HAVEN'T GOT A CLUE WHAT NUMBER THIS IS

Hello y'all

Hope all is well out there in the real world. I'm on my island writing a book so this won't be too much of a burden to take in. Let's get stuck into it.

BOOKS

Finally got a quote from Room to Read for translating the books from Australia and putting on stickers. My last car cost less. So, Jess and I are heading over there at New Year to prove that charity isn't dead and find a way of doing it for nothing. Laos makes a habit of making outrageous quotes to overseas donors for the smallest of jobs, because they know from experience they'll get it eventually. There's a lot more money than sense in the world. Not me, buddy. I'll tell you how it all goes next letter. I do request you good Aussies out there not to send any more books till it's done. Thanks

Think we'll be buying a bunch of Big Brother Mouse books when we're there and just have Room to Read distribute them with their own books (free or charge).

SCHOLARSHIPS

By now, all of you sponsors should have received your original docs by real post. We can't get to Luang Nam Tha this trip but we'll stop off to see the girls in Luang Prabang, if they haven't escaped.

ARMS AND LEGS

Word is on the streets that the mugs and T-shirts with 'original and exclusive Colin Cotterill cartoons' are selling well at Cope and Jo has promised to put pics on their website (haven't got it with me here, it was in last month's newsletter). So if you'd like any unique gifts for Christmas... We'll be stopping off at Cope and buying a few legs of our own for the holiday season.

As we'll be in Vientiane for New Year and your next newsletter will be late, I'd like to wish you all a happy festive season and thank you all on behalf of the students, children and limbless of Laos for your continued support. You've been great. Have a great 2008

Your friend,

Col

NEWSLETTER XV FOR FRIENDS OF BOOKS FOR LAOS

Fear not, faithful readers, this isn’t going to be a saga. We’re off to the actual Europe tomorrow so I’ll keep this brief (“Thank goodness,” they say)

SCHOLARSHIPS

All our little folk are in place and the two colleges have been paid. I’ve been contacting donors individually with photos but I’ll stick a group pic at the end of this. Chantavone posted me individual details and I’ll pass those on as soon as I get back next month. Thanks again for your help.

BOOKS

The last shipment from Australia has arrived at Room to Read Vientiane and Mme. Somphet is hiring a translator. I’ll use some of the Texas Ladies money to cover that if you don’t mind. If anyone’s interested, we’ll be reordering the Thai picture books we bought last time and sending them on to Books for Thailand for their next Lao shipment. If anyone won the lottery since I last wrote we can pool our resources and increase the order. 

   This from Big Brother Mouse: 

   We've greatly expanded book listings on our website (www.BigBrotherMouse.com). People can now see a description, and sample page, from every published book and some that are forthcoming.

PROSTHETICS

It seems the cartoons I did were a hit at the COPE fundraising. This from Jo:

   Just a quick note to let you know that the T shirts and mugs with your cartoon on were a huge success! I will be uploading some pictures soon and will send some to you!

   I’ll add those photos as soon as I get them in case anyone out there is desperate for merchandising. (Just think, an original Colin Cotterill T-shirt my be worth a fortune one day)

Really? That’s it? Okay, here’s the photo (the other four had left for Luang Prabang already). Have a good month. cc

NEWSLETTER XIV FOR FRIENDS OF BOOKS FOR LAOS

Hello. Well, it’s been a busy old month and there’s a lot to talk about. I might even make it onto a second page. So I’ll skip the witty banter and get straight into it.

SCHOLARSHIPS
 The scholarships are ‘go’. The colleges are paid and the Luang Nam Tha contingent has already started classes. The Luang Prabang Four, should be starting next week or so. Now, I know you’re expecting detailed information and smiley coloured photos of your charges but you can’t have them. Not yet anyway. And here’s my excuse for why not.
   As the road was impassable this time last year, I forwent a hop over the river and flew to Vientiane instead. As the Luang Nam Tha airport has been dug up in anticipation of one day being a better airport, there are no flights to Luang Nam Tha. So I was booked on the Tuesday flight to Udomxai from whence a truck was booked to take me the last four hours of the way. I had a meeting scheduled with all the kids and the TTC people on the Wednesday. But, after three hours at Vientiane airport, the pilot decided not to go north “because it was raining” (odd really…in the rainy season). There was not flight scheduled for the next day and no flights at all that week planned to return, so I was stuck in Vientiane. I had no choice but to pay the money into Ms. C’s account and leave all the dirty work to her. Jolly as ever, here is her report
. ….next week , I will go to LNT TTS to meet with these kids and provide fund to them, in fact I have no time to check with my account but next week I'll do, and thanks in advance for the camera. By the way, I'd like to let you know that the books you gave, I've already given to the director of Luangphabang TTC for the library, but the balls I'll give to LNT TTS next week and I'll try my best to take photos of all kids and send you. So thank you so much for supporting all the kids, and my best regards to all sponsors.

I’ll arrange with Sasha in Luang Prabang to get information and photos of the stragglers there. But, just to keep you on the edge of your seats, here is the allocation of students to donors. Sorry if you preferred to remain modest but, hey, we’re one big community here now. I’ve removed your addresses. All you have are first name, gender and origin. Much more to come. And thanks.

