This is the inspirational story of how an older Australian couple,
Trish Clark and Iain Finlay...both authors in their seventies...
built a proper road to a remote and impoverished village in
Northern Laos. While working on an internet project of their own in
Luang Prabang, the World Heritage-Listed former Royal Capital of
Laos, they befriended a young waiter, Chanthy, who was studying at
night school. They began helping him, first with his English, then
with his college fees and accommodation. His parents, relatively
poor subsistence rice famers, pleased at this unexpected boost for
their son, asked Trish and Iain to visit their village, NaLin,
about three hours south of Luang Prabang, down the Mekong River, or
four hours by dirt road. After a brief weekend stay in the village,
during which they were treated to a traditional baci ceremony in
their honor, they came away wondering what they could do to help
the villagers, whose average daily earnings were little more than
three dollars. At the time there was no electricity, no running
water...except for that from a mountain stream to three or four
outlets in the village, no health facilities, no proper sewerage
system and a fairly under-resourced primary school. But worst of
all, a shocking five kilometer quagmire of a track was all that
provided the only connection to the outside world in the rainy
season, either to the Mekong River, or to another dirt road in
slightly better condition, leading to the District Center of Muang
Nan. So Trish and Iain decided to try to tackle something in which
they had absolutely no knowledge or expertise. They decided to
build a proper road to the village of NaLin. This book traces more
than two years of the trials and tribulations experienced in their
efforts to raise funds in Australia and elsewhere in order to build
the road...of the setbacks and disappointments as expected sources
of funding did not eventuate or dropped away...of elation when
generous donors came up with substantial, no-strings-attached
contributions...of optimism as they engaged a Lao senior Roads
Engineer to carry out a preliminary GPS-based assessment and a
survey of the road...but also of caution as they made first contact
with Lao government bureaucracy in the form of the Department of
Public Works and Transportation, as well as with a road building
contractor who undertook to build the road into, through and beyond
NaLin village. Throughout all of this, as Trish and Iain shuttled
back and forth between Australia and Laos, the young Chanthy, now
working as a salesmen in a Luang Prabang handicraft shop...his
English improving all the while...became the linch-pin of the whole
project, working with his father, as well as the village
headmen...not only of NaLin village but of two other even poorer
villages, Houayhe and Phujong, further up the track, which were
keen to benefit from the planned improvements to the road. Then, in
early May 2013, they finally had enough money in their fund to do
the job, and a contractor who could do it. So on May 9th, after a
flight to Laos and an all-day session signing contracts in the
Department of Public Works in Muang Nan, the big equipment; an
excavator, a grader, two 10-ton trucks and a water truck rolled out
on to the road to NaLin and began work. But there was drama
developing, as a replacement for a broken part on another piece of
equipment, the heavy roller, did not arrive and all the work done
on the road was threatened by the fast approaching wet season
rains. But when a replacement roller is found and leased from
another company, the work resumes and the road is finished on time,
just before the rains set in. With a traditional baci ceremony to
thank the spirits of the netherworld, there are celebrations all
round, as smiling villagers take in their new road and the changes
it will bring for them. A small project... a world of difference.
General
Is the information for this product incomplete, wrong or inappropriate?
Let us know about it.
Does this product have an incorrect or missing image?
Send us a new image.
Is this product missing categories?
Add more categories.
Review This Product
No reviews yet - be the first to create one!
Welcome to Loot.co.za!
Sign in / Register |Wishlists & Gift Vouchers |Help | Advanced search
