Children Being ...

A Laughing Lao

One of the simple pleasures that Duang and I enjoy here in Isaan is observing the many small children that we encounter in the villages.

As soon as they are born, babies spend a great deal of time outside.  If they are not being held by their mother, grandmother or even great grandmother, babies are being rocked in hammocks suspended from the log columns of the thatched roofed elevated platforms that just about every home has in their front yard close to the narrow street.

Just about every passerby stops by to spend some time gossiping, eating, drinking and of course paying attention to the babies.  School children hustling along the village streets on their way home from school, stop by to play with the babies.  Babies develop surrounded by people of all ages.  Babies develop surrounded by the sights and sounds of an extended  family as well as community.

Once the babies are able to walk, their social circle widens greatly.  The toddlers are left to their own devices and although watched over by elders and perhaps older siblings, they are free to roam about the yard.  It is at this time that they start spending their time outdoors making friends and learning to play with cousins and neighbors.  If other children of their age are not available, there are always village dogs and chickens to occupy their attention.

By the time a child is two to three years old they are fairly well independent.  The entire village is their play yard.  They spend the daylight hours outside playing in the dirt, playing with bicycles, playing with rocks and sticks.  Puddles and mud are especially attractive to these toddlers.  You will come upon small groups of these children throughout the village - groups of focused, determined, confident, and vocal little people.

Khmu Children Interrupt Their Play to Watch the Visiting Foreigners

Our visits to Lao Peoples Democratic Republic are no exception - throughout Laos we find many groups of children playing and starting out on their life journeys.  On our last trip to the villages outside of Luang Prabang, Duang remarked at least twice that there were "many students (children) in the village, not have good, TV too much boom boom"  I suspect that the lack of quality television as well as the long and cold nights in the dry season does contribute to the large number of children.  Another factor is the demographics of the populations.  Thailand and Laos, as well as all of the other ASEAN countries are much younger populations than the USA.

Lao Children Huddle Over A Charcoal Fire at the Village Store

In the Lao Loum village of Xiang Muak or Ban Xiang Muark or Ban Xiang -Nouak (just as in Thailand the spelling of the native language villages and streets can vary and is subject to a great deal of interpretations), we encountered a small mixed group of heavily dressed children huddled around a small charcoal fire on the porch of the local market.  The children were bundled up and huddled around to escape the cold of the highland morning.  The children were as interested in us as we were in them.  We engaged in small talk with them for quite a while. The nine year old girl, the most outwardly member of the group, pulled a tuber out of the ashes of their fire, peeled it and gave it to me to eat.  It was a taro root and tasted similar to a sweet potato.  It is always rewarding for us to be able to bring some of the outside world to people especially children.  It does not escape us that as much as we are learning about the lives of the local people we are also teaching them about our life - a situation that we take very seriously.

Big Brother Watches Over His Little Brother

In another village we encountered two young brothers waiting as their young mother prepared food on the thatched roofed porch of their woven bamboo home.

AYoung Mother Prepares Food For Her Family

The home was a very humble abode - woven bamboo walls which allowed plenty of drafts in the home, a corrugated metal roof with an attached covered platform for preparing food and taking care of babies. As their mother cooked food over a charcoal stove, a gallon sized cement lined vessel, the baby played in his hand made crib suspended from the beams of the patio while his older brother divided his attention between his younger brother and his nearby mother.  I approached the home to speak with the children and to take some photographs.  Rather than being suspicious and perhaps apprehensive over a stranger approaching her home, the young mother was very welcoming.  This is a typical reaction here in southeast Asia, the people are extremely friendly and hospitable.  There are some hill tribes that are shy about being photographed so it is best, and always polite to ask permission first.

The children and their mother were dressed in heavy clothing to ward off the chill of the highland morning.  I suspect that the temperature was around 18C (65F) and the morning fog had just burned off.  Sixty-five degrees may seem a heat wave for early December in may Northern climes but hypothermia can be caused in elderly and babies overnight in a 60F house.  Drafts and moisture increase the risk of hypothermia.  In Thailand the government donates thousands of blankets every year that are distributed by the Royal Thai Army in the highlands to assist the people to survive the cold season.

