The Thailand, Laos, Cambodia Brotherhood (
www.tlc-brotherhood.org) is undertaking to fund the self-help construction of a school dormitory up in Sam Neua Province, far northeast Laos. Total funding for this project is budgeted at $6,000. The TLCB has already contributed $1,500 to kickstart the project so that it may be completed prior to the coming rainy season.
The TLCB is a relatively small group with the bulk of the members in the U.S., most of whom are former U.S. military who had been stationed in Southeast Asia back in the 1960s and '70s. Current membership is now just under 500 people.
Other than being something of a "social network," the TLCB is also a recognized 501(c)3 charity. Since its formation in 1997, The TLCB has been active in funding small school renovations, water purification systems, food supplemental programs and health projects in Udorn and Nakhon Phanom, Thailand, and in the last two years, has expanded the effort to include Laos. I've been a member of the TLCB for about 10 years and have personally coordinated most of the projects in Laos.
Total Direct Aid Provided to Thailand and Laos as of Dec 31, 2008 is $222,418.33, details of which are here:
http://tlc-brotherhood.org/thare.html
Because the TLC Brotherhood is a 501(c)3 organization, all contributions are fully tax deductible. But even more important is that 100% of donations go to the purpose intended. “ALL EXPENSES†are paid by the TLCB members through their dues. Whenever possible, local volunteer labor is used in order to further reduce cost and maximize the use of donated money.
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The Dorm Project: Funding is requested in an amount of $6,000 for construction of a student dormitory with a separate kitchen building, furnishings (beds, tables, chairs), and bedding for the Ban Phakha School in Hua Muong District, Houa Phan (Sam Neua) Province. The dormitory would provide housing for 40 boys and girls who do not now have the opportunity to attend school as they live too far away to commute daily. The dormitory would allow them to stay at the school during the week and return to their home on weekends, or when ever they are able. There would be some boys in 4th or 5th grades and the rest would be boys and girls in lower secondary grades. Ethnic breakdown of the students is about 40 % Lao Theung (Khamu, Phong and others), 20 % Hmong, and 20 % Lao Loum (Lao, Tai Dam, and others).
In general, in remote areas of Houa Phan the rate of children who leave school before finishing is high especially for those who finish primary school and cannot continue on in a secondary school located elsewhere far from their home. Parents cannot pay to send their children to school, because the school is far away, children cannot commute daily, there are no relatives near the school with whom they can stay, or there is no money to pay for accommodations near the school.
To address this problem, the Provincial Education Service requests assistance to build a dormitory to be used where minority students can sleep and eat when they are attending school in Ban Phakha South. Specifically, to:
-- build a dorm 5.5 m x 20 m with stone footings, cement floor, wood posts, wood walls, tin roof, with windows and doors, with beds and bedding, divided into two sections for 24 boys and 16 girls;
-- build a separate kitchen building, 4.5 x 6 meters of stone footing, cement floor, wood
posts, wood walls of 1 meter, with screening, and tin roof, and kitchen equipment
Please note that any funds over and above what's required for this project would be made available for other assistance work in Thailand or Laos.
Those who wish to contribute should please mail their donations to:
The TLC Brotherhood, Inc.
P.O. Box 343
Locust Grove, GA 30248
Two trip reports on other TLCB sponsored projects in Laos are attached, for your information. Photos of several trips may be viewed online here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/mactbkk/?pli=1
We of the TLCB do hope that you will participate in the funding of this needed project for upcountry Laos. In the end, the children, the teachers, the villagers who will be doing the work, and the provincial officials, will all know that the assistance came from the People of America.
Thank you
MacAlan Thompson, Army, Korat, 1964-'65; IVS & USAID/Laos, '66-'75; Indochinese Refugee Program, Thailand, 1975-'83; retired in Thailand since 1992.