Thanks too to pledgers for next year. We have five on the list. (pledgers is now officially a word)

BOOKS

Apart from the above-mentioned teacher training books in Thai, and a couple of game shipments, I didn’t have a lot of space for smuggling this trip. I did have an unpleasant visit at ALC where I learned that due to the inefficiency of the previous manager (fired not a moment too soon) a lot of the books we shipped from Thailand went out to schools and village libraries without a translation. Most were picture books and the majority were in Thai, so there is some small benefit but I was mighty pissed about it and didn’t have anyone to punch. We have a shipment in Bangkok right now from Australia and I have rerouted these to Mme. Somphet, my friend at Room to Read who is a hundred percent reliable and has already lined up the translator. The best laid plans of mice and men…

But Sasha and the Big Brother Mice go from strength to strength and we’ve been able to divert some funds their way and will continue to lobby for funding for the project. Here is Sasha’s latest news...

Greetings from Big Brother Mouse!

As we grow, I've often thought "I should email so-and-so about such-and-such." And, of course, there often just isn't time. So I decided to send an occasional newsletter to some of the people who have shown special interest in what we're doing. If you're not actually THAT interested, or you are but the inbox is too full, just let me know and I'll drop you from the list.

OUR FIRST YEAR
We hit our target, barely, of getting 30 books to press in our first year. As far as I know, that's more than any company or organization has done in Lao history. But it's far from enough. Publishing more books remains our #1 goal, but this year, some of our attention will go to several other goals:

FUNDRAISING
Surely you're not surprised to find this at the top of the list! I was able to pay most of the printing costs myself until now. That, plus some donations we got without doing much fundraising work, allowed us to concentrate on publishing. But from here on, each new book will need a sponsor, to help with printing costs, before we can send it to press.

We've also reached a point where we need to have, or to affiliate with, a non-profit (IRS 501-c-3 status) organization in the U.S. That lets us to apply to foundations for grants; one small foundation has already shown interest. It also encourages donations from American citizens, because they'll get a tax-deduction. If anyone reading this is in a position to help with such an organization, please let me know. It requires good organizational skills but not a lot of time.

INFRASTRUCTURE
Many people come to Laos and announce great plans. In most cases, that's the last you ever hear. For 2 reasons, I felt it was important in the first year to focus on actually publishing books: (1) So I wouldn't be dismissed as one more talker; (2) So that people who have never been out of Laos, and have seen few if any books, could better understand just what intend to do, and what a broad range of purposes books can help fill.

But we now have to spend some time on the basics: Inventory control, bookkeeping systems, record-keeping, finding more qualified translators and writers, setting up systems for evaluating translations, and so on.

One recent job: Khamla spent most of 8 days preparing a detailed report for the tax office, to request tax-exempt educational status. They sent him back for 2 more days of gathering numbers, and I shuddered to think what we had gotten into. But when they finally got the finished report, they immediately granted the request. We weren't making money anyway (see above; see below), so there are no immediate cash savings, but this helps assure donors that we're legitimate.

TRAINING
We say we are publishers, but in reality, a majority of the time here goes into training. We've found some wonderfully talented young artists who just need a bit of nurturing. Other skills will take more effort to develop: Writing, desktop publishing, Photoshop, remembering to make backups, bookkeeping, editing Lao manuscripts, greeting customers, fixing those computers...

Sometimes -- not always -- the progress is quite encouraging. One of our first book parties was at the orphanage school, with 350 children ages 5 to 18. Two college students went out to get refreshments. For 350 kids, they came back with 4 liters of Pepsi and 80 plastic cups. We've not only improved estimating skills; we also have switched to local fruit juice instead of Pepsi, and we haul along a basket of sturdy, washable plastic cups to each party. Moreover, we consistently leave our office on time, get to the school 20 minutes in advance to allow for set-up, and start on time!

DISTRIBUTION
From January to May we held 10 book parties, mostly in rural villages within an hour's drive of our office. At each 3-hour party our young staff talks about their work -- writing and illustrating books. We do a short art lesson, play some games, serve refreshments, and talk about taking care of books.
Then every child gets to select a free book -- generally the first book they've ever owned. Finally, we leave a box of 50 more books with a teacher, so the kids can swap their book for a new one after they read it. For a typical nearby village with 100 children, we can do it all for $200.

The idea is to make books available in a rural village, at low cost and with none of the record-keeping of a library. We've checked back in some villages a few months after the parties, and the system seems to be working. The "swap box" is available -- sometimes all day, sometimes just a few hours a week, depending on the teacher. The kids have read their book and many have exchanged it, though some are unwilling to part with it. Many were carrying their book with them when we dropped by.

You can see a longer description and photos of a book party on our website, linked from the text at the bottom of the home page.

MORE BOOKS
We have lots more in the works. Here are some we hope to send to the printer in the next 6-8 months. Some of these books already have a sponsor; thank you! Others (there's a full list on our website) need a sponsor willing to donate from $1,000 to $3,000 (US$).

Traditional Lao, Khmu, and Hmong stories. We've hired young people from the major ethnic groups each talking to their elders, and writing down traditional folktales. Some of these we expect to publish tri-lingually: the ethnic language, Lao, and English. (Sponsors needed)

The Diary of a Young Girl. We've been trying to get rights to several important and classic works. This one, thanks to the fast cooperation of the Anne Frank Foundation, is the first to come through. (Sponsored; thank you, Christine.)

