The last three days have been absolutely crazy and amazing! We have been figuring out and settling into a new culture, city, and schedule. It has been a lot of fun getting to know the students throughout the past few days and working on their English with them (although that usually turns in to a Lao lesson!) I am writing this post late at night, so please excuse any grammar or other issues :) The ARDA Skills Centre is a school (2 years for guys, 1 year for girls) where students can come to learn different life and vocational skills. Everyone takes English, life skills, and English; the guys take classes in construction, and the girls take classes such as cooking and baking and childcare. The students take classes in the morning, and they go to work for various area businesses in the afternoon. All the guys are currently working at a construction site for the government and the girls have a variety of jobs, mostly cleaning. The whole program is run by the Anglican Relief and Development Agency.
Monday: We started the day by having a basic tour of the center and meeting the staff and students. They were all very friendly and happy to meet us. We also were able to sit in on a two classes: English and cooking and baking. At ARDA the girls and guys are separated for their classes, so all the ones we sat in were girls only. We were able to help out in the English class with some of the activities, which was a great way to learn a lot of the girls’ names. For lunch we went over to Kip and Anna’s house for lunch (they are the other couple who help run the center) with their family and Jeremy. They presented us with a number of different opportunities to get plugged in here and help out and we were able to share some of the things that we would like to do. I think we will have more than we can handle! During the afternoons on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays the girls hold a children’s ministry after school. It was a lot of fun, but I will write about it in a little bit.
Tuesday: In the morning I was able to sit in on the same classes again. In cooking and baking the girls were actually learning how to make pizza. It was a lot of fun to just watch and talk to the girls as much as their limited English would allow. I have tried to pick up a few words in Lao, but the tonal thing is quite difficult! In the afternoon we did some English tutoring with one of the girls who does not work on Tuesday afternoons. She was formerly trafficked to Thailand and suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), so school can be difficult for her. After we got done tutoring, the 3 of us went for a walk, and Alice and I bought her a fruit smoothie. At first we thought she was shy, but one she felt comfortable, she would go off in Lao and talk for minutes at a time. The only thing we understood was that one time a snake fell out of a tree and landed on her! Later on, 3 of the students invited us to go on a bike ride to the market, so we went along. One of the girls decided that she wanted noodle salad (sorry, I haven’t learned the word in Lao yet), so we went to look for it. We took a dirt road along the Mekong River, and ended up at the most random little house that sold noodle salad. It was a bit spicy, but really good! It was also an amazing opportunity to get to know the students that we went with. They all have awesome testimonies, but I will save those stories for another post.
Wednesday: Most of our day today was spent tutoring English. We stared by working with two of the Lao ARDA staff. They are both taking classes at the ARDA Language Centre, which is only a few blocks away. The tutoring is just having a conversation and helping them with their homework. It is a lot of fun! Later on, one of the girls came to me while I was sitting in the lounge area and said she wanted to practice her English. We stared out with a basic conversation, but it ended with me being taught Lao by about 6 of the Lao girls! They really love teaching Alice and I how to speak Lao and we love learning it, so it is a great combination. They were teaching us again this evening in the kitchen and we were just laughing and having a great time. A few of the students know English quite well, so they can serve as translators to explain what phrases we are being taught when the other students don’t know how to say it in English. This afternoon we helped out with the children’s ministry again. The kids love having two white girls to play with, so we are surrounded from the moment we step out the door! Today a bunch of the little girls taught me how to play a Lao version of Duck, Duck, Goose. It is very similar, but because it is rude to touch somebody’s head here, they use a shoe and drop it behind the “goose.” They also sing a song while they play, but I don’t know what they are saying.
This weekend we are going to visit a Lao village with a former student and a staff from ARDA. It will only take us a couple hours to get there, so we will have most of the day on Saturday to spend there. Hopefully I will have a chance to post again soon after the weekend. d
I am hoping to put pictures up soon, but the internet can be slow here, so it might be difficult.
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