Member:
Thailand, Laos, Cambodia Brotherhood
American Legion China Post 1, since 1974 in Laos
Air Commando Association (associate)
Air America Association (associate)
Ravens (friend)
U.S. Parachute Association (50 year member, not active any more)
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The Desk Trip to Long Tieng
By MacAlan Thompson
24 August, Sunday
It was Sunday, August 24th, in Thailand and my wife Sunee and I were off to Vientiane again. It’s about an 8-hour drive from our home north of Bangkok, all on 4-to-10 lane roads all the way. It sure is not like it was 30 or even 20 years ago, getting behind a line of 10-wheel trucks on the old 2-lane highway, or trying to pass the "Orange Crush" local buses. The trip is much nicer these days, with lots of gas stations along the way for pit stops, eateries, etc.
We left my Toyota HiAce van at the secure parking right near the international Mekong River bridge at Nong Khai, zipped through Thai Immigration and then went across the bridge through Lao Immigration. In a hired van we went on into Vientiane, which is another 30 minutes or so upstream. In Vientiane we stayed one night at the Maly Guest House near the Nam Phu (fountain square). We had been worried a bit about the flooding from the Mekong River but the water had receded a few days earlier and all that was left were lots of sandbags, and some mud and sand, and downtown was fine and dry. That evening we had dinner with friends at the Sticky Fingers restaurant.
25 August, Monday
We stayed in Vientiane on Monday to attend several meetings, and then on Tuesday we were off to upcountry! Roger Warner (author of Shooting at the Moon) was in town. Roger and I had "opened up" Long Tieng in March of 2006 for access. At least we sort of had; access still seems to be highly restricted for most people. The TLCB, however, is a special group. Roger asked if he could accompany us on this trip, and we were delighted to have him.
After seven hours of rough roads we pulled into Xaysomboun/Moung Cha/LS-113, the nearest "town" to Long Tieng. (Note, LS-113 is marked on Jim Henthorn's super "map scan" project, as are the other Lao airfield sites, at: http://www.nexus.net/~911gfx/sea-ao.html) The road up is largely either gravel or dirt, though portions have been improved by the Australian Phu Bia Mining Co. because of needed access for their large (up to 18-wheeler) trucks, which have also wrecked portions of the road. The Phu Bia mine folks are repairing some of the roads where it benefits them. Xaysomboun town is the closest town to Long Tieng that has a large market area, hardware stores, furniture makers, and a half way decent Phu Bia Hotel (at least two stars) with hot water, and satellite TV with Thai channels for Sunee! The gal at the hotel told us a couple trips ago that it'd been built by the government in 1995 "for the influx of tourists," that haven't come as yet, so the hotel is mostly shut down except when a few international officials show up, and call the cell phone number on the door for the lonely desk clerk/maid to come over and open up. Still, it's the only show in town, except for 2 or 3 "no star" guest houses, so it’s fine with us. And, this trip, the attached disco was open, which looked promising. But our Lao driver, the same guy we've hired for four trips, went over to check it out, and found it was quiet, and shut down by early evening.
When we got settled we were off to the market area and the restaurant for an early meal and meeting with Bounsouk, the Lao Government area development guy whom we first met in March 2006 when he was based at Long Tieng. Bounsouk was transferred to Xaysomboun in 2007, and has been very helpful to our program.
We informed Bounsouk of the purpose for this trip, which was primarily to fund 70 sets of school desks and benches/stools for the Long Tieng Primary School. They had requested these in February during our visit with John & Nancy Sweet and Bill Tilton, and the TLCB Assistance Committee had approved a budget of over $1,000 for this project.
With Bounsouk, we then visited two furniture makers in town and settled on one of them for the project. He gave a two week period for crafting and then a week or so more to arrange transport up to Long Tieng, some three hours distant.
In the early evening we went back to the hotel and went right to bed. We were surprised at about 0130 hours by a “knock knock” on the door. Was it Lao police, or military? We didn't know; they were not in uniform. But they politely asked for our passports, looked at them, said “fine,” and went on their way. I guess they'd heard that some “farangs” (foreigners) were in town and wanted to check on them. That’s the first time that's happened to us. I guess it must have been Roger, at 6 foot plus, because he's more noticeable than I am.