The Jungle Book. Chittakone (New Improved Buffalo; Dr. Dolittle) has developed yet another style for this Kipling classic. (Sponsor needed, soon! $2,000)

Animals of Laos. Some of these animals are close to extinction. This will be the first opportunity for many people to learn about them, and, we hope, to develop an interest in protecting them. (Sponsor needed, soon! $3,000)

Favorite Proverbs. We asked students at the local Children's Center to collect proverbs from their parents and grandparents, then write about them and draw illustrations. (Sponsor needed, $1500)

Jong, Jong, Jong. We've already published cartoon books to help kids learn the 26 Lao consonants and the 35 or so vowels. With this collection, which introduces the important tone marks, we'll have everything covered. Lao is phonetic, so to learn it you "just" need to learn the alphabet and tone marks; and then practice. We've already heard two stories of adults who usd our books to learn to read.(Sponsor needed, $1800)

Siphone's Thesaurus -- the first Lao thesaurus, with illustrations that make it fun for children, and also useful for adults. (Sponsor needed, $1500)

Aesop's Fables. Still both enjoyable and instructive! (Sponsor needed, $1500)

Puzzles and Games. A rich mixture of games and puzzles, from Sudoku and (we think) the first Lao crossword, to mazes and number puzzles. Every westerner working in Laos seems to comment on what is often called a lack of "number sense". We hope these puzzles will not only be enjoyable, but will sharpen that sense for some readers. (Sponsor needed, $1000)

Stories of the Buddha. Khamla's younger brother, Link, who was a novice (young Buddhist monk) until earlier this year, has written these, and they're being edited now.

Sherlock Holmes. We're producing a series of bilingual books, 3 stories in each. The first will have a very easy vocabulary in the English section; each successive book will introduce a few new words. (Sponsors needed, $2,000 for the first one)

The Wizard of Oz. A Lao version that begins with a flood in northern Laos. Once "Kam" reaches Oz, the story stays close to the original. Books like this pose lots of translation dilemmas. One we've already fixed: The title was first translated as "The Wizard of Oxygen." My theory is that the translator couldn't find "Oz" but found "O (subscript)-2", and decided that was close enough. (Sponsored; thank you, Lyn!)

Animals of Australia. An easy-to-read look at some interesting animals. (Sponsored; thank you, Travel Indochina!)

Wonders of the World. The 7 originals, and 7 more that can be seen today, give a real face to world history and geography. (Sponsored; thank you, Han!)

Baby Care. A very simple guide for parents of infants (under 1 year old) in both Lao and Hmong languages. (Sponsor needed, $1500)

Games for Children. Sonesulilat, at age 17, is one of the most creative people I've ever known. The local CCC (Children's Cultural Center) where participated, and received training, deserved much of the credit. Sonesulilat wrote 2 original songs that we teach at our books parties, and regularly invents new games for these events or improves on old ones. (The latest game has two kids feeding apple slices to each other, while they are both blind-folded, and should provide just as much fun at your next dinner party.) He's written a book about games that require little or no equipment, which is being illustrated with village scenes by a talented art student.

Children's Lives in Other Countries. Students at the Vientiane International School wrote and drew pictures for this, with the help of Vivian and (I believe) other teachers there. And the sponsor gets to suggest a snappier name!

Hmong Life Coloring Book. Gikong, who drew pictures for our "Lao Animals Coloring Book", has done a new set, to be published with short captions, about his ethnic culture. He's been drawing full-time for us for a year and has made great progress, thanks to the library of drawing books we make available, occasional tips from visiting artists, and mostly his own perseverance.

Dr. Dolittle and the Floating Island. Our second in the series, delightfully illustrated by Chittakone. (Sponsored; thank you, Peter!)

(We need sponsors for all books unless noted otherwise. Where nothing is said, the book will not be ready for press for 4 months or more, and we'd rather focus on the others, first.)

OR SPONSOR A BOOK PARTY:
If sponsoring a book more than you can do right now, just $200 will sponsor a book party in a rural village. We'll send you photos afterward.

PHOTOS: I tried to attach a couple but Yahoo Laos is sluggish today. There are lots of new pictures on our website.

That's not all the news, but it's enough for now! Come visit and we'll tell you more.

Sasha
volunteer adviser, Big Brother Mouse
(www.BigBrotherMouse.com)

LIMBS

I bet you can’t believe you’re getting all this free. But it’s true. And to make it even a better deal, Books for Laos is pleased to announce its new relationship with COPE (http://www.copelaos.org/who.html). After visiting the rehabilitation centre and investing in a couple of legs, I decided the limb trade would be a natural direction to head off into. No arm done, I thought. The poor blighters have barely a leg to stand on so I elbowed in to give them a hand. These and other tasteful limb jokes can be found next month on mugs and T-shirts available at the centre. I’m sure you all know by now I only recommend projects that I have personal contact with and trust absolutely (ALC notwithstanding). No untested NGO’s will be promoted in these newsletters. If you know anyone who personally dropped ordnance on Laos or has friends who did, please pass this website on to them.

