A photo blog from Tokyo. A blog started in 2014 in Chiangmai, then moved to Vientiane, continues now in Japan. Daily photos and some stories to share my life in Tokyo with friends, families and others.
Tuesday, 31 May 2016
Monday, 30 May 2016
Megean's Legacy Ride
Meagean Baldwin who was on the Team Dai ride and who encourages me to get up for the 6 am training rides, and leads our weekend escapades with her GPS, is moving to Brussels next month with her family. So we had a final weekend ride into Tad Moon National Park with Megean, and a can of spray paint. We stopped frequently so she could mark the direction on posts and rocks. Hopefully we will be able to find our way next time we are out in the bamboo and on the tracks.
Sunday, 29 May 2016
Saturday, 28 May 2016
Graduation Day
This week is graduation week. We had a dinner on Wednesday night and a graduation ceremony tonight. Today the graduates left the school. Wearing gowns they walked out of the senior school, through the elementary school to the front gate. Students and staff lined the walkways to clap and cheer them out.
Friday, 27 May 2016
Hoffet Field
From my balcony I look out over the field at the near by French Clinic. It is called Hoffet Field as it is used by the French School (Lycee Hoffet) for their sport activities and there is small building that is used as their early years campus.
Tonight as I looked out I the orange and red color spots of the young players and the flowers in the trees drew my eye.
Thursday, 26 May 2016
A picture of Concentration
Wednesday, 25 May 2016
In the Blue Part 3
Weaving on traditional looms was also part of our day at Houey Hong Vocational Centre on Saturday. I managed to make a small piece in an hour or so of weaving. It would have been longer, but for my dyslexia with the foot pedals and also because I threaded the shuttle (in focus) through the wrong way. We all left with a much greater appreciation for the skills, patience and co-ordination of Laos weavers.
Tuesday, 24 May 2016
In the Blue Part 2
Our Indigo blue silk scarves drying on a rack in front of skeins of silk. Mine is the one with the vertical stripe.
The silk we used is actually from Vietnam as apparently it is cheaper than Laos silk.
Monday, 23 May 2016
In the Blue
Saturday morning I was playing with pots of indigo dye, making a silk tie dye scarf at Houey Hong Vocational Training centre. I went with agroup of staff from school and you can see us proudly wearing our scarves at the end of the day.
The lady in the middle in apricot is the founder of the Centre is Ms. Chanthasone Inthavong, a Vientiane native, now living and working in Tokyo, Japan. In 1982 she set up Action with Lao Children (ALC), a literacy non-governmental organisation. She lives and works in Tokyo to fund the Centre and its work and we were lucky to meet her on Saturday as she is back for a while to help improve the business. Her sister, Sengmany Vongsipasom, front right, returned to Vientiane after 20 years living in the USA, manages the day-to-day operations.a
Saturday, 21 May 2016
Farewell to the Frogs
The Frogs are a punk - rock band here in Vientiane featuring teachers from school Dirk (Science teacher) and Eric (elementary French) on Bass and sometimes Graeme (elementary Grade 5 on drums). Last night they played at O'Grady's Irish pub for the" End of the World Tour" as Dirk is moving to a school in Belgium next year. It was a fun night - lots of dancing - and prolific sweating in the heat.
It was another good example of being in an International school. I was drinking Beer Laos, dancing to songs from the sex pistols and B52s (and an INXS classic as well), played by musicians from The Netherlands, France, Ireland and Laos and chatting with the elementary principal (Australian, with a German wife and sons studying in Belgium) about his planned vacation in Germany and sailing off the Turkish coast.
Potato Spudoodles
This week my Grade 9s made Potato people or Spudoodles as part of our unit "Variations in Populations". They had some cute and some slightly less cute potato people to analyse for phenotypic and genotypic variation.
These are two of the spudoodles who along with their comrades are now scattered around the VIS campus with signs reading "The Potato People are Here" or "Who are the Potato People - Ask a Grade 9 Science student".
The fun part is completed and now the students have to analyse the data and write their reports over the weekend.
Friday, 20 May 2016
Table
Last Thursday evening I was at the theatre - the Black Box at school.
EnVISion Theatre company, a group of staff, students and parents, put on Table, a production of a recent play from the National Theatre in London.
The play tells the story of 6 generations of one family. A solidly crafted table is used as a way of exploring shifts in time and attitude in one family over a period of 115 years, with students and adults playing the parts of different characters at different stages of their lives - rather dense - but an intriguing plot. The performances were mature and showed the talent within the VIS community.
Thursday, 19 May 2016
Across the Road
Daily life is very public in Laos and in Vientiane. People eat and on the street, sit outside on the footpath with their family and usually have doors and windows open.
The neighbour's open window provides a view into their daily life.
Wednesday, 18 May 2016
Men at Work Part 2
Yesterday I watched the builders- today the rubbish collectors - rather more aromatic.
If you look closely you can see the recycling strategies: plastic bottles into the blue basket at the back, cardboard into the space between the cabin of the truck and the trailor.
Tuesday, 17 May 2016
Men at Work
Last week there was a wild storm and sheets of iron were blown off the roof of the home opposite my apartment.
This week it turned into construction site, complete with sacred flowers on a central post.
This afternoon there was considerable grunting, groaning and general sounds of hard work.
I stepped out onto the balcony to watch a group of men carry, using planks through rubber loops, then lever a concrete pylon into place. Follow their efforts through the photos.
Monday, 16 May 2016
The Family Scooter
Mothers with their young children and school bags loaded onto the scooter are a commons sight on my morning commute. There is some safety awareness - the mothers have scooters - but are wearing flip flops. The children are wearing studier footwear, but no helmets.
Sunday, 15 May 2016
The School Bus
These students were crammed onto the local school bus (tuk tuk) on Friday. I stopped behind it to their amusement to take a photo.