The best part of our work.

It was mid morning on Saturday when Tad and I were walking along a gorgeous trail in the countryside about 4 hours out of Luang Prabang.  We were trekking from Ban Naluang, a village where Tiger Trail has developed community based tourism, and Phayong, a village where PoP built one of its first schools.  Midway through the trek we both looked at each other and thought at the same time...

"I can't believe this is a part of the work we get to do" 

It just so happened that Tiger Trail planned a staff volunteer trip to Naluang the same weekend that Pencils of Promise had a community day in Phayong which is just an hour trek away.  Tiger Trial was going to Naluang Friday morning and PoP was coming up to Phayong on Saturday.  Tiger Trail has been working in Naluang for several years.  The village asked Tiger Trail if they could help build a school in the village and so Tiger Trail met with the District Education office and got approval to help build an adobe brick school.  For the last few month Tiger Trail has been bringing tourists to help with the project but to make the connection more real for the employees Tad took the staff to help build the school for 2 days.

Tad was the one to drive the truck and I'm sure everyone in that truck was thankful it wasn't them driving.  And even more thankful that we made it safe and sound without a single dent.

We arrived at the village just after a group had finished one week of work on the school.  Yoxa, the responsible tourism manager at Tiger Trail was with the volunteers and was still at the village when we arrived.  She introduced us to the village chief and to the family's that would host us for the night.  After walking around the village we went to look at the school. I was completely shocked by how beautiful it was.  There have been two groups to come and help build the school so far, along with the helping hands of the villagers (the kids especially love helping - I mean who doesn't love jumping in mud).

It is a really interesting process to build an adobe brick building.  It is much more labor intensive than I ever imagined.  You start by mixing straw, clay and water until it is the right consistency.  Then you transfer it into the brick molds.  Because the village is in a valley, the sun doesn't hit the bricks all day so it can take several days for the bricks to dry before they are ready for use.  Once they are dry they are put into place with more clay mixture as the mortar.

 

It was great for the staff to see the process and for us to be a part of this project but after a day and half of working with Tiger Trail, we had to shift gears and hike to Phayong, where Pencils of Promise was doing a community day.  Here are a couple more pictures from Naluang: 

This was the old school in Naluang:

Our host and former Chief of the village Boun Lid:

The Tiger Trail staff:

Part of my job at Pencils of Promise is to help coordinate community volunteer programs at different school locations.   Sometimes that means working with other volunteers as well. Our friend Ryan is the manager at a great coffee shop in town called Joma.  He and his staff volunteer their time to help at POP schools by teaching lessons, playing games, and mentoring the students.  

For the PoP day, we decided to focus on two projects: planting trees and building tippy taps, and of course lots of fun games.  All of the staff did a great job and the kids had a blast. We helped them plant 5 of the 20 trees we brought and were happy to find out they planted the rest the very next day.  And after we built the tippy tap, Jua (our amazing SHINE teacher) taught 100 kids how to wash their hands. 

I feel so blessed to be involved in work that is genuinely fun and that I feel is making a true difference in these kids' lives.

So there it is, a weekend filled with the best parts of our jobs.  And finally the ride home...