Okay. Glad I don’t have to mail these out in envelopes. Hope you’ve enjoyed this month’s installment and I hope next month to have you photos and more info about your little folk.
Best wishes and happy birthday to whoever has a birthday on Tuesday. (Wait, it’s …)
Be good, y’all.
Col

NEWSLETTER XIII FOR FRIENDS OF BOOKS FOR LAOS

Whose idea was all this roman lettering stuff? I was probably just

showing off. How are you all? I'm doing just fine.

SCHOLARSHIPS

I'm off to Laos at the end of the week to hand over your hard-donated

money and meet the kids on the programme. I should come back with some

photos and evidence that we aren't spending the donations on yachts

and beachfront villas. I did plan to fly into Luang Namtha and fly out

but, guess what? They've dug up their airport and won't be relaying it

till April next year. So I get to fly to Udomxai and do another

overland in the rainy season. I think I'll deposit the money before I

leave so if I get mugged they won't get much.

   Hello and thanks to Stephanie, Sylvia and David who have joined our

band of happy donors. Despite what I told you last month, four of the

kids will be going to the Luang Prabang TTC, not two. So I'll have to

get Sasha to photograph them and check on their progress over the

year.

BOOKS

I've referred some of you to Sasha's programme which is now running in

three provinces, Luang Namtha, Luang Prabang and Vientiene. He'll be

updating me each month on the state of affairs over there. This, the

latest news:

 Big Brother Mouse is now on a fundraising push to keep new books

flowing. The founder (Sasha. ed.) used personal savings to pay most

printing expenses himself for the first year and a half, but now needs

outside support to continue. There are several ways people can help:

* Sponsor a rural book party ($200). This is a three-hour event in a

village school, talking about books and playing some games. Then all

the kids get a free book -- generally the first book they've ever

owned. Finally, BBM leaves another 50 books with a teacher, so kids

can swap their book for a new one after they read it. This is a way to

make books available to village children at very low cost.

* Sponsor a book ($1000 to $3000, depending on the title.) This pays

just part of the printing cost. The remainder, and all office and

staff overhead, Big Brother Mouse pays by selling books, but to pay

all of the printing is too much, at this point, without a subsidy.

They can send a list of books that need a sponsor

on request; and it should soon be posted

on their website.

BBM also needs to set up a non-profit organization in the USA so it

can solicit help from foundations, and get donations from people who

want a tax-deduction. If that's something you might be able to help

with in any way, or if you are affiliated with a 501-c-3 that could

partner with BBM, please email them.

TOYS

No news on the toy front although my friend Siri in Vientiane says he

has urgent news about wood. The use of the word 'urgent' in Laos is

very rare so I'll let you know what all the excitement is about.

Okay, that's it. I'll talk to you again when I get back from my

favourite country on the planet.

Col

NEWSLETTER XII FOR FRIENDS OF BOOKS FOR LAOS

Hello folks. I hope you’re all doing well out there in farang land. I’ve been in touch with a lot of you personally this last month as there was an unprecedented flurry of activity in the north of Laos. Even I got excited (and at my age that doesn’t happen so often).

   It all began with me sending one of my tentative emails to Chantavone in Luang Nam Tha to check the progress of our little project. She assured me that the two boys we have in the Teachers College (TTC) are gaining in confidence and doing much better as they get to grips with Lao language and all the intensity of further education. Ms C told me she was due at a meeting with the education departments of Muang Long and Vieng Phouka districts. They’d identified young folks they thought would make good teachers for isolated schools. The former nominated five kids (3 girls and 2 boys), the latter, another five (4 boys, one girl). In Ms. C’s own words:

…some have no fathers, some have no mothers and some are from the poorest family, but they did well in their lower secondary and wish to be teachers in the ethnic schools.

   So, I started my hunt for additional sponsors and was very lucky (thanks to you folks out there) to cover all the positions. I was also able to get a confirmation of continued support from Kay for her lad in his second year. All of you who paid last year and have had monthly reports on your money collecting cobwebs will be delighted to learn you are now ‘activated’ and will be getting news of your sponsorees around mid September.

   The nominations went to the Luang Nam Tha Provincial Education Service committee and the TTC and they were all offered spots. But, I guess the PES got caught up in the enthusiasm of hilltribe education and they made another suggestion. Again in Ms. C’s words:

I just come back from the PES to discuss your scholarships to ten ethnic kids. They are delighted that you will continue supporting these students to be trained to be teachers. Mr Boonchan, the deputy head of the PES also kindly requests for another 4 scholarships for 2 girls and boys (11+ 3) from Muang Sing, Long, Nalae and Phoukha. Two of them will go to Luang Phrabang TTC, and two will be in LNT TTS. So altogether will be 14 students. If you think, you could help with these 4 more(with same amount allowances), please confirm, so the PES could send the official letter to ask for the seats, dorms and be officially accepted by the Ministry of Education who issues the certificates for them. Good luck and reply soon.

    As our soggy visit to the north last year would confirm, it never rains but it pours in Laos. I’d rather reached the bottom of the barrel for sponsors but, in hope, I contacted my old friend Jose Gay Cano in Phuket who’s been running a project for AIDS families. He’d mentioned that he might have sponsors in Spain interested in supporting an education project. At the whisk of his magic wand, we had four more donors and a total of sixteen kids officially on the programme.

