Flashback: Three unforgettable months in Laos

Before I applied for this internship, it had been a great dream of mine to travel to Southeast Asia. During the transition from my university degree to the teacher traineeship period, I finally had the chance, and, looking back, I am able to say that my expectations were more than exceeded.

Due to the cooperation of the PH Karlsruhe and the Angels for Children foundation, I was able to work at Ban Sikeud Primary School for a little more than three months.

In my free time, I took the opportunity to get to know various parts of the country by going on very interesting trips to places such as Luang Prabang and Vang Vieng (cities in the north of Vientiane). I enjoyed the beautiful, diverse nature of Laos, its very tasty fruits and food and got to know some basics of the Lao language.

However, what I appreciated the most was to be part of a great school and to get to know and to work together with a lot of very lovely and interesting people. I admire the people’s hospitality, open-mindedness, and friendliness, and the time they took to make us feel welcome and to show us as much as possible of their personal lives and country. This made my relatively short time very intensive and had a positive impact on our cooperation. Besides seeing each other daily in school, we invited each other to our houses and cooked together, we went to local festivals, such as the That Luang festival in Vientiane, we enjoyed trips to places such as the Nam Nung (a lake about an hour away from Vientiane), and we were even invited to some weddings.

To give you some impression, I created a small photo gallery by selecting some of my favourite pictures:

Ban Sikeud and Lao coffee

Some children of Ban Sikeud Primary School after “Activity Time” in the afternoon

Buying fish and other food at the local market during lunch break

Lunch with other teachers in the staff room at Ban Sikeud Primary School

“My tree” at Ban Sikeud Primary School 🙂 (in exchange for a small donation)

Cooking summer rolls, fish soup, and other delicatessen at Mit’s house

Lots and lots of driving with scooters

Playing volleyball at Ban Sikeud Secondary School

Small feast in the teachers’ room at Ban Sikeud Secondary School

With some teachers at some waterfalls close to Ban Sikeud

Waterfall in Luang Prabang

Panoramic view

Elephant camp

Breakfast at the weekend in Vientiane

Lunch in Vientiane

That Luang in Vientiane, the country’s national symbol, and us in traditional Lao sinhs

Traditional Lao wedding

Lao wedding in Ban Sikeud

Baci (traditional ceremony) at Ban Sikeud Primary School

To sum it up, my stay in Laos was a very special and extremely exciting and interesting time which I will always remember. I hope to keep up the positivity and calmness I felt during this stay in my upcoming teacher traineeship period and in general in my teaching career. I am very thankful to have had this opportunity and I want to thank especially the members of the Angels for Children foundation and Prof. Martin, who made this experience possible, and everyone else who took very good care of me and made this time abroad such an unforgettable one.

Text & photos by K. Petter