A Week Off

So we have an unexpected week off of school.  The short of it is this: Vientiane is celebrating its 450th anniversary of being the capital of Lao and the city is basically shutting down - all the schools are out, and people are flocking to That Luang for a huge celebration that will take place most of the week with a parade and ceremony on Friday. They've been preparing things for weeks, and now it's pretty much upon us.

Finding out about our schedule at school went something like this: First everyone wondered if we'd have school. And if we did have school, would anyone actually show up besides the teachers? Then last Monday, we heard from the head of our department that our department would have this whole week off. But none of the students knew. I asked them all week, have you heard if we have class or not? Everyone shook their head (if you think it's strange for a teacher to ask the students about the schedule, think again. In Laos the students almost always know things before the teachers...especially the foreign teachers!). Then we heard a rumor that no, we actually do have classes after all. So on Friday, we got word that we needed to come to the university on Monday because we would, indeed, have classes. Except that by this time most of my students were either headed back to their hometowns for the week, or volunteering for the celebration.  But there was going to be a meeting that afternoon to determine for sure. Then, Saturday, the final word comes down that our department is actually not having classes, like we'd originally thought. Whew! That was complicated.

The other teachers from a different department then called their boss to inquire about their schedule, and were told that they did have class. So they went to class today and in the middle of one class, the class president's phone rang alerting him that classes were indeed cancelled for the rest of the week for their department too. He then told the teacher (my roomate), who finished up the current activity and let the class out.

Wow!... I love the laid-back nature of Lao culture but sometimes it feels like a whirlwind to this foreign mind that is used to a rigid, laid-out-in-the-far-future schedule, especially for things like university classes. But, I'm learning to roll with the punches so to speak, and just be OK either way. Which, if you know me well, doesn't come very naturally to me, so maybe that is why the Father chose this place for me.

Can't say that I'm upset He did though. I'm learning so much here (and hopefully growing as well, though it's slow progress!).

The upside of this whole craziness is that today most of our team was able to go to Thailand to buy supplies for our Thanksgiving dinner next week, including a butterball turkey