Time for a review

On April 15, 2011 I left Switzerland for a country and company I barely knew. I truly felt it will be a good thing to go and explore, just try it out without any expectations. With this attitude I started my work at Sunlabob Renewable Energy (www.sunlabob.com) almost 5 months ago. I am part of a team of roughly 70 people and have my own responsibilities over a team of 4-5 Lao staff. Very quickly I started liking my new life in Vientiane, Laos PDR and so far that has not changed. For the first time since many years I do not feel like that I have to be in a constant moving mode. On the weekend I can just hang out and do not feel pressured to rush around. I was also able to redefine what kind of cultural and sports activities I want to do: Lao class, gym, jogging, yoga, meditation, piano, reading, socializing etc. it was a re-start in many ways and I am happy to say that so far it is a successful one.

A Healthy Balance

Laos, often a forgotten small country in South East Asia, in the shadow of its biggest neighbor China, surrounded by laborious Thai and Viet ( at least from hearing), the lao spread a relaxedness and contentment, which I think got too much lost in our own culture. It is for me the perfect balance after usually busy and stressful days. This, what I would call the “Bor peng Nyang’ attitude, which means “it’s ok”, “do not worry”, “ there is nothing” is sometimes really helping me to place the importance of certain issues into perspective and to put reality, as it is, regardless of whether I like it or not, in the first place. I notice I have grown up in a society where everything is taken so seriously, even if there is no way to change it, we are trying to turn things around, striving for the perfectness and the ideal, instead of just moving on by focusing on the things we can actually influence and change.

My Huesli, a place to stay and enjoy – a treat after long working hours.

For the first 2 months I could stay with a friend, until I found my own little Huesli. Indeed, a little house I can call to be “my home”. It was an easy decision to live alone, to have a mess when I feel like having a mess, to have it clean and tidy when I feel like organizing and making things nice and not at least to have the freedom to walk around naked whenever I want, made the decision a no brainer. In addition, for fairly decent amount of money, I also got a little garden, which comes with an elderly man with a huge smile, doing the gardening once in a while. It is a natural Huesli and if someone would call it Hoettli, or hut, I think I could not deny it for its natural and simple character. The brick walls are thin, the tiles make me hear the raindrops as if I were in a tent and the water – well, the water at times comes and even visits me inside the house (voouaii, c’est le Laos! ). Also, I am NEVER alone. The Huesli comes with two little cats which found a way to climb underneath the roof and give me company during night and daytime, wake me up when they are hungry and make me angry when they feel like doing a little pee on the white cushion. Besides, once in a while a frog is visiting me in my bathroom. He is always in the same place and whenever I bring him out, some of his family just comes back in. So far none of them turned into a Prince so I keep on treating them well. Then, one would be surprised to see what cradles and flies in this area. Among all of them I love the ants most. They are the most unnoticed and fastest profiteers ever. So fast they come when they sense something eatable and it does not stop with some bread and cheese. They even go for the balsamico and cat food! Unlike my close feelings to the worlds of animals, the ants are for me the hardest to deal with. And since the first day I live here, I watch well their streets and speed in moving, to be fast enough with some counter measures.

C’est le Laos!

This is my credo. C’est la laos, is a way to name thins which I would say are typical for laos, but “c’est le laos”, is also I way of acknowledging that things can not be changed and the need to acknowledge certain realities and to live with it.

- Even in Vientiane only the main roads are cemented. The side roads are full of bumps and even little lakes during rainy season. What the Lao do first is, wherever there is a hole, they do some garden garbage on top of it, to make it even muddier. Then, sometimes, someone makes and effort and takes some old construction material and fills the hole, this makes it shakier on the bike. The best I have seen is that a truck comes, leaves a pile of stones behind and leaves. Nobody would distribute the stones evenly, nobody would flatten it out but leave is just to the passing cars and motorcycle. Well, at least the mud is gone, but will it stop the water? We will see.

- Go for the cheapest for reparation work. The art of fixing. If something is broken, it needs to get fixed. But being fixed can be very relative. You can fix it or one can make it look as it is fixed, but shortly after one realizes: it is not really fixed. I have not figure it out quite well what it is all about. The way of making clients dependent (kind of lao customer relationship management), lazzyness to do thing right, lack of knowledge or carelessness.

- Many houses, including my Hoettli have no earthing. What a feeling to touch my ipod sound station! Zzzzhhhr

- Sunday is resting day, ahh really? The reasons I took this house, is its calmness. A bit of surprise was when after 3 weeks my neighbor started doing several metal grids, 5 meters away from my bed, from Monday through Sunday, from the mornings to the evenings. And I can tell you, waking up on the sound of a metal saw and hammering is not the most pleasant of the feelings.

- Water everywhere. There are only the main roads which have some kind of canalization system. When it rains, the water does not only come from the top, it also seems it comes from the bottom up. Seing motorbikes stuck in the water, yeas, c’est la Laos.

- Examples to be updated continuously

A country full of adventures

Besides the relaxing weekends in Vientiane, Laos PDR offers plenty of adventure opportunities. And if there is an adventure to do, I need to be part of it. Within a daytrip from Vientiane, one can visit a rather mysterious looking monk, covered with tattoos (even in the face) living on a hill, overviewing a natural park.

Another, my most recent adventure was a bit related to work. I headed, equipped with a Suzuki VanVan motorbike, down the south of Laos to visit Sunlabob’s installation work. So nice to see the impact of a high tech solar powered water pump on a village. The systems provide 11 villages with fresh water for bathroom/washing purposes and drinking water.

Some time ago already, I had the opportunity to visit an installation in central Laos. In a small village, called Phakeo, around 75 households benefit from solar system, which provides them during 3-4 h per night with electricity through village mini-grid. Again, high tech can improve the life of the poorest of the poor significantly. But by acknowledging this, it is also with sadness to acknowledge the striking poverty in these remote areas.

For sure I want and need to explore more of this wonderful country and culture. It is a pleasant effort as it brings me out of long office hours and reminds me of the luck and happiness in life i had so far.