“Look away, look back, you’re in Laos”

Laos Love!

Her name's Monster - shes the cutest monster I've ever seen!

The 1st Pencils of Promise school ever built! Its in a village called Phatheung, Laos

The meaning of this quote is two-fold. First, it is true that when I looked away, then looked back, my passport, money, and phone – everything in my money belt was gone. Poof! But this phrase also comes from the hilarious Old Spice commercial that IB kept quoting after I finally made it to Luang Prabang (Lao headquarters for an NGO I interned for called Pencils of Promise -PoP).

I had just arrived Laos when my world came crashing down. I realized I was alone, in a foreign country, where the people speak little English, with no money or identification and the US embassy was closed. But, this is what it is like to travel; things don’t always go as planned and you have to figure it out. And I did. I ran around the capital city, Vientiane, for two days going back and forth between the US embassy, the immigration police station, the local police station, the western union, the Laos consulate, and the Vietnamese and Chinese embassies. All in all I made a total of 20 trips walking back and forth between these places. I learned that in Laos, as in much of the world, bureaucracy is slow and things are not going to happen in a hurry. For example, when I was at the local police station, all the “bosses” who had to sign my police report were at lunch. Three hours later they were still at lunch, then, “oh I forgot, they went to a meeting, come back tomorrow.” Even the Chinese embassy closed before lunch on Friday.

It was an adventure though and I stayed positive with a mission of making it to Luang Prabang, even if for only an afternoon. At night instead of sulking in my room I walked around the safe, backpacker area of Vientiane. One night I met two Finnish boys who shared some of their “snake and scorpion lao lao” with me. It was whiskey in a bottle that also contained a cobra and scorpion. If there was ever a drink that tasted “snakey” this is it – gross! I also met a Swiss guy who was spending a year traveling the world on his own. We got caught up talking about the joys of traveling alone and after three hours I had to sprint back to my hotel before they locked me out. In Laos there is a curfew – hotels and guesthouses all lock their doors around 11 or 12 and if you don’t make it back in time you could be SOL. He was a really interesting guy who made me realize that in the midst of trying to overcome a huge hurdle all by myself, I decided I love traveling alone and would do it all again.

Finally, I got everything done and jumped on a plane headed for Luang Prabang. I met Daak Fi (Leslie, the American PoP country director) for my 24-hour visit just as the huge red sun set into the mountains. It was every bit of wonderful I imagined it to be. Riding on the back of motor bikes, drinking Beer Lao along the Mekong, balling rice in my hands, perfecting the greeting “saw-bai-dee,” getting some longhorn love from a friend named Ryan, going to the local dance club, and hearing all about Pencils of Promise updates made the trip amazing.

Unfortunately, I missed meeting Lanoy, the Lao woman who is the local PoP director with an incredible heart and charming personality. She would have normally been the woman to give me a “Lao name” but luckily a man named Hong – we nicknamed him Arnold, Arnie for short - decided it should be “Nong Malai,” meaning young flower. Arnold was a constant joke because he was the first Lao man Daak Fi and IB (Leslie’s boyfriend) had ever seen who was so built and muscular. “You’re so jacked – will you fight someone so we can watch?” or “Please take off your shirt Arnold, we would like a free dinner.” I thought this was hilarious – especially when we went to the dance club and Arnie went to the bathroom just to change into a muscle shirt.

The highlight of the trip was going to see the first Pencils of Promise school ever built. We took a gorgeous motorbike ride out to a little village along the river called Phatheung. It was just as I had imagined – flocks of adorable kids thrilled to see us. I met the children whose names had become famous in the PoP office. Monster, the center of several photos hanging in the office became the star of all of mine. We played with all the kids for several hours, running from the soccer field in front of the school, to the river where they went swimming. The kids would leap from the bank and belly flop into 1 foot of water and mud then swim out. I wanted to wade in to join them but instead, to everyone’s entertainment, I sunk into about 2 feet of mud and got stuck.

We played shirts and skins soccer, sang sogs, played a funny animal-name game, and had an arm wrestle tournament that Arnie intensely judged. As each of the boys came up to battle, they would rip off their shirts to emphasize their manliness. I loved holding their little hands all day and photographing their beautiful smiles. It was far too short of a trip and I am determined to make it back to see more of this incredible country.


“Agape la Vida” – Andre Ramadan

I came back to the ship still beaming from the end of my time in Laos and dreaming up plans for my future. But, I quickly found out a fellow shipmate, Andre had died tragically and unexpectedly. In his memorial service one student mentioned a wonderful saying of Andre’s, which is both Greek and Spanish, “agape la vida.” – unconditional love of life. I really cherish this quote and think it brings so much meaning to this trip. I truly love my life, I am so happy, and I am thrilled that I didn’t let a minor bump in the road keep me down. I wouldn’t have been able to do it without the support of my amazing parents, faithful friends and the Lao people. Your love sustains my unconditional love for life, so thank you!