27 August, Wednesday
We were up early, and were off to the morning market and breakfast at the restaurant. Bounsouk met us there and off we went to Houy Kham, the "Gold Mine Junction," as I call it, where you turn off north to Long Tieng. Getting there involved one long hour of rough-rough road with billiard-ball rocks on it (right, John, Nancy, Bill?). There is a good sized market here but we didn't stop to look around, having done that before. Gold Mine Junction is quite close to the one-time LS-207. Soon we were off to Long Tieng, which is situated two more hours north (over a less rough road, by comparison, but it still keeps your speed at about 20-30 kph, or 12-18 mph). On this old road they still have several of the old USAID 1973-installed “Bailey Bridges” along the road.
(Note: while Long Tieng is called "LS-20A" or "20 Alternate," it's not listed as such in the Air America site book for Laos. It's listed, with old information as "LS-30" and "LS-98." It was a secret place, remember?)
For our lunch on arrival at Long Tieng we had Vietnamese “pho” soup, of course, at the noodle shop with Bounsouk, Xayasith (principal of the Long Tieng primary schools), the #2 from the Ban Nam Ngoua secondary school, and the “nai ban” (village head). Over lunch we discussed the furniture procurement with Xayasith, since the furniture is for his school. Then we were off to visit the Ban Nam Ngoua site, about five minutes north. The TLCB Assistance Committee had also agreed to a budget of $400 to fund a water line for the school from an existing water source over to a 2-squatter crapper behind the school that wasn't being utilized because of lack of water.
Then we went back to Long Tieng to the primary school to see the 4-squatter crapper funded earlier this year by the TLCB, but not quite finished when we visited last February. It had been our first big project, and I had been so afraid we had given them that money and would see nothing to show for it. And now--it's working! But we do need to buy some paint for it on the next trip.
So then we went back to the noodle shop, which is by the road that parallels the old Long Tieng runway, for more talk. By this time it was getting on towards late afternoon, and if we were departing we would need to get going soon, as we've had to do in the past. Again I raised, the idea with Bounsouk of an RON (remain over night) right there at Long Tieng, which had not been allowed on our previous visits. He said, “Why not? But very difficult, as no place to stay.” I suggested (general) Vang Pao's old office/house, which still stands not far from the noodle shop. Bounsouk said we couldn't use that because it's been leased by the people who are going to build the large Nam Ngum 3 dam, nearby. OK, I pressed, how about the old SKY building where Bounsouk used to have a cubbyhole? That wouldn’t do either, having no other rooms--if we RONed, he'd use his old small room. Grasping at straws by this time, I asked about Xayasith's fairly large house (left over from the "old" days, pre-1975). That's when the noodle shop lady popped up and said we could stay at her place; all four of us: me, Sunee, Roger, and our Lao driver.
That was fine with me, and us, and Sunee went to check it out. She came back and said OK; there were roll-out mattresses on the floor, blankets and mosquito nets, and all that's necessary for our stay. Hey, I've stayed like this during my earlier nine years in Laos, and it’s not a problem, though to many folks these hooches would look rather primitive.
By the way, I had noticed a florescent light fixture in the dirt floored restaurant and a switch fuse box. I wondered, did they have electricity already? We had seen the fans and a large fuse panel at the SKY building earlier. The answer is: not yet. Long Tieng is wired up, but the power hasn't yet been turned on. Obviously it’s coming soon.
We enjoyed a big dinner as a group, featuring a fish that the owner had ordered up for her family from the market at the Gold Mine Junction, local rice, some really tough chicken, plenty of fresh veggies, and of course, BEER LAO with ice cubes. After dinner, folks scattered and we got ready for bed. Sunee was happy, as there was satellite TV run off a car battery and there were a few low wattage florescent lights. They had a COLD water dip bath just down the stairs to the outside for those brave souls who like such. (For Bill Tilton: it was much nicer on the floor than that "nasty," as you called it, guest house in Gnommarath, mentioned in the last MEM. By the way, I actually thought that Gnommarath guest house was quite OK, compared to a couple of the other places Sunee and I've stayed at while on these TLCB assistance runs in Laos!
28 August, Thursday
We were up early with the chickens (all Laos seems to have these two-legged alarm clocks), and I went downstairs for a cold shave. It took a while to locate a nail to hang my USAF signal mirror on for shaving. Do you remember those things, the ones with the hole in the middle for sighting an airplane, then flashing a signal? I’ve been carrying this mirror for many years as part of my shaving kit.