Visiting and talking with the young mother brought back memories for Duang when she was a young child living in a woven bamboo house without much food.  Upon leaving the family, Duang gave some money to the mother.  I have always been impressed with Duang's compassion and her generosity continues.

Young Boy "Helps" His Father Make A Knife

In another part of the village we spent quite a bit of time with some knife makers.  The situation developed that one of the knife makers ended up making a knife specifically for Duang.  It was a great opportunity for me to photograph the entire process of producing a knife from recycled leaf springs of motor vehicles.  I had photographed knife making in the Luang Prabang area three years earlier and in the Luang Namtha area.  However just as in visiting the same location more than once, photographing the process a third time allowed me to recognize the nuances and different details missed previously.  At this stop, I was entertained by the knife maker's son who hovered over his father and even interfered a couple times with his father's work.

The boy seemed to be torn between the curiosity about a strange man visiting his family's business and a naturally reservation about something completely foreign to him.  Standing by and over his father seemed to meet his needs - to learn and observe the foreigner up close but still be within the safety zone afforded by his father.

Khmu Boys

In a Khmu village we found a man busy making bird snares.  We saw children at play throughout the village.  Our presence in the village interrupted the play of some of the children.  Shortly after we arrived and set up taking photographs several little boys joined us.

Although they interrupted their play, one boy continued to chew on a piece of freshly cut sugar cane.  One of his friends was completely oblivious to the fact that he was completely naked from the waist down.  When I asked him where his pants were, he just smiled and laughed with no sign of embarrassment or care - just happy and content with his situation.

Two of the boys had been playing by rolling a motorcycle tire around the village much like I had read about children playing with hoops in the earlier days of America,  The tire that the boys were playing with did not have a rim or wheel.  No problem.  The villagers had bamboo.  You can do just about anything with bamboo - eat it, build scaffolding with it, make a raft with it, build furniture out of it, cook in it, build shelter with it, create lacquer ware with it, support bean plants with it, make ladders out of it, make bird snares out of it, make rat snares out of it and now I saw how it can be used to make a wheel.  The wheel could never be used on a bicycle, motorcycle, car , tuk-tuk or truck but the wheel was fit for the purpose of allowing a tire to be rolled around using a short piece of bamboo.

Pieces of bamboo had been cut to fit inside of the rubber tire and woven together to keep the tire round or at least round enough to roll along the dirt paths and dirt roads of the village.  Once again fit for purpose and the ingenuity of local peoples made the most of what was available to them.  I suspect that these children have never been and will never will be bored.  Imagination and practicality go far in meeting any one's needs.

Khmu Village Boys Playing Petanque

Village children in Southeast Asia are free.  They are, by and large, free to play amongst themselves without adult interference.  There are no organized and adult supervised youth soccer teams, no Little League Baseball Teams, no cheer leading teams, no CYO basketball leagues, no swim clubs, or even youth bowling leagues.  The children are free to pick their sports, their teams, officiate their own competitions.  There are no adults imposing their will and choices upon the children.  Most importantly there no adults interfering with the disputes that arise from competition as well as all the childhood issues that cause disputes.  The children have the freedom to resolve their own disputes.  They have the opportunities to learn the arts of negotiation and skills of compromise on their own and at their own pace.  They are empowered rather than coddled. At an early age they learn to solve their own problems.

What Some Children Have to Do To Go Outside to Play

I was first introduced to the French game of petanque when I lived in Algeria.  Just as Algeria, Lao Peoples Democratic Republic (LPDR) was a French colony.  The French, besides bringing French cooking and French pastry to their colonies, they also introduced petanque.  Thailand, previously known as Siam, was never colonized by European powers.  However here in Isaan, people do play petanque undoubtedly another cultural connection to their Lao Loum cousins across the Mekong River in the LPDR.

Petanque is a team competition were a small ball is tossed down a a rectangular court usually compacted earth or sand but sometimes, especially in the case with children, a strip of ground as it exists.  Teams then take turns tossing heavy metal balls towards the small ball at the other end of the court.  The object is to get closest to the small ball.  You have a choice to make when you toss your ball down the court. You can flat out try to get your ball closest to the small ball or you can attempt to knock your opponent's ball away from the small ball so that one of your team's balls becomes closest. One point is earned for each completed round.  The match ends after 10 minutes with the winning team being the one with the most points.  In the case of children without watches they just play until they get bored.

