A Noble Birthday Indeed

Photo Album. For some, spending a birthday in a 3rd world country like Laos in SE Asia (its the relatively new independent nation, northeast of Thailand and northwest of Vietnam) might mean let's buy buy buy all the cheap cheap cheap goodies that are for sale sale sale. From clothing to jewelry, knives to duvet covers, everything was sold at the Night Market and at prices that would make Silas Marner stop, shop & smile.

Well, not for my 29 years young bride. Despite her irritations with the aches and pains brought about by kayaking and...getting older (did I say that?), she had a different agenda for her big day. When I asked her days before, "What do YOU want to do and what do YOU WANT for your birthday?", she responded by insisting on giving, not taking. SCHWEET!! My birthday isn't for a month but sounds like its coming early!!! Well, that's me talking and NO, not her meaning. She was really wanting to give back to the unfortunate people, children especially, that lived around Luang Prabang.

The night before, that's July 6th in Laos and I think it was still July 5th in Southern Cali, she went shopping for the kids. My initial reaction was to shuffle around the streets shaking my head while she bargained with street vendors over colored clay, bubbles, spin wheels and the like. But you know what, I was really proud. Proud of Stacy for setting her priorities in a way she felt strongly about but might not be 'normal' for one's day of birth celebration. Later that night as we looked for deals in the Night Market, we came across a young student from the local university who was selling childrens' books (in Laos & English) in an effort to help raise money for schools and to raise the spirits of the kids in Luang Prabang. Stacy was drawn to the table of colorful books and began chatting with the soft-spoken fellow about his and HER plans for the books. He was quite pleased to hear she wanted to give them to the kids, to find needy youngsters and deliver them. He pointed in a direction of possible villages to visit.

So when we rose out of bed...at 10:30am on July 7th - it was her birthday ya know. She can sleep in on her birthday! We were immediately hit with rain, constant rain, not the tropical rain we were accustomed to thus far. This rain went on and on, but it did not deter us from our plans to rent bicycles and find a village outside of town, play with some children & distribute Stacy's books, gifts...and birthday cheer. We were soaked through the bone once we finally came across a small throng of kids playing down a long dirt, well mud road. There were 6-8 boys and girls from 2 years old to 6 or 7 playing and hitting each other (kids are kids - in San Diego or Luang Prabang, kids are kids) under a roofed concrete slab. We looked at each other, shrugged and agreed that this group was probably as good as any (and dammit it was pouring rain and I was waterlogged!!).

Again my pride in what we were doing, in what Stacy had us doing on this rainy birthday of her's invigorated me. We sat down on some benches and said "Sa-ba-dee" (Hello in Laos) to the aware but uno too sure youngsters. The looks on their faces were hilarious, "what were these 2 doing here?"As Stacy began pulling out her bubbles, I tried to convey to Momma, sweeping her store 30M away that we wanted to play with the children. I am sure she did not understand my words but the big smile & wave made me think she got my gist.

With bubbles flying and kids now standing and swatting them out of the air, I started molding colored clay into mini umbrellas, flowers & carrots. The children were warming up to the tall foreigners invading their play area and started to actively participate. They accepted my clay gifts and promptly squished each into a ball. Making, well, brown balls of clay - lovely. The bubbles were quite a hit and we now had all of them surrounding us with grins. A funny thing though when we pulled out some candy, they backed away and 1 or 2 of them actually ended up leaving soon after. Seems like the "don't take candy from strangers" rule bridges the miles. We put the sugar away and I grabbed my green frisbee which I have been traveling with since the inception. The children clammored about and were all about it! I got them to stand in a circle and we began flipping it around. They were good! "Come on, come on" some of the girls would yell. Other children would pass by on the muddy road and I would toss it over to them to see if their interested eyes would turn into active participation. For several, they were drawn to the antics going on and we had kids coming and going, even a few pre-teens I think. Stacy somehow got a very beautiful interpretive dance from 3 or 4 of the young ladies while us boys hucked the disc about. I'm sure this was not the most fun these little people had ever had, but the grins and laughter made me feel great about what we were doing. Looking over at Stacy brought a big grin and happiness to my face as well.

Stace showed the children the books (both in Laos only) and immediately had a reading circle of sorts around her. There were mathematics and stories about Laos-related activities & creatures. They were drawn to the pages. After a while the kids left the books on the bench, however. We agreed that they did not understand to take them, why would they receive books from complete strangers? We each found a mom and did our best to convey that we wanted the children to have them. They looked closely at the covers and after creative hand gestering understood. "Khop Jai" they said with big smiles - Thank you.

It was time to go, not because the rain had ceased, because it hadn't, but because it just felt like the right time. We zipped up our rain coats and hopped on our grey bicycles. We waved at the confused faces and wondered what they must be thinking about us strangers riding bikes in the mud who came bearing gifts. What the? As I rode off I looked back at Stacy, navigating the giant mud puddles and saw the ear to ear grin on her face.

Happy Birthday Stace.
Thank You Stace.