So things have changed a little for me.

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.