Ban Songhat is the second village where I worked this trip. Our tasks were to lay a water line; 5 miles from a mountain stream, build a water tank, and install 11 public water taps. The village is Lao Buddhist set in rolling green hills and valleys on a dirt road about 20 miles from the highway. The access to markets and better farming sites has allowed it to prosper much more than Ban Phaeko. The houses are raised on stilts with wood floors and some even have small solar panels to power a few lights at night. Strange contradictions: several villagers had cell phones and there are a few motorbikes, but no running water and only a few latrines until we finished our work!
This area heavily bombed by the US during the “secret war” 1963 – 1973 and the MAG (Mines Advisory Group) has unearthed 2000 “bombies” in one 4 square acre area outside of town. Bombies are small, baseball-sized, bombs that were dropped by the millions on Laos by us during the Vietnam War and were intended to main and kill anyone stepping on them. In 2002 two village men were killed when plowing a rice paddy and hitting a bomb. At one point our translator (a MAG employee) asked us not to use the heavy hoes to cut a drainage ditch because the area we were digging in had not been checked for UXOs.
We lived with villagers in their homes and got to know them and observe their lifestyle. They are extremely hardworking getting up at 5:00 am to work in the fields for a couple of hours before coming back home for a breakfast. They are very kind, friendly and love to laugh.
One morning a couple of us walked to school with the kids to talk to the principal and see how far it was (about 3 miles each way on trails through the fields and over a very scary wooden suspension bridge).
Once we arrived at the school, we found out only about a third of the
kids had to go that day for testing…the rest had come along just for
the fun of it, and walked home with us. On the last morning before I left, my host family prepared me a breakfast of sticky rice, boiled greens and a broth with a whole cooked frog…it tasted like chicken!
The village threw a big party for us the night before we left. The women worked for two days making gifts and creating two elaborate origami banana leaf centerpieces. They killed and roasted a pig and barbecued chickens.
At the party there was a very long Buddhist blessing, interrupted by throwing rice and passing glasses of beer and Lau Lau (the local rice vodka). In the center of the altar was the cooked head of the pig, which was carved up, and we were handed pieces to eat. Also there were large bowls of boiled pig fat…mmmmmm good.
At one point all the villagers descended on us and each one had to tie a special good luck Buddhist string around each of our wrists…it was bedlam, but very moving. For some of the students, who had never traveled outside of Colorado, it was a life changing experience. Even a grizzled old cynic like me was moved.
The area we are working in is called the “Plain of Jars”, after the large stone prehistoric jars located there. There are several theories about their origins and use, but no one knows for sure. I found them enchanting.
The local partner of Engineers Without Borders, who provided a lot of logistical support, was the UNESCO World Heritage Site office in Phonsavan. They are supporting our work because it will improve the their ability to promote tourism to each of the villages we worked in, who both have Jar sites.
For more information check out the UNESCO Site
Click here for more pictures from the villages on Picasa
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