Fear and Festivals - 10/27/18

Lights

Flower boat things

Tons of people at the festival

Guess which one I am?

Hey guys!

It's been another good week out in the People's Democratic Republic of Laos. We did some fun stuff this week, but there were a lot of cancelled appointments as well.

This week definitely started off well. Last Saturday night we went to go help at a haunted house put on by one of the members over here. We had a bunch of students from a special English program come, as well as a bunch of YSA peeps. Apparently my room was one of the scariest ones. I think the success might be due to the extremely creepy mask I found at a random Lao market. The whole night was a big success though, and we were able to scare the heck out of a ton of Lao children/young adults. Good stuff. 

On Wednesday there was a big festival to celebrate the end of Buddhist Lent, where Buddhists were supposed to go without smoking and drinking for a period of 3 months. HAHAHAHAHA ~ jk, they don't actually do that part. But for the festival everybody will cancel everything they have planned, go to the Mekhong River (conveniently right outside of our apartment), and proceed to get devastatingly drunk while lighting these little banana leaf boats to increase their boon (merit). It was a good day. Thankfully the members only follow through with the cancelling appointments and going to the Mekhong to look at the lights. It was pretty cool to see.

On the day immediately following that festival, they have the annual Boat Racing Festival. It consists of a lot of the same stuff, except no lighting all of the lights. Instead they go and watch these boats full of Lao people race each other. Also during these two days, half the city closes down and a massive market appears that takes up about 3 massive streets. The day after the festivals, the entire market is disappears - which is pretty impressive - and all that is left over is a bunch of trash.

On the other hand, Lanoy is still set to be baptized next week, so that'll be a pretty good birthday present. 

So that's pretty much been the past week haha. It was pretty cool though! I hope that all of you have had good weeks! I love and miss all of you!

<3

ເອວເດີ ຣິດ 

Elder Ridd