I’ve been learning so much about government structure here in Laos, especially when it comes to neighborhoods of big cities, small towns and then tiny villages.

“Villages” for Laos in big cities are comparable to precincts in America. I have 2 villages that I am a part of: One is where I live and the other is where the Center (my place of business, or rather my workplace) is located. Last week, the Center’s village chief sent out a notice concerning the safety and security check of our village (our neighborhood). As Laos’ National Day approaches (December 2), the city government has begun to ask villages to do safety checks over the next 2 weeks, gearing up for a good showing to top officials. Don’t want your country’s official National Day to be marred by neighborhoods that are unsafe and unprotected.

Those who take part in these checks often work late into the night. They walk alleyways, make sure public lighting is adequate and take note of house gates or broken locks. Our village chief sent out the notice to all businesses, giving us a “heads up” concerning these mandatory procedures, along with a request for us to send snacks or usable items to be shared among the safety check personnel during their breaks. We were to drop these by the village chief’s office within the next 2 weeks.

As director of the Center, I made sure that our language school participated in this most important ask.

Our Purchases for the Safety and Security Teams

This morning, I made a quick run to the D-mart (comparable to the Walmart) to see what would be a good donation.

At our Monday meeting last week, we had discussed what would be appropriate snack items. Coffee was a must to keep up the security teams’ energy levels along with something to go with it. I had voted for cookies but my Laos staff pointed out that cookies are not filling. Better to get something of more substance, thus the snack cakes were suggested.

I’m always one to listen to my staff so coffee and cakes it was. Not knowing what different individuals might want, I chose 3 different coffee selections, which you can see below.

I made sure the count was a good one.  The instant coffee bags contained  60 single packet servings in total. The 3 different kinds of individually wrapped snack cakes (chocolate, vanilla and tea flavored) contained 25 cakes each for a total of 75.  These are like Little Debbie’s and come in a wide variety of flavors and kinds. Just take your pick.

The total cost was about 500,000 Kip ($24), which was taken from the funds of all those who have been so considerate to give to the Center through the Advance.  (Thank you so much!)

Delivery This Afternoon

Khamxay, my office manager, Santi (translator and office assistant), and I zipped up the block on our motorcycles to deliver our offerings this afternoon. We had a nice sit-down chat with our village chief after which he graciously accepted our offerings. I made sure to thank him for including the Center in this request. There are many foreigner-run restaurants, shops and even embassies in our neighborhood. None of them are sent such notices by our village chief because they pay little attention to the local Laos government. The Center, on the other hand, is one which I am so proud to be a part of. I want to support all the efforts of our village chief as part of the community. We need to show we care, and in all honesty, I truly do!

In fact, he even mentioned I was the first foreigner for him to know as a village chief and I, in turn, said he was the first village chief for me to know. A relationship of firsts! Such a special partnership we now have, along with this photo to remember our visit. (See below Khamxay in green, myself, our village chief in the white shirt and his office representative).