I’m not going to apologise for this post which is sure to be rather long. I’ve just got too much to say. We’ve been in Luang Phrabang for a week now. We’d only planed to stay two or three days, but for reasons that will become apparent shortly we’ve stayed longer in this quaint little city. French colonial architecture sitting along side many ornate Wats surrounded by saffron clad novices makes for a pleasant place to be.

My first impressions were of how much slower the pace of life is here in Lao. Everyone is so friendly, novices (trainee monks) approach you in the street to talk to you and everyone will return a smile along with a Sabadee. After visiting Thailand I always thought that talking to Monks or Novices was not done. Socially taboo, if you will, but in Lao at least that couldn’t be further from the truth. With 34 temples each housing 20 or more novices, Luang Phrabang is full of them. All, seemingly, friendly.

On a negative note, costs seem higher than in neighbouring Thailand and considerably higher than those in the book. Figuring costs out is made even harder by the ludicrous Kip at 19000 to the pound. Despite this, on the days we were not following the tourist trail, by eating baguettes from street stalls and vegetarian buffet every evening has seen us getting by on less than five pounds a day.

On our first full day Espe and I were exploring the city when we came across a photo exhibition. Upon entering I was blown away by the photos, even more so having read information about the photographers. All of the photos in the “Laos through our own eyes” gallery were taken by 14 to 24 year old Lao youths from the area who have been captivated by the creativeness of photography and the opportunity it gives them to show of their culture and lifestyle.

It became clear that this wasn’t the average photo gallery. As we later found out, this place known as “My Library” was part of The Language Project who’s aim is “creating community libraries in underdeveloped areas”. We were welcomed in and shown how computers, cameras, books, language aids, CDs and films are made available to the local youth. The emphasis is on self study, however language classes are given in English, Japanese, Korean and now for a limited period only (thanks to Espe), Spanish.

Very keen to help out and interact with the locals I found myself volunteering. I figured with computer and photography skills along with being a native English speaker they might find some use for me. They did, and I spent the next four days there. Although at times I felt I didn’t make much difference, just by speaking with the youths there was beneficial. A lot of them were very shy, especially when it comes to talking in English yet Carol, the founder, says she sees their confidence growing everytime they speak with foreigners.

I also took two of the keen photographers there out on a night photography course around the night market. Although limited a bit by the equipment I think they picked up some new techniques and ideas. Furthermore I’ve left a permanent mark at My Library. Carol had placed a set of fridge magnet words (the type you can arrange to make sentences) up and was surprised at how popular it had been in the first few hours. The problem was, without a fridge, the board supplied was simply not big enough for all the words. Out came my DIY hat and after a visit to a hardware store and a short time spent on the roof with a hammer, screwdriver and ruler I’d produced a large “fridge” board which was mounted in the library. For the next couple of days I saw people sitting around the board making sentence. No one sentence stayed for more than a few hours before someone else tore it down and made some new ones.

All this while Espe gave daily Spanish classes. There are two guys at My Library who want to be tour guides. They have been studying Spanish from books and using software to increase their chances of landing a tour guide job. Competition is tough and even the basics in a language can give one an advantage. There are already many French and German speaking guides along with ubiquitous English, but the demand for Spanish is starting to grow.

One of the most impressive aspects for me during the few days I spent at My Library was how motivated the students are. Attendance is free but completely optional. It is provided on top of the education provided by the state which is of poor standard and not at all interactive. Many of the attendees see this as a great opportunity to better themselves through self study and seem genuinely grateful for the opportunity. Something that I fear is not the same to youths given the same opportunities back at home.

While I was there I met some wonderful people. Below are details of a few that I feel deserve a special mention:

Sansany – On my first full day there Sansany, a 20 year old accountant student, approached me to practise her English. Very capable in speaking, she told me about the forthcoming Speech Contest at the center where contestants have to talk for three minutes in English about why they love their home town. Sansany’s speech was fantastic. Clear and well delivered from memory it was full of feeling. I will be amazed if she doesn’t win the competition.

Vatthana – One of the great photographers there. Upon reading about me on my “introduction card” he immediately started talking to me about photography. This guy has talent. Not only an eye for composition and diverse subjects, but he’s very good and finishing the pictures in Photoshop. Vatthana wants to become a tour guide. He kindly arranged for one of his friends to take us to one of the local caves and while there he talked us through loads of details about local customs. A lot of it way above and beyond what your average tour guide covers.

Interestingly many of the students aspire to be tour guides. The average Lao earns about $50 a month. Compare that with what the average tourist spends in one week in Lao and you can see why tourism is big business, and hence and good career choice. Vatthana is waiting to hear if he will receive a grant to study Hotel Management and Tourism in Bangkok (yet another advantage to the locals that The Language Project can offer). I for one hope he gets it.

Keo – One of the many Novices who attends the self learning center. Keo started talking to me the first day I was there and despite his limited English he made a real effort and even invited us back to the temple where he lives. Once there we were shown around the temple and into the living quarters. Keo filled me in on the daily routine for a novice: Up at 4 for prayer, giving of almes at 6:30 (where the locals donate food), breakfast at 7, study until 11 followed by lunch. The novices then either have further study of languages, work around their temple, help the local farmers or in some cases visit My Library. Further prayer commences at 6pm and they are In bed by 8pm with no evening meal. Despite learning so much, Keo and his companion’s limited English left us with many questions. When do they graduate to Monks? Do they all graduate? Why do they decide to become Novices in the first place?

Phone (no, not its pronounced like that) – Another friendly novice who struck up a conversation after I took interest in what he was writing with the fridge magnets. We spent a while studying geography and afterwards he asked me which countries I’d been to. When he found out that I will be visiting Angkor Wat in Cambodia he asked if I’d be so kind as to email him a picture. I’m sure I can stretch to that.

Carol – This place is her baby. This welcoming, friendly and caring American has done some amazing work to build up to what it is over the last four years. It takes a special kind of person to persist with something like this. She clearly puts in so much work, yet it is visible the satisfaction she takes from seeing the kids do so well. Carol gave up a lot of her time answering our many questions about the project and the lives that the Lao student follow.

From the above and more I learned more about Lao and it’s culture than I imagined I could have in my whole time here. I can’t hope to sum these up here, however I will answer the questions about the Novices that I’d found out after visiting Keo’s temple. Many of the novices are sent to Luang Phrabang to further their study. Most come from poor families in remote villages that have no education beyond that of primary school. Studying as a novice provides such a possibility. Some of the novices with graduate to be monks however many, in this region at least, go out and look for work away from the temple life.

Well done if you made it this far. I’ll stop here, however I urge you to take a good look at the www.thelanguageproject.org website. This place has left a great impression on me.