Monday, November 07, 2005

Concern

We had productive meeting today with the Country Director of Concer Worldwide. They have been looking for in-roads to the NPA's. So us presenting ourselves to them was fortuatous. They want to support with training, which is exactly what the CDEA need. Also they have some possible partnership workl that they want to do with the CDEA. So all round a good meeting.

Khampha the Vice President turned up, and dropped some work on us. Great! At last something to get our teeth into. So we are working on a funding bid the Ford Motor Company (spit!), for would you believe it, an environmental project. It must be guilt that their gas guzzlers are destroying the world. Throwing some money at imporverished countries for environmental projects, to ease their minds. So that is the bid we are writing for the CDEA at the moment. We need some photographic evidence to go with it, which is cool. It means we get to visit the school that has started composting, and get some piccys. Always good to get out of the city and into the country for a bit.

He also wants us to write a second phase project proposal for the successful Organic Composting project that is running at the moment. That is a slightly bigger task. We are just about done writing up the proposal for a Community Resource Centre here in Laos. Khanthone has just took away the summary we did to go over, and make any amendments that he wants. We busy little puppies at the moment. It seems to go like that. Twiddling your thumbs one minute, up to your neck in it the next.

Tomorrow we get a bit of your proper culture, like! We're going to the Lao Cultural Hall to see some hardcore Japanese Drumming. We asked Kako (Khanthone's son) and his girlfriend along. Should be a good night. We've wanted to go the Cultural Hall for a while, but not had the opportunity. Apart from that life in Vientiane carries on as usual. We are still putting ourselves out there, doing our best to make a bit of a wave, so that when it comes to applying for work once our travels are over, we'll be remembered. Out of all this madness there maybe a job! That is what we keep telling ourselves. By the time we are finished, we will have a good enough grasp of Lao language, we're already 'culturally sensitive', and everyone will know our name. Or at least remember the two mad Brit's trying to push forward the development of civil society in a still communist engrained country.

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