We had noodle shop breakfast, again with the guys from Long Tieng. Our topics were the two TLCB funded projects, a "contract/agreement" signing by me and the Long Tieng principals, and witnessed by Bounsouk representing the Xaysomboun District development office and the nai ban. Then there was the exaggerated handing over of the bundles of Lao kip (note, at $1 = kip 8630, one hundred dollars makes a good sized bundle). By mid-morning we were ready to move on.
First there was the two rugged two hours back to the Gold Mine Junction where Roger took some background video shots and Sunee and I walked around doing a survey of the existing guest houses. We found one real nice one, one pretty nice, and three real dumps, one of which we knew to be a dump because we'd stayed there in 2007 on a trip.
Since it was too late to get all the way back to Vientiane that day, we asked Roger where he'd like to RON: here, at Long San, where Roger and I had stayed in March 2006 and we'd also stayed with the Sweets and Bill Tilton last February? Or drive on four hours over the really rough east-west road out to highway 13N and up to Vang Vieng, which was once known as L-16. I was out-voted by Roger and Sunee, and off we went to Vang Vieng.
On the way, we stopped by Ban Xon, LS-272, the former USAID base after we got kicked out of Sam Thong, LS-20, in March 1970. We found the airfield, but there were no warehouses or other buildings left standing. We came upon 10 modern flat bed tractor-trailers parked by the side of the road. They were 20-wheelers. We asked the villagers what these were doing up in this backwoods spot, because they surely didn't look like they had any association with the Phu Bia Gold Mine company or the Nam Ngum 3 dam project. We were right about that: they were Vietnamese trucks, there to pick up some of the 3-4 foot diameter logs that have been lying by the side of the road for the last few years, drying out. They've been sold to Vietnam and would be heading on a long journey up to Hanoi via the Plain of Jars and Sam Nuea.
Then we went on to Vang Vieng, getting there about 1700 hrs. We checked into a nice guest house, and enjoyed dinner and suds at a nice restaurant. Vang Vieng is equipped to cater to Western tourists, including groups of American students during spring break.
29 August, Friday
As always, we were up early, and went out to the river on the west side of town to photograph the tall karsts there with the sun rise and morning ground fog lifting, which makes for some very nice views. Finally we headed south towards Vientiane, a four hours drive on Hwy 13N, stopping at the "Chao La Memorial" enroute. Chao La was the Yao/Iu Mien ethnic leader up in the Ban Houei Sai, L-25 and Nam Yu, LS-118A, area in northwest Laos for many years. He died in France. Now there are many from this ethnic group in the Portland, Oregon, and Oakland, California areas.
Upon arrival back in Vientiane we had a late lunch at the new restaurant adjoining the Asia Pavilion Hotel (the old Constellation) on Samsenthai Road. We enjoyed a change of menu: hamburger for Sunee and good ribs for me. And that evening we had our dinner again at the Sticky Fingers while reporting on the trip to several resident American friends who showed up.
30 August, Saturday
His business for this TLCB trip finished, Roger Warner chose to stay around Vientiane for a few more days, and Sunee and I were off to Nong Khai to pick up our van and make the eight hour drive home. We were tired, but it had been a particularly interesting trip, made especially notable by our RON at Long Tieng, which was a first for us.
Photos of this, and several earlier trips, are here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/mactbkk/?pli=1
Now to get planning for the next trip....
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Assistance to Laos, 7-13 December 2008, Mac & Sunee Thompson
"Where your money is going!"
We visited four projects during this trip, two follow-ups and two new.
Map of NE Laos at the photo url below, and there is always Jim Henthorn's super map scan project as a resource at:
http://www.nexus.net/~911gfx/sea-ao.html
Sunee and I drove up to Nong Khai on 7 December and took a taxi over to Vientiane. After arranging for a 4WD pickup rental on Monday morning, we headed up to Phonsavan on the PDJ. It was roughly a nine-hour drive. On the way, we passed through some old towns with names familiar to "old Lao handsâ€: Phon Hong LS-133, Vang Vieng L-16, Moung Kassy LS-153/249, Sala Phou Khoun LS-260, Moung Soui L-108, and into Phonsavan, the capital of the Plain of Jars in Xieng Khouang Province. We RONed at the Nice Guest House, a place we knew was good as we had stayed there before. While there are a number of restaurants in town, we mainly ate at the Craters Restaurant, which is now run by several Vietnamese folks who are still learning Lao. It is right next to the MAG office. (The Mine Advisory Group - the UXO clearing folks).