   All that remains now is for me to go over at the beginning of the school year (first week in September) with my false-bottomed suitcase full of Thai baht and ‘show them the money’. I’ll do my best to get facts and photos and something written and translated and begin the process of putting you in touch with your people directly. I’d really like to get personal contact wherever possible so they can ‘feel the love’, man.

   Muchas gracias to Jose, Kay, Eva, Margaret, Melody, Vickie (and the Jim Goe scholarship fund), Nancy, Gandalf, the Cowtown Crime Solvers, and dad. Rest assured there will be a condo waiting for each of you in Nirvanah. I have one ongoing student in limbo so if you know of anyone wanting to adopt, I’d like to have a name for him to write to by September.

   So, that’s it. Thrilling…or what? I haven’t said anything about books or toys this month as Sasha’s been away but I get the feeling we may have been lucky with some translators. More on that when it reaches my teleprinter.

   Don’t feel obliged to copy this letter to six of your closest friends. We’ll keep this little bit of good news to ourselves. Be good, y’all, and see you next month.

CC

NEWSLETTER XI FOR FRIENDS OF BOOKS FOR LAOS

Okay, now I know nobody reads these newsletters. There was a prize of a Mercedes Benz for anyone last month who spotted that I’d sent out newsletter IX two months running. As nobody mentioned it, the car goes unclaimed and we’ll have to run another deliberate mistake competition later in the year.

SCHOLARSHIPS

    Hello, anyway. Just a quickie this month. I’ve been and continue to be busy making a living (thank goodness), and there isn’t much news from Laos. I should have something from Chantavone on the EU project next month. Thanks to those of you who offered to do some fundraising for more kids to go to teacher’s college. We’ll see how many we end up with in September. I believe Kay and Debbie got their handwritten student profiles last month and they’re both busy knitting socks as I write. Met Lydia and Aimee who passed through Chiang Mai during the week and dropped off a donation – many thanks. They were on their way to Luang Prabang to visit…

BOOKS

   …Big Brother Mouse and make a contribution there. Good news for BBM in that Saeng in New Jersey has offered to help with Lao translations. Sasha is working on texts suitable for older kids and there’s a lot of translation work to be done. If you know any English speaking Lao with time on their hands, please refer them to us.

Okay. That’s it. Hope you’re all well and happy.

cc

NEWSLETTER X FOR FRIENDS OF BOOKS FOR LAOS

Hello, good evening, and welcome. I hope you’re all sparkling. I just got back from the island, fit and firm and crisply tanned and I’m ready for anything. Here, then, an update on news from Laos.

BOOKS

This note from Sasha in Luang Prabang:

We just had two book parties in villages, (plus an art contest at the children's center, and a book launch for Dr. Dolittle, busy week!) We didn't have a sponsor for the book parties, so we used your $400 donation for them, $200 each. That includes every kid getting a book which is their own, plus leaving some books in a swap box where they can trade their book for a new one, plus the 3-hour party with refreshments, games, drawing, and talking about books.
The villages were:
Baan Bpaak Bpaa, about 20 km north, 5 km off the main highway -- which has a good school but is still pretty cut off, they’re  about to get electricity but don't have it yet.
Baan Dttin Paa, about 15 km, in the hills down toward Kwangsii Waterfall, but 10 kms off the main road. (I’ve attached a couple of pictures below)

   Plus (this is cc again) I sent the last few straggling Green Sheep over to Vientiane with a friend this week. The flock is complete.

TOYS

This too from Sasha,

 Some likely good news on the Toy front: Ron (Canadian volunteer) is trying to get a placement through CUSO and seems likely to get it. If so, he'll switch over to full time and we'll add a couple more woodworking students.

SCHOLARSHIPS

All seems to be going well in the hunt for perspective students up in them ol’ hills. Chantavone seems confident they’ll have seven more for us by September (but, strong recommendation here as always not to hold your breath). I plan to go up to Luang Nam Tha around then to hand over whatever money we’re lacking. I shall not brave the 200 kms of mud this time but fly over it and laugh at the trucks stuck below me.

   Apologies again to Kim and Cathryn who have probably been sitting by your mail boxes expecting the oft promised original documents from your two students. I was in such a hurry to leave that I forgot them on the kitchen table. I shall post them on Monday and may the ankle chewing demon of Fang render me hobbled if I don’t.

Hope you’re all well. If anyone wins a lottery over the next month, don’t forget to let me know.

Very best wishes

cc

NEWSLETTER IX FOR FRIENDS OF BOOKS FOR LAOS

This roman numeral stuff's starting to tax my little brain. Hope we
don't get up to fifty. I'll really be stuffed then. How are you all?
We're doing just fine here. We survived the smoky and the painfully
hot seasons and have entered the 'lashed by unreasonable monsoons'
season. As I pointed out in the last letter, there shouldn't be much
more news about the scholarships until just before September. I have a
couple of you who have put their donations under the mattress until
then sooner than have me inadvertently buy flagons of wine with it as
we wait for information. I do have the hard copy of data for the two
of you who have already received students and I shall post it off to
you as soon as I can pull my finger out (that's an English expression.
I hope it means the same over there). Kim, can I get a mailing address
for you or Debby please?

