Spirit Houses

You experience different things when you decide to go to a foreign land other than what you're used to. You see different things, some unusual to you but for the locals is apart of their life, their heritage. Well this isn't really new to me but new to other people not use to our SE Asian cultures.

What is it you ask? Well it's the spirit houses that you see literally at every house, everywhere. What are these you ask? Well these are mini temple-like houses set outside of your house to house the spirit of your relatives. These spirit houses can be any color but most common are red, white and gold ones (not that any other colors can't be used as well). What are you suppose to do with them? You put offerings such as rice, fruits or small drinks for your relatives and "wai" them.

These spirit houses are suppose to be sacred and not disturbed. I've seen some foreigners posing in front of these spirit houses and making it seem like it's a historic monument or something. Hello people...these are some people's relatives' spirits in them. Don't put your arms around them, smile and act like it's a celebrity.

While I was in Laos visiting Vang Vieng I seen this happen. This German dude was with a couple of people and they stopped by this family's house on the side of the road (which was near the local market) to take goofy pictures next to and around the family's spirit house which was near the front of the house. Well I also stopped by the local market on the way to kayak and seen this...I felt I had to step up and let these guys know that their actions wasn't something to take pictures of and that they should respect the family's spirit house and not mock it nor take disrespectful pictures amongst it. I also asked them how they would feel if I took goofy pictures on their family's grave site? I don't think they would like it much if I were to do that. They didn't know what the spirit house was for and now they do.

Lets just hope they share the knowledge.

THERE'S MORE HERE...

HAPPY NEW YEARS

It's been about a month since my last post. I've been travelling so much for work that I haven't even had a chance to update or anything like that, sorry people. I didn't expect to travel this much in such a short amount of time.

Anyways it's that time of the year for us. It's New Years for the Laotians, Thais and Cambodians. I want to wish everyone a very Happy New Years and may all the water playing keep you guys cool in the hot, humid weather.

New Years is a time for us to enjoy the three days with our families. It's the time to enjoy fabulous food, drinks and each others' company. I wish I was there for all the water works, but what can I do can't get off work you know.

HAPPY NEW YEARS TO THOSE CELEBRATING THIS TIME OF THE YEAR!!! BE SAFE!

THERE'S MORE HERE...

Adoption in Asia

A coworker of mine is considering international adoptions and asked me for my advice. It's a great thing to want to adopt a child that needs a loving home. I've no idea what kind of advice she wanted from me since I've never adopted before or even close to wanting a child. I've been seeing celebrities adopting from Asia the last couple of years. I've mostly seen and heard about Angelina Jolie adopting from Cambodia and Vietnam. There have also been stars adopting from China. I know that there is a huge demand for overseas adoption especially from China, there's like a waiting list that you have to be on for some time. But what about the other Asian countries that we don't hear about? Are adoptions available there for foreigners? Well here's the rundown.

Vietnam: As you already know that Vietnam has just opened adoption to foreigners within the last couple of years again. As far as I know, you are able to adopt from Vietnam even if you're single. You can't adopt as a couple if you're just boyfriend/girlfriend (like Angelina Jolie). Normally there is a bigger demand for girls so the waiting could be longer than for boys. Most of these kids have special needs that need to be tended to. Adoption in Vietnam costs between $9,000 - $12,000 depending on the agency you choose. Vietnam is the place everyone wants to adopt from now.

Cambodia: Well we know that Angelina Jolie adopted her first child Maddox from Cambodia and put the country on the map. Not a lot of us knew that we were able to adopt from Cambodia (well at least I wasn't aware of that news). To adopt from Cambodia you have to be a married couple within the age of 25-55 and if you're not married then you have to be 40-50 years of age. So anyone younger than 25 try Vietnam cause you won't have a chance in Cambodia. All the paperwork is basically the same, you still have to do the homestudy and file paperwork from your home country and the adoption country.

Thailand: Alright you're able to adopt from Thailand. You can be single to adopt but at least 25 yrs. old and you have to be at least 15 years older than the child that you plan to adopt. Of course you have to file the paperworks and all that fun stuff. There's not a lot of adoptions from Thailand. In 2006 only 56 Immigrant Visas were issued, down from 2005 which issued 72.

Laos: The Lao government has suspended all adoption to foreigners of any Lao children. There's no orphanages or government responsible so it's not really clear who they can categorize as "orphans". So if you want a Laotian child your best bet would be an orphan from Thailand or neighboring countries because you will not get a child from Laos (my parents learned that early on).

China: Ok China is the major place for adoptions. Mostly girls are in the orphanages and they are in demand. But be warned you'll be on the waiting list for a long time.

I'm not exactly sure about the other Asian countries so if anyone has any info for me to pass along to my coworker please feel free to leave some. Giving a child a second chance at a good life is the greatest gift that anyone can give.

THERE'S MORE HERE...