It was cold up there, at least cold for us. It was about 61F in the room at the guest house, got down to 58F in the morning, and was 48F outside! Sunee's first stop was the morning market for another jacket, an import from China costing seven dollars. That gave her five (5) layers for warmth.
We ran into a group of eighteen Thai on BMW motorcycles passing through. They came in via Chiang Mai to Luang Prabang, going on to Vientiane, Pakse down south, then back to Bangkok via Ubon, a several thousand kilometer trip. They were nice folks but they must have iron butts, and I know a trip like that is not for me.
On the way back from Ban Phak Khae, Nong Het, out near the Vietnamese border, we stopped for some good pho soup at a place in Muang Khoun, aka Ban Ban. We saw a really interesting truck quite a few times during our road trip. I think it was an import from China but perhaps based on Japanese technology. Take note of the four front wheels. They all turn together, which makes it easier to get around sharp curves in the roads, which are abundant in Laos.
We made a quick visit to jar Site 1 for a photo op, which I will send to the PARACHUTIST Magazine. They have started a page of the magazine spotlighting interesting places around the world, and certainly the PDJ and the jars are interesting. Take notice of the cave and the "instant fish pond" at this site.
We spent Tuesday and Wednesday morning visiting two school sites. Mr. Art, my main contact in Laos on education related projects, and Mr. Sounduean of the Xieng Khouang Provincial Education Office accompanied us.
Plain of Jars area:
Follow-up to Ban Phak Khae, Motion 16-08, funded during our May 2008 visit:
Proposed: Rehabilitation of an existing 25 year old wood school building at Ban Phak Khae, Nong Het District, Laos. The village is east of Phonsavanh out on Rt 7 almost to the Vietnamese border. This was funded for $1,220.
The project is complete and includes new roofing tin, a cement floor, new wood for portions of the building, furniture, and a partition to create a small library at one end of the building. The school changed the concept of the project to provide for a teacher prep and meeting room, also to be used as a spill-over classroom as needed. The library is a good idea. The books and portable bookcases are not "ours." The "before" photo shows that the building was pretty much stripped down prior to the rehab work.
FYI, just behind the school is a small community forest that will be used by the students. It was recently cleared of UXO. Some 4,000 "bombies" were found in a 2,000 square meter area! This hilltop was pretty heavily hit pre-1973 as it contained an army camp. Several of the new roofing sheets on the school were damaged by shrapnel when the UXO people blew some of the bombies in place. Note the two UXO posters, which are common in most schools in Laos. There is still a lot of stuff laying around or buried and we need to keep the kids aware of the potential problem.
New project, Ban Phosy, Motion #39-08:
Proposed: The Phosy Primary School is to renovate one room in the old building for use as a library and a Life-Skills study area. This village is about 3 km south of Muang Khoun (old Xieng Khouang Ville, L-03), a 30 minute drive south of Phonsavan. Project funded for $1,512. NOTE: There was a $250 private donation for this project from an outside source, the cousin of a former USAID/Lao friend of mine and Art's.
The kids of the school were happy as classes were dismissed for the day because of our meeting with the district, local, and school officials. A contract/agreement was signed by several parties on the Lao side and me on behalf of the TLCB. Of note, one of the signers is a woman "nai ban," or village chief, which is not very common in Laos, or in Thailand. Following the school visit, we went to the head teacher's house for lunch: sticky rice, veggies, pork, chicken, Beer Lao, and a couple shots of "lao Lao." Ugh, it’s still hard to take that stuff. We returned to the road heading south, via the old wat at Muang Khoun.