BOOKS AND TOYS
For those of you who sent money willy-nilly into my New York account
without specifying what I should do with it, I met up with Sasha last
week and handed it over to him. He has four hundred to send his books
out to schools and another three for tools for his wooden toy venture.
Perri, my 'man in Maine' has decided to cut out the middleman (me) and
deal directly with Sasha. I'm all in favour of that so just a reminder
of his website

http://www.BigBrothermouse.com/

if anyone else wants to go directly to the battlefront.
 
Oops, I guess that's it. I'm off to the island to do a bit of
writing so I may be slack in answering mail for a few weeks. What else
is new? Hope you're all jolly and throbbing with good health.
Best wishes
Col

NEWSLETTER VIII FOR FRIENDS OF BOOKS FOR LAOS

Good morning BFLites. Hope you’re all in sparkling health. My book is finished and dispatched and I have time for all those other things in life that one is expected to do like having cooked meals and clipping toe and fingernails before they curl into talons. Still nothing but good news from BFL.

BOOKS AND TOYS

News from Sasha in Luang Prabang is that the book programme is going well. I have a cheque ready for him the next time he makes it over to Chiang Mai. Big Brother Mouse has also started the wooden toy project in a small way with the help of locals and I’ll give you updates on that next time I write. Don’t forget their website is

http://www.Bigbrothermouse.com/.

Perri in Maine still has a little money left and we have one or two green sheep in LA so the flow of books from North America won’t stop just yet.

TEXT BOOKS

I have a couple of crates I’ll be sending off to Pakse via Ubon before the Thai New Year break. I’m not getting any feedback from Pakse so I’ll just assume they’ve received what we’ve been sending.

SCHOLARSHIPS.

A very big thank you to all of you who agreed to extend your donations over the four year period of study for each student. It looks like you’ll be getting longer to save for the second year than we thought. Apart from the two lads you saw in last month’s photograph (no, the younger fellow isn’t eight, he’s fourteen) the next batch of students won’t be starting until the new school year in September. The reason for this is that our scholarships have become a ‘project’. Over the next six months, people will be heading off into the mountains to identify poor but keen kids who want to become teachers and promise to come back to teach in their districts. The TTS has decided this will be a more effective method than just accepting anyone who wanders down from the hills. All being well they’ll be offering places to another seven kids for September. If I can keep the pool topped up I’d like to try to get half a dozen students per school year. As I’m not planning any big tours this year I’ll have to be charming and convincing through newsletters and personal mail. Please feel free to pass on any philanthropists you happen to meet over the next year.  

That’s it for this month. Thanks again for your help and patience. I won’t apologize again for the pace of events in Laos. I think you get it.

Best wishes and warm feelings

Col

NEWSLETTER VII FOR FRIENDS OF BOOKS FOR LAOS

    Hello y’all and Happy New Year of the Pig. I’m sure you’ve all been thinking I’d taken your donations and absconded. Well, I was thinking about it – but then I got a royalty cheque and I’m okay for another six months. Sorry to have kept you in the dark for a few months but I’ve been under pressure to finish the latest book and it’s been like a bad case of constipation. I won’t go into detail but I’m sure you get the idea.
   There are a few changes in BFL tactics this year, not least of these being the focus of where we’ll be getting our books from. I’ll be changing the doc on the website as soon as I can get to it. But the major changes are listed here.

   SCHOLARSHIPS
   Right, I did tell you nothing happens overnight in Laos and the nights are long. We’ve just got the first two student profiles from the Teacher Training School in Luang Nam Tha. Please see the photo page. I have six donations of scholarships from Kay* (thanks for the card), Kim (for Debby)*, Gandalf, Nancy, Eva and Margaret, plus from my own tribe. This covers one year of a three or four (depending on educational background of the young folks) year teacher training course. Eventually, we’ll have profiles for all of you. Let’s hope we live long enough. The two gentlemen in the photo (sorry about the ties) will be the personal property of Kay and Kim and I’ll send you their details as soon as I get them by post.
   What I need to ask is whether you’d all be interested in supporting your students for the duration of their courses if it’s a one year/one off donation. No pressure here – just a question so we can plan how to distribute the dinero we’ve got. Later this year, the EU will be building a residential primary school for hill tribe kids in Viengphouka District. I hope I’ll have funds to help feed and clothe some of the kids by the time it opens. If the TTS hasn’t pulled its finger out by then I’ll reroute some of the scholarships to the kids (only after I’ve asked your permission of course). The lovely Ms. Chantavone in Luang Nam Tha is the national project director of the EU project and she’ll continue to administer our funds for the next five years and send me bank details and stuff. A big thank you to Chantavone. I’m excited about this new project.

