In two days, my work as a Rustic Pathways program leader will be complete and although most of my energy has already gone into writing a final reflection piece (working on the finishing touches; posting tomorrow or Wednesday… and it’s bit of a barn burner if I do say so myself J), I thought it appropriate to jot down some notes on the highlights of week four.
I should’ve read the tea leaves early on in my relationship with Rustic Pathways. The company, for all its good intentions, is poorly managed and disorganized, more often than not leaving major decisions to the last minute. At first, I found this day-to-day lifestyle exciting; I thought it was the perfect remedy to my extremely structured, well-planned life at home.
Within a couple weeks though, I found myself not necessarily homesick, but rather plan-sick. I never knew what was going on more than ten minutes before anything happened, so I could never answer students questions about what we were doing next, and I had no idea which city, or for that matter, which country I could be expected to be in on any given day. The adventure grew to be emotionally nauseating.
That said, I’ve just completed four weeks of day by day travel, allegedly leading groups of students through various parts of the jungle (in actuality it was more an exercise of the blind leading the blind, thankfully, safely), and I am psychologically exhausted.
So like I said, I wanted this prologue to the final post to cover some of the most notable features of my final week of work. As I’ve already mentioned, I really put so much of my soul into the manifest that I’m posting before my departure, so please excuse my laziness in boiling week four down into bullet points:
· Due to poor planning on the company’s part, I was forced to work at elephant camp for a record third week. Typically program leaders are shifted around to different programs throughout their visit, and very rarely does anyone work the same program more than two weeks. It should go without saying that this city girl was physically drained after one week at elephant camp (overloads of bugs, mud, extreme isolation to the tune of living on an island, sleep that requires mosquito nets, etc), so when I was informed that I’d be overseeing a third week, I was less than thrilled. However, since the group is so small, I was given the authority to break up elephant camp a bit and spend more time in the city this time around; this necessary break from elephant isolation brought welcome relief.
· Luckily the new group is made up of only two students and they are considerably easier to live/work with than the last group (remember my lovely bipolar roommate?).
· Because our group was so small this time around, the elephant camp was able to open its doors to more outside visitors, two lovely families and a pair of backpacking twenty-something guys who ended up being hilarious and intellectually stimulating company… one of my favorite moments of the entire trip was a profound exchange between these travelers, an Iranian-Canadian and German, and myself about US defense systems and budgets. After spending the past month with teenagers, however amazing as they are, it was so nice to have a thought-provoking political conversation with my peers.
· Today I indulged in spa treatment number six (two traditional Thai massages, two foot massages, a facial and a body scrub) of the trip. For a total cost of about $65… for all six treatments… ‘nuff said.
· Lastly, I realized today that there are three things I’ll miss most about Laos: first, the sincere graciousness and earnestness of the Lao people (especially the children! Oh the children really tugged at my ovary-strings); second, the carefree, leisurely lifestyle that although throws a bit too much caution into the wind (babies are frequently seen riding in the front of motorcycles without a helmet), allows us to just throw stress into the wind, too; and third (and of least value to me in any way), my extremely fattening habit of visiting the crepe stands every evening (oh how much do I adore my peanut butter and Nutella crepes!).
Tomorrow is a day of total service, as we’ll be offering alms to the monks at sunrise and spending the rest of the day working with Rustic’s rice fields program at a pottery village and a rice village. Wednesday marks the last day of the program, where we’ll trudge back into elephant camp and the girls will take the final ride on their elephants and receive their “official mahout certification” (every student is certified a mahout at the end of the program, which is mostly laughable, since no one really controls those elephants, the actual professional mahouts can barely accomplish that task… but the ceremony is very cute nonetheless). From there, I’ll officially say goodbye to Luang Prabang and begin the loooooong journey home – Luang Prabang à Vientiane à Bangkok à Singapore à Tokyo à finally, so sweetly, Los Angeles.
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