A Literary Event

Colin Cotterill at the book event at COPE. Yes, those are prosthetic limbs hanging behind him. Some of them are even made of bomb casings. Oh, the sad, sad irony.



I had never heard of Coliln Cotterill until I arrived in Laos. I was then introduced to his novel, The Coroner's Lunch, and am now a big fan. Colin is a native of Britain, with an Australian passport who spent 4 years in Laos in the late 1970s who now lives in Thailand. He is writing a series of novels set in Lao PDR in 1975 just after the Pathet Lao came to power. They feature an elderly surgeon who is forced from retirement to serve as the national coroner of Laos. He comes to discover that he is the host for Yeh Ming, an ancient Hmong shaman, and consequently has unusual interactions with the recently deceased people he examines. These interactions lead him to be a sort of amateur detective into these mysterious deaths. They are set in Vientiane with street names and sites I pass every day. They involve a fair amount of satire and do not always cast the Party in glowing terms but have not been banned. They also have a fair amount of animism which confused me at first. I read all 5 in the series to date in the first 2 months I was here and am already looking forward to number 6 which will be published next August.

It was exciting, therefore, to meet the author this past week. He returns several times a year to do research for the novels and has become an advocate for several charities around the country. His novels have recently been published in Lao and he is donating all the proceeds to three of these charities, including COPE. COPE is located at the National Rehabilitation Hospital and helps provide prosthetics and other adaptive equipment to disabled Laos. Many of their patients are victims of previously unexploded ordinances which remain a huge problem in this country which is the most bombed in history. He gave a presentation and signed books at COPE as well as gave a short reading from his 6th book. I had never been to such an event, and it was fun to meet the author of the books I enjoy so much, right in the city where they are set.

Thalea's Baci

I just returned from my first baci this morning. A baci is a traditional Lao ceremony to celebrate a special event such as a birth, marriage, homecoming, welcoming, or festival or to bring a cure to the sick. Before the ceremony, the women prepare a pha kwan which is a bowl from which an arrangement of flowers, bananas leaves and pieces of white thread is created. This is placed in the center of a white cloth which will be the site for the ceremony. An elder, often a monk, then calls all the wandering spirits back to their inhabitant. The kwan are components of the soul described by some as “vital forces, giving harmony and balance to the body, or part of it" or "vital breath". According to the Lao, the kwan look over the 32 organs which unite to form a human being. Sickness or suffering is often blamed on the wandering or loss of one of these kwan. The kwan are called back and then white strings are tied around the wrists of the people of honor with blessings of long life, health, prosperity, etc. Sometimes small monetary bills are tied on with the strings. The strings should be left on for at least three days when they can be untied, but not cut off. It is preferred to leave them on until they fall off. Afterward, everyone shares a meal (and alcohol) together.

So, when the neighbors came over this week to invite us to the baci for their newborn daughter, I had a vague idea of what was involved, but hadn't yet seen one. Thalea was born 1.5 weeks ago to her Thai mother and Belgian father. Overall, it was a baby shower with animist/Buddhist spiritual rituals. I do not share their spiritual beliefs, but they are our neighbors and it was nice to celebrate with them on the birth of their baby and interact with some other folks. Bryan and I bought baby gifts at the Shell station (yes, it was a little like doing Christmas shopping at the mini-mart on Christmas morning, but it is a nice gas station!) When we arrived, it seemed that the only people who brought gifts were falang and most of them had also come from the gas station. We tied the strings, ate the food and chatted with folks. Ning, our housekeeper, and Sou, our administrator, also came and it was nice to chat with them. This ceremony has special meaning to the Lao people, but for me it was just a nice break from my Saturday morning studies.

Ning and Sou with Thalea and her father.

Boat Racing Festival

So I experienced my first holiday in Laos last week. Or course, it was difficult to determine if it was an official holiday or not. Our office staff took two days off, but the hospitals only had one day of holiday (and maybe one day of pseduoholidaty) and some places were business as usual. Hmm, interesting. . . .