In the adjacent village, a Hmong village, we discovered some children, boys and girls, playing what appeared to be a game of war.  A game with picking up logs, throwing them, running to them to throw them again all the while yelling.

Hmong Boys Playing Spinning Tops

Further into the village we found our third group of the day playing with spinning tops. Tujlub is a game where a heavy wood top is set to spinning people then take turns tossing their spinning tops trying to knock out the original top and cease its spinning.  Often children play a variation where they just toss their spinning top at the center of a circle and watch the collisions.

The top are home made carved solid pieces of heavy wood.  The free end of plastic strapping is wrapped around the top.  The other end of the plastic strapping is tied to the end of a stick.  The top is tossed out and as it flies through the air the stick is jerked in the opposite direction to impart a spin to the top.  I tried it once an failed miserably much to the amusement of the onlooking children.

Letting the top fly and spin

As we sat in the back of our hired tuk-tuk bouncing along the dirt road on our way back to Lunag Prabang, we were both very pleased to have witnessed so many children ... so many children being children.  These were confident and independent children preparing for their adult lives.

The greatest gift that parents can give their children can not be purchased.  The gift is not shielding them from the challenges of life or the realities of life. The gift is to empower their children to be confident, to allow them to make mistakes, to allow them to solve their own problems ... to let them be children.

Lao Fabrics and Textile Handicrafts

A Partially Completed Needlepoint Piece from Baan Xiang Hai, LPDR

On the day that we visited Baan Hat Hien, Blacksmith Village, and Baan Xang Hai, Whiskey Village, we also visited Baan Phanom which is known for its silk weaving.

We stopped at a large tourist stop facility at the outskirts of the village.  The facility is a fairly large modern facility where I assume local women set up in the front area selling the fabrics that they have woven.  The room lacks all the character and ambiance that you can find at either markets in the larger towns or at the weaver's home in smaller villages.  Seeing a couple of the organized tour vans and buses parked in front of the building was somewhat of a turnoff for me.  However having traveled to the village, I decided to check it out.

Part of the front room hard been set up for some type of celebration.  There were several tables set up as if to have a conference.  Name tags were located on the tables in front of each plastic chair.  A man was occupied setting up the public address system for perhaps speeches or just as likely Lao music.  In the room beyond the display room I could smell as well as see food being prepared.

An Idle Loom In Baan Phanom, LPDR

As Duang checked out the various textiles in the front room, I investigated the back room.  It turned out that the back room was actually an area for weaving silk and for sewing although today the room was being used for food preparation.  The weavers were not producing any fabric during our visit but were busy preparing many of the foods that I have become familiar with in Isaan for celebrations.  In a corner of the large room, women were busy preparing river algae.  The river algae is harvested from rocks in the river and dried into sheets on woven bamboo mats or bamboo trays. Seasoning such as garlic, boiled tamrind water, sesame seeds are scattered on the drying algae.  To prepare for eating, the algae sheets are cut into 3 in by 6 in rectangles, partially folded in two, held together with a bamboo toothpick, and quickly fried.  I first ate kai paen jeun at the Boat Landing Hotel and Restaurant earlier this year in Luang Namtha.  I liked it, so when I was offered some of the food directly from the wok, I quickly accepted.  It was delicious.

Striped Patterned Silk Being Woven on Wooden Loom

Silk With an Intricate Pattern On An Idle Loom

I went off to the other side of the room and started photographing the idle looms.  It was interesting to see the partially completed fabrics on the old wooden looms.  The solid colored silk fabrics were not mystery to me.  I could imagine being able to weave them with a minimum of instruction.  However some of the silk fabric had very intricate patterns using different colored threads.  Other fabrics had several different colors.  I remember reading about how the predecessors to today's computer were cards that were used to produce intricate patterns in the 1800's cotton mills of New England.  I did not see any such guides or references for creating the patterns before my eyes in the weaving room.  From my past experience with the home weavers of both cotton and silk in Isaan as well as in other areas of Laos, I know that the patterns are retained in the minds of the weavers.  They are able to imagine a pattern and take the appropriate steps in the weaving process to recreate the pattern in their woven product.

