At the entrance to the third site of the Plain of Jars (quite small one) I’ve seen some local people playing 'petang' (local form of 'boules'). I was watching them and they invited me to join them. I had no idea how to play. Now I know. And I even won once! :)
When we were on the way back my guide got a phone call from his friend, an English teacher. They were talking, and I guess he must have told his friend that I’m OK, cause the teacher asked if I could visit their school. With pleasure! So, we went back to Phonsavan, I took a quick shower and an hour later I was ready to meet some Lao students.
My guide picked me up with his motorbike and we drove to the school (in a village near Phonsavan), on the way I bought some pencils for the kids. We arrived, the teacher was really nice, he introduced me to his class and then said “I leave you now with our guest. This is your new teacher for today”. I didn’t expect that. I thought he will be there, have the lesson and I will just say few words. Well, there I was. In a small, local school in Laos, in front of me about 40 people, aged from 11 to about 30 (!). And so, I talked about Poland, but also asked them lots of questions about the life in Laos. I had in mind though that I was in a communist country. I didn’t want to cause any problems for those people, so, I tried not to mention politics. Which is not that easy when you're from Poland - the country of Lech Wałęsa and Solidarność...
The students were great, I guess we found a common language ;) and they liked me. There were some funny moments as well, for instance, they asked me – it was the first question – how big my family was. They could not believe that at my age, I don’t have children. They were truly shocked :)
Btw, when I was talking to other people I met on my way in Laos, they always asked the question: “how big is your family?”. It is the most important question (not 'what is your name' or 'where are you coming from'). That says a lot. Usually, people in Laos are getting married at the age of 18-19, and by the age of 25 they already have three or four kids. So, I could see the true sympathy in ‘my’ students’ eyes, when I was trying to explain that in my country it is not really something unusual not to be married at my age. We were talking about food, about school, about their plans for the future. That was great. It was in fact one of the most rewarding experiences of my life.
After the lesson I thanked the teacher and gave him the pencils I brought. I didn’t want to give them in front of the class, I’m always embarrassed in these kind of situations. Next day, I met the teacher in an Internet café (Phonsavan is really small) and he told me that the students were extremely grateful. “Don’t mention it” – I said. “It were just pencils. I wish I could do something more” – I added a bit ashamed. “Just pencils? For the first time in many months we have pencils for each student. Normally three-four students are sharing one pencil during the lesson.” – he answered.
Do we actually realize how lucky we are only because we were born in reach, well developed countries? One thing is sure, travels have completely changed my perspective on life and all the problems I may encounter seem so small when I think of what I’ve seen in Kenya, Cambodia or Laos...
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