Vientiane
At the end of November I went to Vientiane, Laos, to visit Pon and activate the final 90 days of my visa. We really miss Pon's participation in our group here so it was very good to see him again - and especially to see how well he is doing. He seems settled into the university and is getting to know many people. I got to meet some of his friends and it was encouraging to note how they respect him and enjoy spending time with him. His goal is to find ways of sharing about his faith and he's beginning to see opportunities for that.
Since I was there over a weekend he didn't have to study and we spent a lot of time just hanging out at his apartment. He did have some homework - preparing for a debate in which his team was to argue that men are superior to women. I tried to help him with the grammar while staying clear of the logical merits of the position!
I didn't take our camera along, so here are a couple of pictures from my mediocre phone camera...
Here's the new statue of Laos' former king. They are developing a riverfront promenade that should be pretty nice when it's all said and done.
We ate grilled goat meat for one meal. I didn't get a good shot of the grilled goat (chopped up into all kinds of pieces - tough but tasty). Here's the vendor stirring a big pot of goat stew. It smelled good, but she said it was still too tough to sell. I imagine that made it very, very tough.
-Tom