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The trip on to the Long Tieng valley took a day and a half and an extra night on the road in a hotel at Paksan, L-35, much longer that the six to eight hours I had hoped for. I had looked forward to being able to make a river ford at Tha Vieng, LS-13, and head directly west about three hours to Xaysomboun/Moung Cha/LS-113 to arrange for additional furniture for Long Tieng. This didn't happen. There is a light cable-stayed bridge for motorcycles and people to cross the river, but it was not suitable for a pickup. Our valiant driver, who has been with us for six trips so far, volunteered to wade the river to check out the deep spot in the channel. When the water got waist deep and running fast, he gave up. Later we ran into several spots under construction, by a Vietnamese company of all things. Thus, we headed south another five hours on some pretty rough roads, spent the night, and the next day headed back north on the roads to Xayxomboun via Thabok on the Mekong. Perhaps the river will be down enough for our next trip, this being the dry season with no rains until May.
We had lunch at the pretty good local restaurant at the Xaysomboun market, shopped around a bit, then hit the furniture maker to order additional school desks and stools for Long Tieng. Take a look at the high tech transport for the Sat dish headed for someone's house and the local "bus" transport for the area. There are a couple more large buses that make daily runs back and forth to Vientiane and to the large Hmong town of Km 52, on Hwy 13N.
We had initially planned to RON at Xaysomboun at the Phu Bia Hotel where we have stayed several times before, a good enough place. By the way, when we are upcountry we do like three things in guest houses we use: #1, hot water; #2, a sit-down crapper for me; #3, Sat TV for Sunee. Often we get all three, sometimes two, and rarely one. It's the "nones" that I don't like, but we have stayed at those too.
We decided to head west to Houay Kham, the "Gold Mine Junction" where the road to Long Tieng splits off to the north. There are several guest houses here, including one of the "nones" we stayed at last year. We checked on a new one, the Villa Nam Ngone, which opened last year. It was Great!! It had all we wanted, plus a real enclosed shower, great view in the afternoon and early morning with the ground fog. They brought dinner to the room from a restaurant about 100 m up the hill. It was one of the best places I have stayed in Thailand or Laos.
The next morning we were out early, had no breakfast, and hit the small morning market and bought some eggs and veggies to take up to Long Tieng for breakfast there. We were on the road at 0700 hours for the two-hour trip to LT.
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Long Tieng Valley:
We arrived at about 0900 hours with breakfast done up at the pho shop. The "main man" we had wanted to see had already gone over Skyline Ridge to Sam Thong, so we had to scratch the idea of joining him. Perhaps we can do that on another trip because there is a large school, funded by USAID back in the 1960s at Sam Thong that perhaps could use some assistance.
Electricity has finally arrived at Long Tieng!! The pho shop now has an electric hot water pot, a rice cooker, a drinks cooler furnished by Coke Cola, and best of all, a POPCORN machine! Civilization, I guess!! Cell phone service is expected in January, in and out to the world. No more SSB radios. I had a signal on my cell phone, but evidently the final circuits haven't been connected.
We met with the teachers of the two schools we have been working with, the Ban Nam Ngoua Lower Secondary School and the Long Tieng Primary School.
Follow-up to Ban Nam Ngoua waterline, Motion 30-08, funded during our August 2008 trip:
This project was budgeted for $400 but came in at $295. It looks good and includes a large water tank next to the two-squatter head, now in use by The Kids (tm). The villagers have done some good self-help work here with just a little input by the TLCB Assistance Fund.
Follow-up to Motion 29-08, Desks & Stools, 50 sets, Long Tieng Primary School:
There was a funding shortfall for this project during the August 2008 trip. The initial plan was for 70 sets of furniture, but funds were available for just 50 sets, which have been delivered. Note the small TLCB sticker on almost all of the desks. FYI, "almost," some have been scraped off as “kids will be kids.†This cost came in at $1,333.
New Project, Desks & Stools II, Motion 38-08:
This "new" project was for 20 sets of desks and stools to make up the shortfall of the August trip. It was funded for $600 ($550 for commodities plus $60 for transportation). The commodity estimate came in within budget and the transportation estimate was low. Diesel is still high up in that area, which is understandable given the eight-hour drive to get a fuel tanker up there.
Furniture will be ready for delivery by 30 December. An additional approximately $100 was handed over to pay for diesel and per diem for use of an army truck and four to six people to drive down to Xaysomboun to pick up the furniture.