 Our Central Melbourne-Sunrise members travelling in Laos could hardly believe the scene before them. It was a sensational turn-out of 500-plus students, teachers, and Communist and education officials for the official opening of our three-classroom renovation at Heu-Khang High School outside Luang Prabang.
The $25,800 project, which included a $7200 District 9800 grant, was concluded by International Director Roy Garrett snipping ribbons with a flower-decorated pair of gold-painted scissors, and his symbolic opening of a classroom door with a half-metre white-painted plywood key.
In the leadup to the opening our party was saluted by a squad of nine-year-olds wearing 'Junior-Communist' red scarves, who heaped wreaths on our women members. We were treated to ethnic dancing by 14 black-clad and tartan-sashed teenagers, and serenaded by local musicians and speeches from officials extolling the project.
Roy's speech explained our club's joint efforts with Melbourne's Your Own Two Hands Foundation, run by Rod Fraser. Roy said, "Annie and I love anything that helps the beautiful children here, like this well-renovated school building." The District Governor said, "A better building means better education and a better life for children from poor families. We are going to protect and maintain these new classrooms so they will have a long life for the teachers and students."
We then gathered kneeling on carpets in one of the classrooms, bare of furniture but with a centrepiece of flowers and fruits, plus a whole chook which soon morphed into tough grey chook slices. The centrepiece was topped by elegant bunches of string. In long-standing tradition blending Bhuddism and animism, we circled the room on our knees and each teacher and official plucked a string from the centrepiece and tied it around our wrist. This is a tie of thanks and good luck for members of an extended family. By the end of the ceremony, each of us had wristfuls of strings.
We were then guests of honour at a big lunch, seated with the District Governor and directors. Local musicians were followed by our own party's guitarist, Guyon Wilson from Geelong (a friend of Roy's) who got the kids bopping with Waltzing Matilda and Click Go the Shears.
Our 13-member group, through the initiative of Roy, had kicked in $1000 each earlier this year to finance privately a kitchen and six toilets for the school's boarders. There had clearly been a stampede to finish these projects as the concrete was barely dry.
The kitchen used to be a trio of unhygienic grass and reed huts. The dormitory still has no beds, just a raised platform where students sleep en masse with a partition between girls and boys.
The opening of the three classrooms was the climax of two days where our party visited, checked and planned projects within the 2012-14 Rotary years, involving club, third party and personal funding. Each of our members had carried into Laos a renovated laptop supplied in Melbourne by Rod Fraser, of Your Own Two Hands. Laptops are so prized in the Laung Prabang district that officials allocated one per school principal, mainly for computerising the administration-- which would be enormous for schools of 600-plus children.
Again, the laptops' handover involved a solemn ceremony. Each of the principals had ridden their scooters to a central admin building, joining local directors. The laptops were set out in a row on the table and each principal, glowing with appreciation, received one in turn.
Footnote: The 2013 Laos party was Roy and Annie Garrett, Kay and Robin Stevens, Alan and Robyn Seale, Tony Thomas, Peter Johnson (Shepparton Central Rotary) and wife Carmel, Guyon and Bron Wilson (Geelong), Sally Edwards (Melbourne) and Jane Camphin (Brisbane).
The 2012 party was the Garretts, the O'Briens, the Thorntons and the Greenwoods, plus friends.
To Be Continued Next Week
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