Anyway the occasion was the end of Buddhist "lent" or the Rains retreat. During the rainy season, the monks and novices remain stationed at a single temple and do not travel around. Many men are ordained as monks during this time (even if just for 2 weeks) and it is known as a time of spiritual renewal. On the day of the full moon of 11th lunar month, corresponding with the end of the rainy season, the lay people make merit giving the monks needed gifts and then they are once again allowed to travel about. This is also the night that people release heau fai into the Mekong River.. These are boats of bamboo or banana leave with flowers and lighted candles that they believe will carry away all the past and current bad luck and good luck will enter their lives the next day. This is also the night of naga fireballs--the one night a year that the Mekong Dragon releases balls of fire. All sorts of controversy exists as to the actual etiology of this phenomenon, with accusations of human involvement straining Thai and Lao relations. Overall, there was a jubilant atmosphere in Vientiane on this night with sparklers and fireworks all over the city. Of course, lots of Beer Lao and Lao-lao (rice whiskey) add to this merriment. I was very thankful to arrive home safely from Bible study and leave the drunk people to their celebrations.

The next day (?the official holiday?) was the boat races. This involved teams of people in long narrow boats, rowing down the Mekong in one-on-one heats with a bracket system. Paul, a British infectious disease physician with Wellcome-Trust, lives right on the river near the start line and invited us over to watch the races. We mostly ate good food and conversed with the other invited falang (foreigners). We did get brief glimpses of the boats as they sped by and then as they were being towed back up river to the starting line. Apparently the Beer Lao team wins every year and like with other amateur sporting events there are accusations of unfair recruiting, including professional crew members from Thailand. Plenty of Beer Lao and lao-lao was also consumed on this day and I was again relieved to park my bicycle in our driveway.

Something New

So, I have been sending out periodic email updates of my life for several years. I get feedback from people that they enjoy these newsy messages. I know some people are offended by the impersonal nature of them and I assume some people just delete them, but it seems to have worked OK to this point. Now, however, several people have asked if I have considered blogging. The answer to that question is "yes". In fact, I set up this blog in January shortly after I arrived in Thailand. I never managed to get anything posted, however, because the perfectionist in me (who I actively try to beat down) was never satisfied with the product. Trying to create something that was current and something I wasn't embarrassed about was just too much pressure. I returned to my previous periodic email updates. Now with some more encouragement, I have decided to give it another try. I am not too optimistic, but maybe I'll get the hang of it.

After being a medical trainee for so long, I had forgotten what weekends were all about. To have two whole days every week where I don't have any real responsibilities is still amazing to me, even though I have been enjoying full weekends for 3 months. Last week was even a semi-holiday in Laos and I also stayed home one day sick. So, my work week was pretty short last week. With all this time, however, you'd think I'd get more accomplished. It once again demonstrates that my productivity is inversely related to the amount of time I have. Now entire weekends can go by and I can't exactly say what I have accomplished. This one has been a bit like that. Although, I have not been feeling well so I will use that as an excuse.

Today I did accomplish something as I made my monthly journey across the border to Thailand. My visa must be renewed every 28 days so I use the opportunity to go to Tesco Lotus in Nong Khai, Thailand which is like the Thai version of SuperTarget. This trip involves driving the 17 km to the Friendship Bridge, waiting in line at the Lao passport control, waiting in line to pay the exit fee, getting the ticket for the bus to cross the bridge, waiting for the bus, crowding onto said bus for the drive across the bridge. Once in Thailand, there is the waiting in line at the Thai passport control and then finally negotiating a ride to the desired location in Nong Khai. The return trip is even more tedious--negotiate ride to bridge, wait in line at Thai passport control, buy ticket for bus, wait for bus, load and unload bus, wait for forms for Lao visa, fill out forms for Lao visa, wait for visa, wait for Lao passport control, wait to pay entry fee, wait to prove that you have paid entry fee, traverse the hoarde of tuk-tuk drivers and drive back from the bridge. Today's return trip was even more unpleasant due to the creepy French guy who went on a tirade about the evils of Christianity and how ridiculous Americans are for paying attention to Christianity. His monologue continued all the way from Tesco to the bridge and was only briefly interrupted by our arrival at the bridge. He then set out on a rant about American politics and how the world hates Americans. You can imagine how fond I was of this man by now. Didn't his mother teach him not to talk about religion and politics as small talk? I thought I had escaped him, only to find that the immigration people had stapled his paperwork into my passport. His paperwork was returned to him, but the paperwork in his passport belonged to some third person and mine was never located. I was quite relieved to finally get back to the truck and enjoyed the silence of the trip home. On the bright side, I can now stay in Laos for another 28 days and I bought a desk lamp to make it possible to see the book I should be studying for my nephrology boards.

Ok, so that wasn't a very good first post but it's a start.