DIC Charity Work

Water and Sanitation for Schools 

One of the types of work we do in Welfare Services is to provide clean water and sanitation facilities.  In Laos, Deseret International Charities (DIC), has provided 150 schools with water and toilets in the past 15 years.  Many of these schools had none before.  Some had inadequate or non-functioning systems. 

Saka, a secondary school of 800 students, receives students from 5 villages.  They don't have enough resources for such things.  This one had 2 toilets, but the well went dry during portions of the year.

 

We handed over the facility officially at a ceremony they held on Teachers' Day, where they had their students dancing.  The people in uniform are teachers and administrators.

The girls are wearing the typical school uniforms.  Their dances are slow and graceful.

Their sound system was huge and really put out the sound.


Teachers and a few parents and officials.

Elder Singley gave a speech, with Elder Xiong translating for him.  Elder Xiong is from California, but his heritage is Hmong and he has been great for the Hmong people here, who speak a different language from Lao.

Vice-principal

Official, thanking DIC for the project.

The people gave a certificate of appreciation to our Branch President, Konsavanh Khampadidt for connecting the school (in his community) with DIC.  Konsavanh is loved and respected by all who know him.

The District superintendent presented a plaque to DIC.

These are the chiefs of the villages whose students attend this school in Saka.  Village chiefs are consulted and must give approval for things that happen in their communities and are honored.

Flowers given by the superintendent (right) to the principal.

They also gave gifts to each DIC couple -- a nice teak wood carving.

A little humbling that they had people shading us from the sun as we walked to view the toilets and water system we had sponsored for them.

"Dignitaries" of the project in front of the finished toilets for a school of 800.

LtoR: Teacher, Sis. Singley, Judy, Education Director for District (Supt.), Principal in front of the well house and water tower provided by DIC for the school's water and toilets, about 100 ft away

classroom in the secondary school.

They provided a nice meal for us and for the teachers.  Lao people eat lots of vegetables and they like very hot spices in papaya salad, spinach salad, and on other foods.  They had delicious fried chicken, pork, rice, greens and put mint leaves in some of it --- very tasty.

Sister Singley

President Khampadidt invited us to his home/shop.  He has a little store and makes all kinds of baskets.

The big round baskets are to contain chickens so they don't run away.  They can just move them around the yard.

The blue nets are fish traps.  Fish can swim in through a kind of funnel, but then can't get out.  The flat-topped round things on the ground are tables.

Elder Xiong tried on a hat and rice cycle.

Between towns was this giant teak wood Buddha by a car dealership.

truckload of bamboo

We have several other school toilet handovers coming.  The officials wanted to wait until school got back in session and things settled down.  That should be about now.  The Singleys have been busy getting these projects identified and hiring contractors to get them done. We need to get some more started, now.

Buddha Park

Our "preparation day" is Saturday.  On those days we do shopping, laundry and go site-seeing.  There are some interesting things to see.
Along with Elder Bush are Elder Xiong (an American of Hmong parents who relates well with the Hmong people from the north of Lao that are here), Elder Vance (here just one week longer than we have been, having spent his first 15 months in Thailand), Elder Johnson (at 6'4", he towers over most Lao people, as well as us), and Elder Singley, who has been here for 13 months.

We are riding in the back of a large tuk-tuk, an open backed little truck with seats on both sides.  The smaller ones are powered by a motorcycle in front.
Sister Bush and Sister Singley are the furthest back, just back of the cab and driver.

Buddha Park is about 10 acres of religious statues just outside of Vientiane, to the east.  Although the edifices look ancient, they were built in the 1950s.

The Great Pumpkin represents hell, earth and heaven.  The bottom is filled with 3 levels of hell, in which we found statues of people in various types of torture.  The big tree on top ascends to heaven.

We entered through the mouth.  Inside, there were narrow steps leading from one level to the other of walkways around the pumpkin.  You could look out the windows or look inside to a "chamber of tortures.

You can see the orange robe of a monk ascending the steps to the next level.

Notice the skulls, people being beaten and beheaded.  Gruesome view of hell.

Elders Vance and Johnson on top of pumpkin.

From atop the pumpkin, Elder Xiong gets a great view of the rest of Buddha Park.  

There are no hand rails to climb up the steep, narrow steps to get a peek inside the top of this building, but Val & Judy did it.

Lao woman and grandson made us think of our own.

Elders Johnson and Vance really enjoy life!  Notice how narrow those steps are,

Sisters Singley and Bush enjoyed shade from the heat, too.                                                                                                                                     

At only about 6' tall, Elder Vance could only mimic the pose of this statue, who is holding the body of a dead woman, whose long hair and arms hang limply from the huge hands to the right.

In this image, even the elephant and the monkey bring gifts to the Buddha.

This reclining Buddha is about 150 feet long.  (I paced it off.)

We had more arms than the statue!

Many men become monks for a period of time, lasting from a few months to years.

The greater the number of snake heads, the greater the protection from evil.  This statue had 7.

The fatter Buddhas are the Chinese version.  The Lao's and Indian's Buddhas are thinner.

We aren't quite sure of the meaning of the pig's head, but he is obviously defeating the man beneath him.  The Buddha on the right seems to be in control of his snake.