Farewell, Luang Prabang
Ever since I published my post discussing how I hadn’t taken time yet to think about farewelling Luang Prabang, Mike has been bugging encouraging me to write a goodbye post on things I’ll miss about this little fairytale town. He even wrote his own list to show me how it’s done, titled the document “I like LPB”, and put it in our shared Dropbox folder. Mike’s list has 36 items on it. I haven’t read them yet, because I figured that might be cheating. I thought briefly about just posting his list and being done with it, but regretfully decided that was also probably cheating. So...
Read MoreTimeless Choices
Christmas was just a couple of weeks ago, right? I remember thinking that I needed to write a post on books I’d loved in 2012, set some creative goals for 2013, and find a great birthday present for Mike to make up for the fact that my Christmas presents consisted of some basil seeds, my old broken kindle, and a child’s toy with a bite taken out it. But now it’s April. I still need to do all of that, and Mike’s birthday was in the beginning of March. I’m taking a deep, soothing breath and telling myself that this is to be expected when you live in a small town whose slogan is...
Read MoreGoodbyes: Does Practice Really Make Perfect?
Change is in the air. After three years here in Luang Prabang, we’re leaving. My husband, Mike, is taking up a new job in Vientiane (the capital of Laos), so we’re packing up our life here and moving. We’re also having another baby in just over four months. Because of the lack of quality medical care in Laos, it would be less than wise for me to give birth in this country. Because I have a chronic health condition called lymphedema that makes enduring hot weather heat difficult and damaging, it would also be less than wise to stay here, heavily pregnant, through the worst of the hot...
Read MoreWhat’s next: Updates and intentions
WE HAVE MADE A DECISION ABOUT WHAT’S NEXT! Yes, after eight months of limbo I do think every letter in that phrase deserves to be a capital. We are moving to Vientiane – the capital of Laos. Mike has signed a two-year contract to be the Strategic Initiatives Manager for the development organization he works for. This has all sorts of flow-on implications for the rest of the year. For starters, I can’t stay in Laos during the third trimester of my pregnancy, so I’ll be heading to Australia sometime in mid-May. Thankfully, we can stay up here in Luang Prabang until then (previously we...
Read MoreLeaving On A Jet Plane
The same weekend that Love At The Speed Of Email launched, way back in June last year, Mike and I learned that we’d be leaving Luang Prabang in April 2013. Mike’s position is being handed over to a Lao national staff member, which is good. Working yourself out of a job is exactly what you want to do in international development work, and Mike’s great at that sort of capacity building. So this is a good thing, and we always knew we wouldn’t be here long term. And, yet. There’s a difference between knowing you won’t be somewhere long term – that you might be moving in “oh, a...
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