Baan Phanon Silk Weaver

After a while one of the weavers who had been preparing food graciously offered to do some weaving while I took photographs.  It was an offer that I accepted without hesitation.  I am always interested to see how things are made and our trips to Laos usually are great learning experiences.

Weaving Silk

While in Whiskey Village, Baan Xang Hai, while I was drinking Lao Lao with the distiller, Duang had wandered off and found his wife and some other women embroidering some fabrics.  Duang came over and led me to where the women were working.  I was very impressed.  The women were occupied needle pointing intricate patterns on black cotton fabric.  Throughout the village these were the only women actually working and the only people doing needlepoint.  Both Duang and I appreciate and enjoy collecting textile handicrafts from the Hill Tribe people of Southeast Asia.  We consider their handicrafts to be art and expressions of the people's culture.  The fact that we are able to witness the artisans producing articles similar to what we purchase is even more gratifying to us.


Lao Women Needle pointing and Embroidering



Two Baan Xang Hai Handicrafters

I wrote earlier that I was impressed.  Well it turned out that I was a little too impressed.  Perhaps it was the double shot of Lao Lao.  Anyhow Duang showed me a very beautiful piece - 29 inches by 37.5 inches black cotton with a very colorful section 22.5 inches by 31.5 inches with intricate patterns and birds.  The piece struck me as being similar to Hmong motifs.  I asked the woman how much in Lao.  She answered me and I immediately paid her for the work that she claimed to have worked two months on.  I made a mistake.  The woman had quoted the same price earlier to Duang and Duang had offered her 25% less.  I had interrupted the negotiations with my unbridled enthusiasm!  Well Laos is like Thailand - things have to be "good for you, good for me".  The women discounted the price that I paid by 10%; a face saving gesture for Duang but not enough to prevent me from hearing about it for a while from Duang.  I put the 10% versus 25% cash discount into cash perspective for Duang and we enjoyed a good laugh together and the matter has not been discussed since then although I suspect that she has not forgotten.


Silks and Needlepoint from Baan Xang Hai



Give Me Some of that Good Ol' Lao Lao

The Little Ol' Lao lao Lao Maker

After we had visited the blacksmiths of Baan Hat Hien we went out to Baan Xang Hai which is refered to as "Whiskey Village".  Baan Xang Hai turned out to be a further drive from Luang Prabang than I was expecting.  It turns out that that Baan Xang Hai is 25 KM from Luang Prabang.  Many tourists visit Baan Xang Hai as part of a organized boat tour to Pak Ou Caves.

Baan Xang Hai villagers used to make the clay pots that are used to produce "Lao Hai" (Rice Wine) which is a step along the ways of producing "Lao Lao" (rice whiskey).  The villagers now focus on making the Lao moonshine, Lao Lao, and silk weaving.

Duang and I had enjoyed our share of Lao Hai, rice wine, on our previous visit two years ago to the Khmu village during their New Year Festival.  The wine is produced in small clay pots by fermenting rice.  The sweet wine is then sucked out of the jars through long reeds or very small diameter vinyl tubing with the reeds and vinyl tubing being passed from person to person seated or squatting around the clay pot.  As the wine is consumed from the pot, additional water is added to the clay pot to keep the party going.

On our last visit to a refugee camp along the Thai-Myanmar border, Duang and I enjoyed glasses of freshly fermented  Lao Hai with our friends, Khun La Mae and Khun Ma Plae.  Since there was quite a bit of rice hulls and rice debris to strain through your teeth when drinking from a glass,our preferred mode for drinking is through the vinyl tubing or natural reed.

"Process" Diagram for Making Lao Lao

We walked through the gauntlet of booths at the front of the village.  There were many stalls selling bottles of Lao Lao which also contained some type of animal or plant.  There were bottles of whiskey with small snakes some of which were cobras.  There were also whiskey bottles containing centipedes, scorpions, or geckos.  My knowledge of botany is rather limited so I was unable to identify the plants that were immersed in th the whiskey.  I have read some accounts that the plants and creatures are immersed in rice wine but I believe that the liquid is actually whiskey.  Whiskey is a much better preservative and makes for a more potent "medicine".  The various vendors told me that the bottles contained "medicine" of course most of the medicine was purported to aid sexual performance. These bottled concoctions are readily available at all border crossings in Laos and appear to be "THE" souvenir of the Lao People's Democratic Republic.

