Visit to Social Worker's Farm

Phon, a recent graduate from Lao National University, who majored in Social Work and Social Development, returned to her family's farm about 40 km outside of Vientiane to work. Her farm is family owned and operated, and Madame Xuyen is helping her develop it into an educational farm for children to visit and learn about the traditional Lao farm.

Arro, Hoa, Madame Xuyen and I made the 1 1/2 hour drive out to the farm in the morning. We got a little lost but managed to get to the farm before 10, the road was pretty good until the very last bit of the journey (see photos).

We were welcomed to the farm by Phon and her family plus several local children who gave us flowers. The first activity we participated in was making homemade rice noodles. Phon's mother had the dough mixed up, she scooped a spoonful into a tool that looked like a pastry bag and then squeezed out long thin noodles into a pot of boiling water. They make these noodles fresh everyday and it was fun to get to try!

We ended up receiving a tour of the farm, seeing the fields and fruit trees, crossing the traditional bamboo bridge, seeing the homemade fishing trap, and the pigs!

We had a traditional Lao lunch that Phon's family prepared for us, including khao niew, or sticky rice, tamakhung and grilled fish, plus the homemade rice noodles that they had made that day with a flavorful soup poured over the noodles.

After lunch we had a brief afternoon nap in one of the huts that the family had built surrounding the small main house. After our brief rest in the shade of the hut we went fishing in the small pond. I lasted about 10 minutes before getting completely bored and deciding to investigate other activities around the farm. We then watched Phon's father cut a bamboo pole by climbing up several older bamboo trees, by cutting steps for himself. After watching him cut a long pole of bamboo we watched as he sawed the bamboo into several pieces, we then proceeded to wash the pieces of bamboo then fill the bamboo with sticky rice that had been combined with coconut. While the bamboo snack cooked over the fire, we watched the little girls perform songs for us! After finishing the performance we ate the delicious sticky rice and coconut snack before heading back to Vientiane. On the drive back we saw a beautiful countryside sunset!