Day 11, Wednesday - Vientiane

Today was spent going on a few more visits to different schools. We first got to meet Houmphanh Keo-Ounkham who is the coordinator for the Department of Private Education in the Ministry of Education. Houmphanh has a project that he wants to share with us but before really introducing us to it, he gave us some background on his life. We all found his story very inspiring. Houmphanh was born to a family of farmers that did not earn enough money to financially support an education for him. Because of this, he left to become a Buddhist monk where he could study in their temple. As a monk, Houmphanh learned the English language. He went on to become a banker but was not satisfied because for him money should not be a priority. He believes that one should always give to receive and because of this, the many people that have only ever received are in debt. Houmphanh's outlook on life was impressive enough but it didn't end there. He quit being a banker and applied for the job in the Ministry. Being hired was a proud moment for him because he knew he owed it to his English skills rather than any family connections that others may have had. Since Houmphanh is able to personally testify to the importance of learning English and helping others has always been the most important thing to him, he has made it his mission to open up a night school that will teach primary students English and computer skills. He also wants to include lessons for older students that will focus on hotel and tourism communication skills. He wants to open the school this summer in July and teach there with two other people. Houmphanh has a lot of ambition but the project has taken a lot of sacrifice. He told us he doesn't own a car because he saves all of his funds to put into his school. In fact, the logo he designed features a candle to represent how he feels that he is like a candle because he is willing to burn himself out to provide light for others. He was given a grant for a five year contract but there are still a lot of expenses that he needs help with. He took us to see the building he is renting to use for classrooms. You could see the potential but at its current state there was a lot of work to be done. The few desks that he had needed repairs and none of the classrooms had windows for ventilation. It was at this point that we all seemed to agree this was something to look into supporting. There's the definitely opportunity for us to help in several ways and we all feel positively about it so we plan to talk to Houmphanh again.
Our next visits were to different primary schools. Khamphath took us to see another public primary school that had bilingual classrooms. We weren't able to meet any students though because they are currently in their finals week. After, we went to see the private school that his children attend. It had both a primary and secondary section but only the secondary students were in class today. At the time we were there they were on break and we got to watch them play in the schoolyard. They had a game of basketball going and we also were able to see them playing with a tekraw ball and practicing some martial arts. Even by looking just at the recess areas the difference between a private and a public school was clear. The facilities were much nicer in the private school and from what we've gathered their English classes are at a higher quality. On our way out we passed the "Room for Reading" as we understood it was a building that functioned as an English library, a luxury the other schools certainly didn't have.