There were also many stalls selling silk cloth.  We saw several looms for weaving cloth but did not see anyone working.  We walked back through the village towards the Mekong River.  We prefer to explore the back roads and back streets of the locations that we visit.  The back locations typically present less tourist centric people and sights.  We stopped at a yard of a local home.  I am not sure if it was a front yard or a back yard - not that it matters over here.  There were two men, a woman, and three school aged children seated at a picnic table.  We stopped and joined them.  It turned out that we had found a whiskey distillery.  Besides selling soft drinks, and silk fabrics, the people make Lao Lao right there in their yard high on a bank overlooking the Mekong River.  I went to the stairs that lead down to the Mekong River and while taking some photographs I took in the serenity of the location.

I returned to the picnic table and had Duang purchase soft drinks for everyone.  As we enjoyed our cold drinks on a surprisingly warm day, we asked questions of the man who appeared to be in charge.  He said that he owned the land and paid taxes once a year to the government.  He stated that he paid 550,000 Kip ($66 USD) each year for his home and business.

A large piece of cardboard was nailed to a wood post next to his still.  Although he did not speak English the cardboard had a diagram on in that detailed the distilling process in English.  The father took great pride in showing me his distilling equipment and describing how he made the moonshine whiskey.




Clay Pot Containing Fermenting Rice

 The process first starts with making Lao Hai, "Rice Wine".  Rice, sugar and water are placed in a clay pot and allowed to stand covered for seven days.  This is how Lao Hai is produced however for making Lao Lao additional water is not added after the initial charge to the fermenting mixture.

The fermenting rice creates a thick mash of about 13% alcohol.  The thick mash from four  clay pots is removed and placed inside of the 55 gallon steel drum that forms the base of his still.   The barrel sits upon a couple of bricks above a shallow trench where a small fire is maintained by small long logs that are pushed forward as they are consumed by the flames.

Lao Lao Still In Laos

A gasket created by burlap type cloth filled with rice hulls is placed atop of the open end of the metal barrel.  A conical shaped steel pan is the placed on top of the gasket to seal off the still.  The conical pan serves as the condenser for the distilling process.  The top of the cone which is open to the air is filled with water.  Every 10 minutes the water is replaced with cool water by pouring new water into the cone and allowing the warmer water to overflow through a small tube above the normal water level in the cone.  Alcohol vapors inside of the still condense on the relatively cooler surface of the cone inside of the still.  The alcohol droplets travel along the cool surface to the apex of the cone where they drop off and are collected by a spoon like device that is attached to a pipe.  The pipe is sloped downwards and exists the still carrying the Lao Lao to fill another clay pot located on the ground at the end of the pipe.  The Lao Lao slowly drips out of the pipe through a terrycloth cloth of uncertain cleanliness and finally into the clay pot.


Lao Lao Fresh From the Still Fills A Clay Pot

After observing the process, I was invited to sample some our the man's handicraft.  Duang does not drink much and especially not Lao Lao, I was left alone to drink with the man.  He pulled a bottle out, a bottle without any critters or plants in it, from a cabinet and poured each of us a double shot.  I have been through this ritual enough times to understand what was expected of me.  I looked the man in the eyes said "Jonkiouw" and downed the shots all at once as he did the same.  The Lao Lao was very powerful and I must admit much better than the commercial moonshine that the villagers drink in Tahsang Village.  Perhaps it was the dirty towel that this man's whiskey was filtered through.

A Lao Lao Distillery in Baan Xang Hai, LPDR

I ended up buying a small bottle of his product to take back home for 30,000 KIP ($3.75 USD) - a good price for even nothing else more than the nice woven bamboo that covered the bottle.  The bamboo had writing as part of the integral woven design - "Lao Lao, Baan Xang Hai" as translated by the distiller.

While I was socializing with the distiller, Duang had located his wife and some other women who were busy embroidering.  But that is subject to another blog.

