Gentle week

It's been a gentle week of playing boules, which, together with good bread and wine seem to be some of the best hangovers from the French colonial period here; teaching the novices to play chess - they asked me to play chess with them, then proceeded to play a form of drafts, so after much searching I managed to find a poor quality chess set, not great - the queen looks like a bishop - but at least it's serviceable - I'm just hoping that I've not misled them on castling - think that you move the king to the castle, but I may be wrong; and going for job interviews.

My CV is now with a fair number of schools and most of them reckon that they will have work for me soon. Just got to wait and see now.

Tonight I'm off with the novices again. One of them hasn't been home or seen his mother since he was about 12 and as he's now 18 or 19 he is beside himself with excitement - as is his mother. I don't think we will come across any other Westerners there as the guide books say that it's an arduous journey with nothing to show for it at the end, but that should mean I get to see 'real Laos'! Whatever that means. His mother is holding a Baci ceremony for him before we leave - I think that this involves white string - but somehow suspect that there is somewhat more to it than that! Hopefully it'll create some interesting photo opps.

The weather is getting hotter, and the weight is dropping off - safety pins are proving vital to keep my trousers up now!

I've started to really notice how much cheaper everything has become since my rudimentary language skills have progressed beyond just saying hello - I am already much more likely to get the local price instead of the 'farang' price.

Yesterday I visited a school where I shall probably volunteer once I have sorted out the rest of my life. It's linked to the place that I volunteered in on the Thai Burmese border, where around 10 students where being taught. Apparently that place is now a children's home and teaches around 400 students - this made my day - there were so many kids in need of help there. Brought back many memories too.

It looks like someone has found somewhere for me to live which is really near the temple and away from most of the tourists, which suits - hopefully this will be confirmed when I get back from the Northern provinces.

Better go, more next week

Jo