READERS AND TOYS
   Here’s the big BFL shift. Despite a grand effort from a lot of people, the experiment of acquiring books in Australia and North America, sending them to Laos and translating them didn’t produce anything like the response I was hoping for. I’d rather expected big publishers to ship us thousands of copies of unwanted books but it didn’t happen. The administration I had to put in for the few books we got was time consuming and not as effective as it could have been. We do have over a thousand books at ALC being translated but it’s small potatoes.
   From now on I’ll be rerouting funds to Luang Prabang where Sasha Alyson, a retired US publisher, produces books by local Lao writers and artists and distributes them (http://www. Bigbrothermouse .com/). Sasha’s project is going great guns and I think it’s a better use of resources.  I have funds in my account from Barbara, Robert, Eugene and Katherine and, unless you folks object I’ll transfer this to the Big Brother Mouse account. If you’d prefer me to keep to the original plan I’ll buy more Thai books in Bangkok and send them over the river for translation. Sasha’s also interested in taking on the toy project and I’ll keep you informed on that one. You can either donate to BBM via the website or keep sending to me and I’ll pass it on. I’d like to thank Gavin at Books for Asia and Amorn at Books for Thailand for your help over the past year.

TEXT BOOKS
I’ll keep going with the text books from here (second hand Thai books) and I’ll buy more Thai story books to send over to Vientiane as soon as ALC get through the backlog. Thanks to Tutu who dropped off books there on her latest visit.

And that’s pretty much it. I hope you’re all doing well. If anyone gets lucky in the lottery or that unwanted rich aunt finally croaks, bear us in mind for the upcoming school project.
Best wishes and warm feelings
col

NEWSLETTER VI FOR FRIENDS OF BOOKS FOR LAOS

Hello all. Special agent Cotterill reporting from the urban jungle of
Vientiane. All seems to be well here apart from the toy project. As
nobody wants to support it and nobody in country wants to be
responsible for it, I have a feeling it's going to spend some time on
a distant back burner. It isn't something I can really work on from a
distance so I'm putting more effort into the Luang Nam Tha project
where we have the solid Ms. C running things. Here's the lowdown.

TEXT BOOKS
I've just brought a bunch of teachers' manuals in and thank you to
David for loading up his poor wife with another forty kgs and shipping
her across the border. All these will soon be traveling north on the
next EU safari. There have been several donated textbooks I can't ship
to Laos (religion, politics, Thai version of history, etc) so I've
been passing them on to a temple school in Fang here in Thailand.

CHILDREN'S BOOKS
There will soon be photographic evidence on the photo page that the
first shipment really did make it to ALC in Vientiane and that they
will soon undergo the sticker treatment whenever the director gets
back from the south. Many thanks to Perri in Maine for a couple of
crates sent to San Fran and a couple more pending (and to Gavin who
will be sending them on to Bangkok.). For those Amazons out there, I
was accompanied on this trip by twenty-five green sheep.
Thanks also to our Jane in Aus for her grand coordination efforts.
With luck there could soon be added support for Sasha's marvelous book
printing project in Luang Prabang. Any of you passing through town
should pick up some books from the Big Mouse and deliver them to the
villages yourselves. http://www.laobooks.com/luang_prabang.htm

SCHOLARSHIPS
We now have seven students supported at the Luang Nam Tha TTC for the
first year of their three (or four depending on how fast they pick up
Lao) year teacher training course. Those of you who contributed will
be getting your student profiles and photos sometime before Lao New
Year (April) which will be a Lao national administrative record but I
think I can guarantee it. The college English teacher has been
allocated the role of home-room teacher and liaison officer for our
project.
  Ms. C and I were talking about a residential primary school
proposal for minority kids. The EU would handle the buildings and I'd
hunt around for support for the kids. I had a nice dinner with the
Shizuoka Lions Club last Saturday and I think the Singha beer got them
merry enough to consider fundraising for this project when they go
home. Again, this is a long term plan that needs some early
commitment.


So, a lot of positives again and hints of bigger and better things to
come. Given the fact our last newsletter arrived in Greek, I've opened
a G-mail account just for our little team of newsletterees. Let us
hope this works.
Happy November to all our readers.
cc

NEWSLETTER V FOR FRIENDS OF BOOKS FOR LAOS

Hello all (and we have some more ‘all’ for this month – welcome to the fold). Just got back from the good ol’ USA. It was an exhausting five weeks but I think we’ve got some interest for BFL and if only 10% of the pledges and promises come good, I think we can consider it a resounding success. But, promises are easy.

TOYS
Didn’t get any pledges for tools or equipment and haven’t yet heard back from Habitat with regard to their abandoned toy project earlier this year. I shall probe further.

PICTURE BOOKS
We’re still pushing ahead for remainders in the US via Daedalus. I think we can get things shipped directly to San Francisco. I’m afraid I wasn’t in San Francisco long enough to visit Books for Asia (sorry Gavin, didn’t make it out of Oakland). For any North American enquiries with regard buying sets of books or shipping, please contact Perri at perrib@verizon.net. Perri has some shipping money now and will be ordering soon. As soon as I get titles I’ll add them to the Amazon list.
   If you know people who’d like to order individual books (currently ‘Where is the Green Sheep’) through Amazon, life has been made easier by Emily Bronstern who has agreed to receive the books at 16213 Fieldcrest Ct. La Mirada, CA. 90638, and ship them on to San Fran when we have a set. Thanks, Emily.

TEXT BOOKS
I came home to a donation box full of books. We’ve managed to fight off the ant infestation and these ones are un-nibbled.