It was interesting spending time in the village.  The people were making moonshine without any government permits, regulations, licences or any harassment from "Revenuers".  This is hardly what I would have expected in a country known as being a Communist state.

More Bricks For the Wall or Tiles for the Roof

Lao Worker Inside of Kiln Preparing to Remove Completed Bricks

After our visit to the Blacksmith Village, Baan Hat Hien, we drove up the road to visit another village known as Baan Xang Hai, "Whiskey Village".  Our trip up to "Whiskey Village" was longer than I expected but well worth the time but that will be the subject of a future blog.  It was on our return drive from Baan Xang Hai that we encountered the subject of today's blog - the brick factory(?).

As we rolled along the paved road leading eventually back to Luang Prabang, I spotted a group of buildings and a couple of squatty brick towers alongside of the road.  I had Duang tell the driver to stop and backup to the industrial site.  From our travels in Northern Vietnam, I recognized this to be a site where bricks were produced.  One reason why we do not take organized tours is our desire to take advantage of unexpected opportunities such as this.  We ended up spending one-half an hour observing, photographing, and speaking with the workers.  I have found many of the workers here in Southeast Asia more than willing to be photographed and to speak about their work along with their life.  My task is made so much easier because Duang speaks the language and has an outgoing personality.  However I always try to communicate on my own with my limited knowledge of Lao and with a great deal of pantomime.  Often our hired driver is able to help out with communicating with the local people or to explain what we are observing.  It makes each trip memorable, personal, and extremely informative.  I guess the local people like most people everywhere like to talk about their work as well as their life.  Sports is not a part of their life so that topic is off of the agenda.  I also make it a point to avoid any political topics or discussions; it is best for me as well as for the local people.




Mining Clay For Making Brick and Tiles


As we got out of our Tuk-Tuk, I noticed several workers, children, and dogs wandering about the site.  I ascertained that we were arriving at the end of the worker's lunch break.  I would hesitate entering a site like this in America but besides the property having no fencing or security guards, the dogs very seldom present a threat.  In my four years here in Southeast Asia and previous two years in Brasil, I have encountered many dogs.  Only once have I have felt threatened by a pack of dogs let alone an individual dog.  In Brasil the dogs all seemed to have a guilty complex.  They would sulk around with their heads lowered with subservient body language.  In Southeast Asia, other than the dog pack of Wat Yai Chom Prasat in Samut Sakhon, the street or village dogs wander about oblivious to people let alone strangers.  We walked onto the brick factory and were completely ignored by the dogs; not even a closer encounter for them to get a more personal sniff of us.

The factory was a series of low sheds; sheds where the bricks and roofing tiles were formed.  The bricks and tiles were also placed on wood racks and the concrete floor of these low sheds to air dry.
The sheds had a roof of corrugated sheet metal and thatch. The natural air flow through the sheds along with the evaporative cooling effect of hundreds if not thousands of moist clay tiles and bricks made the interior of the sheds at least 10 degrees cooler than the outside temperature.

There were other smaller single story buildings where the workers and their families lived.  This is often the case here in Southeast Asia.  When we lived in Vietnam, our neighbor was having a new house built.  The workers lived in tents in his backyard during the construction period.  In Malaysia I visited a facility that painted structural steel.  The facilities workers lived in plywood and sheet metal shacks that they built on the property.  Here in Thailand, construction workers live in temporary sheet metal shacks at the job site.

A Worker Grabs Some Clay To Make Roof Tiles On A Wooden Mold

We first visited a shed where women were producing clay tiles that are used for roofing.  She stood at a heavy wood work bench.  A large pile of red clay was located to her right.  Every so often, another worker came from the clay pit outside of the work shed and placed another large junk of clay on her pile.  The women grabbed a chunk of clay from the large pile and shaped it into a large loaf of bread shape.  The bread shaped chunk of clay was then forcibly slammed onto a wooden mold.  The worker then sliced the compacted clay to the proper thickness using a special saw; an old style i.e. 1880's handsaw with a taut wire rather than toothed blade to cut the clay.  She then carefully peeled the finished tile from the mold and placed it on a wood carrying tray.  To keep the clay from sticking to the molds, the workers periodically would dust the wood mold with a very fine dust; perhaps cement or it may just have been dry clay fines.  When the carrying tray had several completed tiles, the worker would carry them over to the far end of the work shed and lay them out on the floor to dry out in the air.  I was impressed in the strength of these small Lao women.  I believe that I am capable of carrying their completed tray of tiles at least one time.  However I have my doubts that I could carry the heavy trays for 8 to 10 hours a day.

