CWS office and a New Library Opening!

January 19th, 2011

Today Hoa, Xuyen and I went to the Christian World Service's office, where Skip works. From there we also went to me Xuyen's piano teacher. He is blind but still teaches piano and speaks English, Lao and Vietnamese. He asks if I play the piano, I answer a little tiny bit. As I slowly bang out the notes to playing Row, Row, Row your Boat and Jingle Bells on the piano, Xuyen and Hoa talk to his wife. His wife is lovely and does not speak English but she speaks a little French. I get to practice a little French with her while Xuyen takes her lesson. I also speak on the phone with their daughter Bouumy who is the first social worker in Laos!

In the afternoon the three of us go out to a village by the Thai-Lao Friendship bridge. We go because Xuyen is being honored by a school there for helping facilitate the building a library. At the ceremony we also meet the director from the Center for Disabled Women. The library opening is very nice, there are lots of kids from the school who attend and get to read the books! It's very exciting because there are almost no libraries in Laos, so students do not do much reading. After the library opening we go to the women's center and see the projects they are working on. The center is designed to teach vocational skill for disabled women, and they do amazing things like make paper, sew, weave and make frames and other things with old recycled newspapers. 

Me, Xuyen and Hoa at the CWS office

Me with Xuyen at her desk.

Me at Xuyen's desk pretending to answer the phone

Hoa and I at Xuyen's desk

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Kids at the Library opening reading!

Kids at the library opening

More kids at the library opening

The school where the library was built

The principal at the school

Kids outside the school

Kids with a sign thanking the donor of the library

The kids posing before playing "football" after school.

After the center for disabled women we go to Xuyen's friend's house. Her friend is from Bangladesh and has a beautiful home with an amazing garden. We see her flowers, and fruit trees then she invites us inside her amazing home. She serves us Bangladesh food and we get to see her daughter's school work portfolio. After the visit is done we get home and have our dinner!