An Afternoon At The Library

Saturday, February 2.Luang PrabangFrom David:There is a library on the main street of Luang Prabang that is sponsored in part by the American Embassy. We went there this afternoon to work as volunteers in a program for teaching English to Lao children. There were no other teachers in the room and only two children, Lue and Tou (first-year and fourth-year secondary school students), who invited us to sit at their table. They pointed to a photo of Mount Rushmore on the wall and said in their limited English that they needed to learn about the men carved into the mountainside.They turned out to be very smart and quick, and Mount Rushmore turned out to be a great vehicle. They already knew the name George Washington, and now they know how to read his name, that he was the first president, that he is known as the “father” of our country, that his picture is on the dollar bill, and that he had false teeth made of wood. Then we went through Jefferson and the Louisiana Purchase (and that his name means “son of Jeffer”), Teddy Roosevelt and the Rough Riders, and Lincoln and the Civil War and the freeing of the slaves. When that part of the afternoon was over, they wanted to know happened to the second president, and the fourth and the fifth and …., “Why aren’t they up on the mountain?”Tou said that he wants to go the university in Vientiane to become a chemistry teacher. I (David) mentioned that I had been a chemistry student but that I flunked out of graduate school because I had just met Lora and therefore hadn’t worked hard enough at my studies. Lue asked me to write the word “flunked” into his notebook so he could learn it. Figuring that a more positive concept would be better, we introduced him to the word “successful”.Then we moved on to world geography. By this time, volunteers from Guatemala, Argentina, Canada and Switzerland had gathered at our table, so we got out a map and each of us spoke a little about our countries. Tou and Lue told us a little about Laos and tried to teach us how to write their names in the Lao alphabet. After several minutes of frustration, we had to admit to them that Laotian is much more difficult for us than English is for them.When the afternoon was over, we bought each boy a map of the world. Life got a little complicated when we unfolded the maps and discovered that each was in French. We stayed a few more minutes to explain that Etats-Unis d’Amerique is the United States and that Suisse is Switzerland.As we left, Lue told us that he wants to take the TOEFL and come to the United States. We gave him our email addresses and told him to work hard and be “successful”. But there was really no need to tell him that. There is no doubt that he will work hard, and no doubt that he will be successful.From Lora:Well, I've stopped worrying about what David should do to keep busy in his retirement. It was so exciting to watch him take over the class, teaching those boys with with such finesse and humor while involving the rest of the group, so that after two hours they had acquired a bit of knowledge of world geography, US politics, Swiss national products, Mayan civilization, slavery, the Civil War, the Rough Riders, the Revolutionary War, five US presidents including our current Commander and Chief, and both the North and South Poles. They knew how to pronounce Massachusetts and could identify (and supply some facts about) the four granite presidents at Mount Rushmore.David's energy was totally infectious - I can't remember when I have seen him more animated or having a better time. Our mini United Nations (joined at one point by a young monk) had bonded in the way strangers who have found a common denominator can - in this case an inspiring, enthusiastic teacher.At the end of two hours (the prescribed length of the class) David was ready to continue - I had to pry him away. I guarantee the boys would have been thrilled to continue as well.