Slicing A Tile



Worker Lays Her Completed Tiles Out to Air Dry


Next to one of the work stations there was the only piece of production machinery that I saw at the factory.  The only piece of production machinery was an extruder for making bricks that have holes running along their long axis.  The machine was idle during our visit.  All other production activities were accomplished by hand.

The "Bucket Brigade" Sends Clay Up to the Production Shed

Just outside of the first production shed that we visited the clay pit was located.  The pit had been excavated by a front end loader to expose the clay seam.  The actual mining of the clay was done by hand.  A man with a wire saw cut large blocks of moist clay out of the exposed face of the seam inside of the pit.  Another worker removed the freshly cut block from the face and passed it to another worker.  The block of clay was passed from worker to worker from the bottom of the pit up to the production bench in the shed.  Men and women worked side by side to form the human conveyor to transport the clay blocks.

A Block of Clay Is Passed From Worker to Worker



Another Block of Clay Is Passed From Worker to Worker

I wandered up the hill to check out one of the kilns.  The kiln was a large structure that was surrounded by a sheet metal roof porch.  The kiln was not in use during our visit but appeared to have recently completed its task of firing some bricks.  At one end of the kiln the wall was partially removed exposing fresh bricks inside.  Some small diameter logs were located on the ground next to the kiln fire boxes awaiting to fuel the next firing.


One of the Kilns With Its Charge of Bricks Partially Exposed



Fire Boxes Beneath the Kiln For Firing Bricks and Tiles

From the large kiln I walked up a slight incline to two more work sheds.  In one of the work sheds, a woman was working with her young son hanging around.  In America some people celebrate "Bring Your Daughter Day" or "Bring Your Son to Work Day" - one day a year.  In Southeast Asia, for some people everyday is bring your children to work day.  Out in the countryside there are not any day care centers.  Even if there were day care centers the local people could not afford to send their children to them.  Besides these two factors, sending your children away to be cared for by strangers is not part of the culture.  Children are cared for by their mother, their older sister, their grandmother, or an aunt who most likely lives next door.  Children often accompany their parents into the fields at the earliest of age.  This is also true for some mothers that work in cottage industries.




While His Momma is Away, This Little Boy Plays



When his mother carried her completed tiles to the far end of the shed to lay them out for drying, the little boy became mischievous.  He started playing with her large block of clay.  He was aware that I was photographing him but did not mind.  I enjoyed watching him.  Once again a local person was using what was available to meet their needs.  He was entertaining himself by poking and scratching the clay block.  I could not help but wonder if Michelangelo got his start in sculpting in the same manner.

Stacking Completed Tiles

Duang had wandered off and soon was calling for me.  A Tuk-Tuk similar to ours had arrived with several workers.  The Tuk-Tuk had stopped alongside of the squatty kiln that had first caught my attention.  The workers had quickly formed a bucket brigade and were transferring completed bricks from the kiln to the Tuk-Tuk.  I had been invited to go into the kiln to see what was going on.  This was an invitation that could only be accepted.

Transferring Bricks from Kiln to Tuk-Tuk For Transport to Town

A Couple Less Bricks To Go

After socializing with the bucket brigade, I walked up and into the kiln for a look and to take a photograph or two.

Lao Worker Inside of the Kiln With Plenty Of Bricks to Remove

Four Bricks On Their way to Town

We had enjoyed our 30 minute visit to the brick factory.  We had the opportunity to see a small glimpse into the work of some of the people that we could have passed by along the road.  By slowing our own lives down just a little, we were enriched in learning a little more about the life of others in our world.

Some More Bricks For the Wall

As we drove down the road Duang told me that she thought that I would dream about bricks that night.  She was correct - once again.  I guess that she knows me too well.