Lao Lessons

Wow, this week has really flown by. It seems there are a million things to do this December! You'd think being away from all the Christmas craziness at home would make us less busy, but somehow being the instigators of the Christmas celebrations makes it evens crazier! But, in a good way. I've really been enjoying introducing glimpses of Christmas all this week to my students. Highlight for me from class this week was playing "O Holy Night" in my class as my students tried to put the lyric strips in the correct order (for a listening activity). As I was walking around, I had such a longing in my heart for the truth of that beautiful song to pierce their hearts. Oh, asking the Father for that!

So during December I'm studying Lao with my students and I'm having a total blast! We studied Wed, Thurs and Friday of this week and time just flies when we're hanging out at Sonexay's flat. They are so kind and generous to me and are always making me food and doing the dishes, so yesterday I told them I was going to cook something today. I was a little taken aback though, when Sonexay asked me today what the menu was...I hadn't actually expected them to let me cook something (it's not Lao culture to let the guest do anything). (It made me feel like perhaps they are beginning to see me as less of a guest and more of a friend, which is progress, I think :) So, we went to the market to buy food and I tried to whip something up that was edible.  The food is cooked out back on a slab of concrete about 3 feet by 8 feet, with one hot pot burner thing and a bucket to wash the dishes in. Pretty simple, but they can make some pretty tasty things out there! It's just been so fun for me to be able to do life with them these past two weeks, and through that to really learn some useful Lao phrases (and of course a few slang phrases too!)

My two teachers are on the outside - Thippachanh on the far left, and Sonexay on the far right. Two of my other students hung out with us today too... Palinya and Orn. They love correcting me and making me repeat words til I get the pronunciation right (or at least close enough!).  I try to write sentences with the new words I learn and then they take my red pen, mark it all up, and make me re-write it. Today Orn dictated the sentences to me and I had to write them in Lao. That was quite a challenge, but I really feel like it's helping the words to stick in my mind a lot better. My goal is to be somewhat conversational by the time my parents come so I can at least get around and figure out where to go, etc while they are here. Thanks to the strictness of my "teachers," I feel like I'm making progress!

Getting ready to eat lunch... Gin kao suwai

My mom sent me Sour Patch Kids - one of my favorite candies! - in my package so I told them yesterday that I would bring some kanome America (American candy) to share with them. Sonexay had never tried American candy before, and the others had only tried it once before so they were really excited to taste American candy. I think they liked them. And, mom, I know you're glad to know I didn't eat the whole box myself!

I feel like since I started studying Lao with my students, I'm learning Lao the way I learned Japanese...through relationships - just spending time with friends - and then using the words over and over. I'm such a relationally-motivated person, and being able to build a better friendship with these students has really been a strong motivating factor for me to study Lao more diligently. Please ask the Father to make me a diligent student of Lao - especially because I feel like you can go so much deeper when you are communicating in someone's heart language - and to continue to allow my friendship with these girls to grow! I'm so afraid of committing some huge cultural faux pas, but they have been really gracious with my bumbling understanding of Lao culture and the Lao language and are quick to show me grace if I get it wrong. In general, it just makes for a lot of great laughs as we are all both simultaneously teacher and student, and ultimately, they are becoming some of my favorite people to spend time with in Lao!

Whew, off to bed now. We have two parties for different groups of students tomorrow so it's going to be a busy day!!