Back To Laos Pt. 1

I went back to Laos for the first time in 12 years. Yes I know a long time right? Well factor in school plus working 2 jobs and you literally don't have any time what so ever. I decided that I was going to take a month off work to go on vacation with my sister. We decided that we would go to visit our grandparents and family. I was kinda scared of going at first because well I haven't been there in a very long time, I've heard stories of Laotians robbing each other, and I was just basically scared of seeing the family that I haven't seen in forever.

My sister and I decided to go in May after our finals. Well lets just say we didn't have time from the end of our finals to getting on the plane. We tend to leave our packing til the very last minute and I tend to overpack because I think I need everything (so sue me girls tend to do that). When we got on the plane it was kinda of a relief to be leaving all the stress of work and school behind. It was such a long trip from Chicago all the way to Japan for our first layover. Tokyo's airport is such a huge airport, I thought we were going to get lost. This is when we encountered our problem of the whole trip. We asked a worker there where our gate was and he was asking about a visa. We said that we would get our visa for Laos when we got there, as you can do because they do "on-arrival visas". Apparently this dude didn't understand what I was saying because he kept saying that we needed a visa to enter the country. Of course we know this and we try to explain to him again but slower this time. I guess he got frustrated by us either because he didn't understand what I was saying or it was my sister standing next to me rolling her eyes. This dude walks away and gets his supervisor to come talk to us. (Mind you at this time everyone in the terminal is staring at us and talking amongst themselves as to what was going on.) So this guy's supervisor comes up to us and says the same thing, that we needed a visa. I told this lady "look I already told that guy that we can do on-arrival visas when we get to Laos, go and ask either one of these people in the terminal that's going to Laos also that we can do it that way". She proceeds to tell me that Laos won't let us enter without a visa and that we won't be able to board the plane until we take pictures for our visas. At this point I'm tired because I haven't slept in about 24 hrs and getting irritated by these people. I kinda snapped at her and told her that I'm not leaving the airport to take pictures for a visa that I can get when I get there and plus my flight was leaving in about 1 hr. She then tells me that my sister and I can't board the plane until we go with her to get our pictures taken. OMG what do these people not understand about doing it when we get to Laos?!?! My sister told me to give in and so I did (this is hard for me to give in due to what I do for a living) and we went to take our pictures, but before we went I told the lady "if you make us miss our flight then I'm not going to be a happy camper, I will get louder in the airport and I will have you suspended". I know a little dramatic right but remember I haven't slept in about a whole day and I think I lost a day in between too.

We finally get on our plane to Thailand just in the nick of time. Let me tell you we were not very happy at all by the time we reached the plane. We had a 6 hr plane ride from Tokyo to Thailand and had to wait in Thailand til 7 the next morning for our connecting flight into Laos. Why is that? I never got why there are so limited planes going to Laos and why we had to wait like 8 hrs. for the next flight. We were delirious by the time we got to Thailand cause at this point we were going on like 30 hrs. no sleep. I have not done this no sleep thing since doing my Undergrad studies and I'm older now and need my sleep. We walked around the big new airport for a bit and got a bite to eat. I swear it was like all eyes were on us for some reason. Were we looking ragged? Well of course if you've been on like a 30 hr. trip so far. Is it cause we're foreigners? Well of course but there's plenty of them in Thailand. Who knows why they were all staring and at this point in time we didn't really care. After we had a bite to eat we were walking out of the restaurant and I heard a familiar song. I go to my sister "hey it's Joni...", she cuts me off before I can finish my sentence and starts to look around like crazy cause she thought it was actually him there. I proceed to tell her "no his song is on the radio". We had like a couple more hours to go til our flight out so we played a little card game called Sequence that we brought along with us and boy did we attract a crowd of people just watching us play games (it doesn't help that we were kinda loud at the same time too). After 8 hrs. of waiting in Thailand we finally get to board our plane...Yay!!!!

The flight from Thailand to Laos was the shortest flight I've ever took. The flight was so short that you couldn't really take a nap when on the plane cause by the time you fell asleep you were there already. That's why I don't understand why there isn't that many flights going to and from Thailand and Laos. When we got to Laos it was such a shock, the humidity hits you right when you get off the plane. We made our way through customs and the customs agents tries to speak English to us because they hear us speaking English to this Scottish guy helping him out a bit. My sister and I just look at each other and was just kinda confused as to what he wanted to say to us. This is what he said to us "Ver you go to flom?" He asked this a couple of times and finally I just asked him in Laotian what he was trying to ask us, he was completely taken aback that we were able to speak Laotian fluently especially for people raised in the United States. Everyone wanted to help us out in the airport, but us not being so accustomed to having people pick up our things were kind of hesitant. We're actually those people that do everything for themselves so we were not used to it. I swear once we walked through those doors out into the airport lobby our aunts that were there didn't even recognize us!!!! We didn't expect them to recognize us anyways but we walked passed them until I heard my name kinda in a question and I'm the kinda person that's like loud and just yells out when I hear my name. We finally get to meet our aunts and uncle after all this time and after all the hassle of getting there. It feels like old times.

THERE'S MORE HERE...