When I’m in the place where I’ve lived all my life, I’m often bored, blind, stuck. Everything is too familiar, and I drive by without seeing anything at all. I can’t get out of my own way. Living here is completely different. Everything is fresh and new, and I live at a slower pace. I walk everywhere because I don’t have a car, and I won’t get a scooter (the ubiquitous local mode of personal transportation), because I’m afraid of hurting my recently healed broken leg. Even riding a bicycle seems kind of scary. By walking everywhere, I see so many things. Some days, it seems like a new treat is around every corner. Because I don’t have much of an agenda other than going to my volunteer job every day, I’m open to just seeing what happens. Funny, interesting, and often joyful things happen - Every. Single. Day. Here are a few:
One morning, on my day off, I went for a walk to the park at the very end of the peninsula, and sat down to enjoy the beautiful scenery. A young Lao man sat down next to me, and wanted to practice speaking English. Talking to him was a pleasure, and I ended up staying there with him for more than an hour. We talked about his life, where he’s from, his family, and how difficult it is for him to find a good job. There were a lot of young teenagers in the park, obviously enjoying a day off from school. He told me that it was teacher appreciation week in Luang Prabang, which meant the students gave their teachers small gifts, and then had the afternoon off. This young man then excused himself for a few minutes, then reappeared with a lollipop for me - it was his thank you to me for being his teacher for the day. So sweet! It made my day!
This is the young man that I met in the park. I ran into him again at the festival, and we walked around together.
Each week I take my clothes to be laundered by a friendly lady not too far from where I live. She seemed particularly happy to see that my clothes include a couple of sinh. Sinh are the traditional Lao skirt women wear. It’s really amazing that when I wear a sinh, locals on the street make comments and smile their approval and pride that a foreigner likes their clothes and wears them. (No cultural appropriation problem here.) When I took my clothes to the laundry this week, she wrote up the usual receipt, I paid her, and then she asked me to wait a minute. She came back with the gift of an apple! That was the most delicious apple I’ve ever had!
My apple. Simple joy!
In the past few weeks, I’ve been taking a lot of photographs of the novice monks preparing decorations for the Boun Lai Heua Fai (end of Buddhist lent) festival. I’ve spent so much time at Wat Sop Sickharam lately that the monks know me now. It’s always a pleasure talking with them, and feel that they are comfortable having me around. It’s more fun talking to them than taking photographs. Also, one evening when I was out taking photographs of the temples with their beautiful decorations, it started to rain lightly, the crowds had thinned, and I set up my tripod and camera. One of the novice monks was very interested in what I was doing, so I showed him my camera. Before I knew it, he pretty much took over, and had fun taking photographs with my camera. I then turned my iPhone camera on him, using my camera. It was a lot of fun. Before I left, we friended each other on Facebook (he knew how to use it better than I), and I sent him the photos of himself. It’s the simple things in life that truly bring joy!
Hey!! That’s my camera!
Sometimes the hidden treasures are quiet, contemplative experiences. I think the temple offerings are like this. I always seek them out, and I’m drawn to photograph them. I think about all of the blessings in my life and take a moment to reflect in gratitude.
