Jon
Jon is an American who lives in Washington
(State) and is trying to break into the world of photographic art. He has been
building a portfolio of stunning, monochrome pictures of the Jars - the first person to do this he believes - and has been very determined to
make some good images at daybreak especially during fog. Since there was no fog
for the first 8 weeks or so he took photographs of the jars in other ways ie
without fog! In addition he has been making videos and time-lapse videos with which to promote his
work. Formerly, he worked for 11 years in New York in the film industry.
As I have said,
foggy mornings don’t happen every day, so he has also been trying to make
contacts with several organisations to help them in promoting their work. The
first was with a man in America who spends 9 months every year raising money
which he then uses to contract a company in NZ to clear a mine field from one Lao
village. He would attend the mine clearance for 3 months and then return to the
USA to start again. Unfortunately Jon failed to get a response so he moved on
to other organisations with, sadly, similar results. However, in Phonsavan is
the Lone Buffalo Foundation (see Mark below) and, since Mark, Jon and I
frequent the same few bars (well, one actually - Bamboozle) a firm connection
was made.
Jon has recently been working with some of
the students at Lone Buffalo in the film making club.
MSF
Jon’s friends from Médecine Sans Frontières
were an older lady (American midwife) who has just come from northern Laos -
their project has just finished. She had also been to Cote D’Ivoire and Laos
previously. The other, younger lady (Japanese midwife), had been to South
Sudan, Yemen and Pakistan near Peshawar. She told me she works for MSF for 6
months and then takes a year working as a “locum” in her home town near Tokyo.
She says it is too hard to do more than 6 months as she is on call 24 hours/day
when in-country.
Mark
Mark told me he is from Portsmouth and has two jobs.
He is a tour guide for a British company and goes to the most
off-the-beaten-track places. He had just come back from 2 weeks in remote parts
of Burma (but not where my Dad was). He does the “Stans” as he called them,
Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Pakistan etc, He
loves Iran and has been there 11 times. He works 3 - 6 months per year to
support his second job which is helping to run a project called The Lone
Buffalo Foundation in Phonsavan. It is a
school originally founded by a local man called Manophet who worked on UXO
clearance during the day and taught English in the evenings in his tiny
house. In 2006 Manophet started a school
football team - in 2008 they won the National Day Cup. After Manophet died Mark
and his pal from the UK decided it was such a good cause they came to Laos to
put the school on firmer footing. They acquired proper buildings, and now teach
English, computers, teacher training and film making. They have a gym and teach
the students football (boys and girls teams). Through their contacts they try
to find jobs for the kids. It is all free - the only free English school in the
Province.
James
James works for World Renew and has been
here for 7 years with his wife. World Renew undertakes projects similar to
MiVAC - sanitation and water supplies - but they specialise in villages that
are the most remote in the Lao PDR.
Ingrid
Ingrid has spent her life “working with
foreigners” - she managed canteens and kitchens in schools in Germany where the
pay was poor and only recent immigrants would take the work. She is a
nutritionist and mediator but here in Phonsavan she is an adviser to the Integrated
Vocational Education and Training School of Xieng Khouang. She has been here
nearly 2 years and is leaving in April. Previously she has worked in Zambia for
3 years. Ingrid makes traditional German rye bread but has been unable to
source the flour in Lao recently.
Lloyd
Lloyd and his wife, Darlene, own a school
on the outskirts of Phonsavan where English, Vietnamese, Chinese and computers
are taught. Lloyd first came to Laos during the early 1970s and loved it. He
and his wife lived for many years in Thailand, teaching. Then, they decided to
move Lao PDR and they started the school in Phonsavan. The courses are aimed at
adults so the classes run in the evenings.
Lloyd told me a story when I was at a
Christmas Eve party near his house that he had been in northern Laos in 1971 out
in a country area. We were discussing the resourcefulness of the North
Vietnamese in their use of the Ho Chi Minh Trail. I asked how he came to be in
N Lao during the Secret War out in a country area held by the North Vietnamese
and he replied very enigmatically that he “had contacts”. I must take him up on
that further another time…
Darlene supplies me with the most delicious,
home-made, wholemeal bread - the best in Northern Lao!
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