Teacher Luncheon

Okay. So, I know that we have been out of touch with you all for almost two weeks now. Things here just take a little longer than normal. It will have been two weeks since we moved into our house and almost two weeks since we’ve started the internet process for our house. The Lao Telecom people have been working diligently trying to figure out what our internet problem is. They have been to the house at least a half-a-dozen times. We’ve been going over to our teammates’ house and bumming their internet. But that’s all changing. We got internet today, fast internet. Yeah!

We’ve also been to Thailand to renew our entry visa and have been able to purchase some things for the house. Going to Thailand is fun. I love Thailand.

We have had a lot going on. We both just finished one full week of teaching, I have started language lessons for one hour a day, and we have team meetings once a week. This is what our normal routine will consist of. Russell hopes to start language again, soon, but the girls are still looking for for someone to tutor him. My tutor is very good and I am enjoying language lessons. With the program that we are going to work with, we are not allowed to speak the language in our lesson times for at least 4 weeks. My tutor, La, is a very good English speaker and she says I should start speaking in just two weeks. We’ll just have to wait and see about that.

Okay, so funny story. On Tuesday, I got to my classroom about 10 minutes early. Most of my students were already there, so I just started chatting with them before class began. Well, while we were chatting, I hear this goat and he is moaning something awful. I proceed to give my students a look that says, “What is that?” and walk to the window. Sure enough, there he is, the goat, I mean. Accept, the only problem is the goat is on his side, lying on the ground, in a rice sack and only his head is sticking out. My first thought was, “What is a goat doing in a sack?” and my second thought was, “Someone should help that poor goat.” So, I ask the student closest to me why the goat was in a sack. He says, “Well, Lao people love to eat goat.”

“Great,” I thought. Somebody is going to take this goat home and eat it. Well, I’m just teaching away and me and the class still hear the awful whining of the goat and every time I hear him, I just stop, look the class and say “poor goat.” They chuckle at me when I say this. The goat would not stop, so, I decided to look out the window. When I did, there was one of the male teachers pulling the goat out of the sack. “Oh, good. Someone is going to set that goat free.” WRONG! When the male teacher pulled the goat out of the sack, all four of his limbs were tied together and the teacher dragged him and tied him to a pole. Well, toward the end of class, I realized that I didn’t hear the wailing goat any more. I looked out the window and he was gone. I thought, “Well, someone has finally taken that goat home.”

The day before I had experienced some stomach problems so, when my teammate told me that the other teachers had invited us to lunch, I was relieved to have an excuse to not eat whatever they had fixed and go home. Oh, it gets better and I bet you can tell me the end to this story. So, Sarah and I are turning the corner of our building to get to the motorbike to go home, and lo and behold, there is the goat. He is propped up and on fire. Yep. He was supposed to be my lunch. Grilled goat. Just right outside my classroom building. I’m in southeast Asia. I have pictures to prove it. I just kept saying “poor goat”.

Bethany