Salt Basket

My skin was covered in salt crystals - like this basket - after a short time at the Ban Boe salt mine out of Vientiane yesterday. The students visit to interview workers and collect scientific data for an interdisciplinary unit. The inquiry question for the unit is "The growing demand for resources has social and environmental consequences which require the development of improved systems." The salt mine provides ample data to investigate this question in a Laos context.

The working conditions are truly medieval, but the workers are strong, happy to talk with us and see employment here as a better alternative to subsistence farming in the hills.