Planet Trekker

It’s raining at the moment, a nice gentle rain that is just enough to lower the temperature a little and to settle the dust. It is not the type of torrential downpour that we will be getting as the wet season arrives in the coming months.

As I walked to this cafe it was just enough rain to make we question if my shirt was sticking to me because of the sweat or the falling water.

As I write this I’m not sure when I’m going to be able to send it. It’s Sunday morning at the moment and the power has been off for some hours, meaning that I have no way to get online. But that may also be a good thing, it means that I have an excuse not to check the work related sites that I usually check each day. I am going to take the morning off and I have the added advantage of the majority of the volunteers having gone kayaking. Short of major disaster my phone should not ring and those that know me will be aware of my opinion of a ringing phone.

So, now that we can sit and chat, what should I tell you about this job.

It’s a good job and I enjoy it, something I’ve wanted to be able to say for many years but haven’t really been able to. It’s not a hard job, I’ve certainly had harder and as long as I keep on top of things it all flows along quite smoothly. It’s just a matter of being prepared for the unexpected and being able to make those instant changes and decisions. Any job where you have to deal with people is going to involve the need for flexibility.

On this project we teach English to novice Buddhist monks and to members of the local community. Apart from the Monk School we teach in a number of private schools in town, about eight different places at last count. When I say private school please don’t get the impression that they are moneyed places with privileged students getting extra education. Private  simply means that they are not Government schools. The students do pay to attend but the majority are working a couple of jobs in order to be able to do it.

In these schools we assist a local Laos teacher. The amount of assistance we are depends on the teacher and how comfortable they are with us in the classroom. There are a few teachers that we have been working with for a number of years and they know how to use a volunteer while other teachers may only use us to read passages and to check pronunciation. Part of my scheduling duties are to try and pair up the less confident volunteers with the appropriate teacher and the more confident in a class where they can make full use of that confidence.

The first contact I have with a new volunteer is when their name appears in the system. At that point I have to  make sure that we are going to meet them at the airport and that they have a room and that we have all their relevant details.

The next contact I have is when I pick them up at the airport. Volunteers are here for a minimum of two weeks so every fortnight I spend a day going to and fro from the airport. I kind of like this part of the job, I’ve always enjoyed hanging out at airports. Mr Phong, our preferred local driver, and I sit outside the arrival area with all of the other drivers from various hotels and wait. I usually look around at everyone else holding nicely printed signs with the passengers names on them and then look at my hastily scribbled scrap of paper with momentary embarrassment. I’ve never had anyone complain though and at least I’m easy to spot in the crowd.

It’s kind of a game trying to spot the volunteer. I have their name, nationality and age as a guide so the aim is to spot them before they spot my sign. Sometimes it’s easy, the overfull backpack and look of confusion can be a giveaway, but other times it’s not so easy. I had a fashion model turn up once, immaculate in white and towing designer luggage.

The trip into town is when I try to impart the basic knowledge they are going to need. How involved I get depends on how many days they have taken to get here and whether they have arrived in the morning or at night. Usually the minimum I stress is the need to drink as much water as possible as constantly as possible along with the instruction to never flush the toilet paper.

Depending on the time of day it may just be a matter of getting them in to their room and letting them sleep or I may be able to take them on their first orientation tour of the town.

But I’ll leave that for my next missive.

For those who have been waiting to hear from me, I apologise. For those who assumed that I was still toiling away in Australia and nothing exciting was happening to me…have I got news for you.

This is going to be a pretty short message just to get everyone up to speed on where I am and what I’m doing. At the moment it is pouring with rain and I have some time to kill between tasks so I’ll use it to write.

I am in Laos. I have actually been here for about 6 weeks now but have been working hard and haven’t really had that much free time. Yes, when I say working I mean I have a job and everything and it is busy, rewarding and fulfilling, things i have not been able to say about too many jobs I’ve had in the past.

You may remember that a while ago I did a trip that included volunteering in different parts of the world. One of those parts was Laos where I helped to teach English to Buddhist monks. A little while ago I had one of those “life is going nowhere” moments and applied for a job as a staff member on the project. If anything tells you that you are meant to do something then it is often that the timing is perfect and the job came up just as I was looking for it. Karma, right?

My role here is primarily administrative. I take care of a great deal of the paperwork, I pick up new volunteers at the airport, give them their orientation, make sure they know where to go, work on rostering them at the various schools where we teach, and generally answer all their questions. I am living in the same guesthouse as the volunteers and am on call to answer all those questions 24 hours a day. I am finding myself having to be Father/Mother/Doctor/Tour guide/Psychologist/ all-round entertainer.

The administrative stuff is not a problem but what do you do when you find out, after the fact, that a volunteer is allergic to elephants?

I have committed to being here for a year, after that I’ll just have to see what happens.

As a second staff member comes online I should have time to write about life here. I’ve already prostrated myself in front of a Buddhist Abbot, played soccer in the Football Stadium, found out you can be allergic to elephants and simply watched movies as part of the job.