Bor Pben Nyang

It has been a busy couple weeks here. And I have a cold. So I will apologize for not posting more frequently. Hopefully you, dear readers (Mom) will say “Bor Pben Yang” which literally means “no ask why” but is used to mean “no worries” or “it’s ok.”

Christine has gone home to Minneapolis after her trip to China. She got back to Lao Thursday afternoon and it was a whirlwind weekend of packing, saying good bye, and last minute information sharing. She was kind enough to lecture Thursday night on urinalysis and urine sediment while I got the microscopes set up. (They have recently returned from Bangkok where we sent them for cleaning.) Unfortunately, as I unwrapped them, I discovered that one was broken in transport, so we only have one working microscope right now. Frustrating, especially since Christine spent a lot of time in the last several months figuring out how to get them to bangkok and back safely. Thursday I also started feeling sick, and had a fever and myalgias by Thursday night, so it’s lucky Christine was planning to lecture. Friday night we had a going away dinner for Christine at “Moon the Night” a restaurant on the Mekong, and then went to a see a friend’s band “ULuvUs” play. The band is composed of all falang (foreigners) but sings songs in Lao (with some english phrases) and has quite a following of falang and Lao. Apparently, they have even made it fairly high on the charts in Thailand. Erwin, our friend, is Australian and plays the Keytar and keyboards. The music was pretty standard pop - but they had some good tunes and it was cool to hear them sing in Lao.

Saturday we had resident games as a going away event for Christine. We played soccer, did the limbo, played basketball, jumped rope, and finally had medicine vs pediatrics tug of war. Medicine won for the second year in a row, despite having Joey, our english teacher, anchoring their team. To be fair, they are mostly girls. I played soccer for the first time since elementary school, (which is to say quite badly) and the residents were all very kind and did not make fun of my lack of skills. We had a lot of fun, and it was good to be reminded of how much fun a group of adults can have with just a soccer ball, a mop, and a rope. Unfortunately, running around for 3 hours after being up late was not good for my cold, so I spent the afternoon in bed rather than watching the second Australian Grand Finals. Fortunately, Collingwood, Chris’s team, won by a large margin, so everyone in our group was happy with the day. Sunday we had a last breakfast and lunch at Kung’s (last for Christine) and I helped her pack her bike up. In the evening, we crammed a few last things into her 5 suitcases, weighed them. (I need to learn not to weigh my suitcases on bathroom scales. They are never accurate and just lead to more anxiety) Amy, Chris, and I drove her to the airport, where her total luggage weighed in at 133 kg (5 cases and a bike in a box) which is actually not a bad accumulation of stuff for the past 2 years, I think. Some of the residents met us at the airport with a bouquet of roses for a final good bye. It was sad to see her go, and I hope she is happy once she settles into her new job back in Minnesota.

I still have not made it to the temple near our house where the small Buddhas were found. But I have arranged lecturers for most of GI month (October) which took several visits to Mahosot last week. I will start with GI anatomy Thursday, and one of our fellows will teach GI bleeding tomorrow. Today’s lecture was cancelled because of a symposium by the IFMT (Institute Francophone Medicine Tropical) - I hear they have good teaching mostly in Lao at this, so that’s ok.

Today Tanja and I bought our tickets to Luang Prabang for the weekend before Halloween. We will ride the bus (8-9 hours on a “VIP” bus, with air conditioning) there on Friday, to see the country side, tourist on Saturday and Sunday, and fly home (1 hour) on Monday. I will take my zofran with me. Luan Prabang is one of the main tourist destinations in Laos - it is known for it’s old temples and scenic parading monks - and the weekend we are there will also be the end of “buddhist lent”, so they will be floating banana leaf boats down the river for good luck in the next year, too. We will miss the boat races in Vientiane, but I think we will be able to see more of the banana leaf boats, and it was the only weekend in October or November that I could take Friday and Monday for travel. So that’s something to look forward to, and I may soon have my multi-entry visa, so I can also think about a trip to Thailand.