a car. Then, the neighbors get jealous and competitive and that’s how a culture of under-development spreads.
Sometimes I am in awe when I realize how precious some of these students are. One student’s plan is to go back to his village to teach. It’s a five-hour walk from the nearest town and it’s common for the villagers to run out of rice to eat each year. He can teach in their ethnic minority language and even more encouraging, I believe he will actually have the abilities to teach well.
On the other hand, I’m sometimes baffled at how some students can learn so little. Many graduate with a license to be teachers and can hardly spell their name. It’s frightening to think that they will then have unquestioned authority as teachers. But then again, anything can be bought at the right price.
It’s a new year and we can try again.
