May 21. Jump around.

We have found a beautiful place. We stay under the mosquito net long this morning, before enjoying an extended breakfast, as far as the reconstruction goes. The house is really quite, despite the main road that crosses the fertile valley and should connect to China and Thailand. The local market in Luang Namtha does offer products from those countries because the cargo drivers aren't allowed to enter each other's countries, we are told. Our bedroom is next to the community room, where the children come after school, almost every day, to receive additional training (computer, English) and hang out. It means a lot to them, and we love how the project is organized by Bryan and Leila. Yeon has a call to order the shelves and does so most impressively.
Children are already waiting at the little porch in front of the house, and when we come out they almost jump on us. What have we got?

From earier occassions we remember a few games and activities we decide we can do here too. To our initial surprise, it all goes very well: the kids are concentrated and like the yoga exercises, aerobic jumping and head-and-tail snake game that we improvise. We have done some shopping earlier and give them a soccer- and a volleyball. In the course of the session we learn a lot from the children we can take with us on our travels and apply in other places.
At night, we see a Californian high school's performance of the musical Les misérables on DVD, an astonishing achievement I think, (and a great way to introduce adolescents to art, I can't help myself thinking). My mind drifts off to what we are planning for the future: a mobile (puppet)theater traveling to remote villages in the poorest part of the world, performing for marginalized kids while introducing basic services to their communities. But that's another story. I sleep well that night, happy about being in Laos where finding a charitable cause is a lot easier than in China.

May 20. Butterfly children.

The bus to Muang Sing leaves early in the morning, and after a nearly two hour ride through the staggering subtropical beauty of a national park, the road winds down into the big valley of Muang Sing. This region has the most different ethnicities of Laos, and is currently being discovered by travelers and nonprofits alike. We jump off the bus at the gas station and walk back until we see a friendly man waving at us.

It's Brian, who runs a children's center here in Muang Sing together with his wife, the pediatrician Leila. We are invited and over lunch introduce our project. We learn that Leila has traveled extinsively through Laos visiting hospitals and education pediatricians. It is really great

Leila has prepared several delicacies and we have dinner together.

We watch the movie "Shine" about the genius pianist David Helfgott together and marveled at the performance of the lead actor, which had earned him an Oscar back in the days when Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman were still together. The making and breaking of a musical genius briliantly portrayed, thanks to the superb supporting role of Armin Müller-Stahl who plays the part of the tyrannic father. At some points, the movie comes dangerously close to the usual genius-clichés, but the acting could just compensate for that.

We are offered our own room and sleep comfortably under a large mosquito net. Such a good life.