The People and the Culture

- As discussed previously, religion (and Buddhism in particular) is an integral part of the environment here in Laos. 82% of all Lao people live in self-sustaining farming villages. For food, people in the community go fishing in the Mekong, raise chickens and cows, and farm rice and other vegetables. The majority of villages do not have electricity, and good luck finding any "consumer products".

- The most popular way to "move out of the village" is to become a Buddhist Novice (somewhat analogous to an altar boy). Essentially, around the age of 10, boys/young men begin training to become monks. They start in the local village, then move out, and the monkhood helps provide their education (most villages do not have schools). I suspect only a small number of novices go onto become proper monks, but its clear if you want to learn, its the only game in town, err, the village.

- Getting into work mode for a moment, there is ONE bank in Luang Prabang, the 2nd largest city in the country!!! Villagers have ZERO access to financial services and more importantly, the philanthropic and capital markets industry that would be more than willing to assist. In the US, if the town needs to build a new school, the municipality will simply put out a bond to raise the money. These folks don't have access to any of those services. Presumably, that's one of the roles of the Asian Development Bank, but I suspect that's not enough. Ideally, someone (obviously smarter than me) will figure out how to provide the villages themselves with access to the capital they need.

- People don't get angry. Here, the old "patience is a virtue" is in full force. Expanding on the previous point, people act very calmly no matter how frustrating the situation. And the considering the horrible state of roads, the extreme poverty, crazy heat, and UXOs that continue to impact growth/development, the people have a lot of frustrating things to deal with!!!! Khan from King of the Hill does not demonstrate these qualities.