SCHOLARSHIPS
We’ve been lucky enough to pick up two more scholarships on this tour and one strong pledge. I’ll be working out how to best get this money to Luang Nam Tha in the next few days. I apologize to those of you who have already paid but things move slowly in Laos and we don’t have student profiles yet from the TTC. Putting on pressure isn’t a concept that has any effect in Laos so please remain calm and cool hearted. If anyone in North America wishes to make donations, I’ve opened a bank account in New York in my name (yes, completely dodgy, but it’s hard enough opening an account in ones name, let alone setting up an organization. Trust me on this, okay?) The account is COLIN WILLIAM COTTERILL 9966283388, CITIBANK, 72ND ST. If it’s hard to transfer money, I left some deposit slips with my friend Margaret Johnson in DC. You can send cheques made out to me to 3200 Garfield St. NW, Washington DC, 20008. But please include a note to say what the money is intended for and a return address so we can keep in touch with you.

You can see, all this facilitation is making things more complicated. So it’s just as well I don’t have any major commitments (other than writing books, designing book covers and T-shirts, and generally having a life) between now and Christmas. Let’s hope Santa’s kind to us this year. 
CC

NEWSLETTER IV FOR FRIENDS OF BOOKS FOR LAOS

Hello all,

I have to get this off early as I’m leaving for the States in a couple of days.

TOYS

On my latest trip to Vientiane I was able to collect several reasons why our little toy project might not work – lack of soft wood, lack of equipment and expertise, lack of funding and motivation. But I was also able to meet enough enthusiastic people to believe these aren’t insurmountable problems. Don Koi, the training center, is keen to host a woodwork shop. CUSO may have a carpenter in-country who can help us out. Some old-timers offered suggestions for getting decent wood. So, I’m going ahead with it. We can start small and see how it goes. I’ll be begging, stealing and borrowing money on this trip for Toys for Laos. Let’s see what comes of it. I am quite a miserable little beggar.

PICTURE BOOKS

Yes. I know I said the Bangkok books would be in Vientiane by now but in fact they’ll be going over this month sometime. You can’t rush these things. I’ve left off money with ALC to make stickers and print the translations and I’ll be adding the list of English language books to the bottom of the BFL doc. on the website. This might help if anyone has single copies of books we’ve already got. Haven’t had any more books from the blog.

TEXT BOOKS

I’ve just sent off two more crates of books to the TTC in the south.

SCHOLARSHIPS

Well, we do have two more pledges to sponsor teaching-students but we’re having a bit of bank jiggery pokery to contend with. Although sending a Thai baht cashier’s cheque from a Thai bank to a Thai baht account in Laos would seem like quite a simple transaction, the Lao have announced that we have to convert the cheque to US dollars so they can convert it back to baht when it gets there. You work it out. So I have no choice but to carry cash over the border in a basket and pay it in by hand. Banks are hilarious, aren’t they?

The next newsletter should be a week late and there may not be anything in it. I’ll be Thelma and Louising around America (but without the careening over a cliff part)

cc

NEWSLETTER III FOR FRIENDS OF BOOKS FOR LAOS

Dear all,

It’s that time of the month again and a busy month it’s been for BFL. After a year and a half of hibernation, it looks like the old bear has finally awoken from her slumber.

TEXT BOOKS

Another 200kgs of books have arrived at their destination but not without a smattering of drama.

KID’S PICTURE BOOKS

The shipment from Bangkok is on route as I write. I’m off to Vientiane next week to arrange for staff to do all the cutting and pasting. Altogether there will be some 1,500 books in batches of fifty. With regard to our American cousins, it looks like we might be able to get help from Daedalus in discounting and shipping batches of books to San Francisco. For updates on this, please contact Perri the book Nazi on perrib@verizon.net

   We’ve had another book for our blog appeal which brings the number of ‘Where is the Green Sheep?’ to eight. Forty two to go.

TOYS

On my foray into Laos next week I’ll be visiting the trade school to see how much it will cost to set up a woodwork shop to make our toys. We have the enthusiasm and the place. All we’re missing is the equipment, the material and the money. I’ll be visiting the CUSO (Canadian) volunteer center to see whether they could provide us with a qualified carpenter to set up the project and help train the staff at the center. I also plan a visit with old friends at the forestry department to see whether they can supply us with offcuts (if not entire trees) without having to grease any palms (tree joke)

EDUCATION FUND

Whilst in the north, I inadvertently set up an education fund. It’s specifically aimed at minority kids who don’t have access to schools near their villages and have to board elsewhere. This includes older kids who want to study at the teacher training college but who don’t fit into the government plan. A ball-park figure for a year of fees is US$300. We’re supporting four trainee teachers at the moment. I can give you more details of this if you’re interested.

That’s shallot. I expect to have more news next month and anticipate something good from the US. I hope you’re all well and not sick of getting these updates. At least I’m not contributing to deforestation in their dissemination. Be good. Col.

Jess and Col’s Awesome Little Adventure – Luang Nam Tha, August

I feel I could do more justice to this story with a video camera and a live voice over, but I’ll just have to labour at it with written words instead. We’ll begin with my old friend, Miss Chantavone from the Lao Ministry of Education. She is a good educator, but she isn’t a civil engineer. If she tells you a road is good, she probably means that it does indeed go from point A to point B. Whether the surface is a mushy splodge of knee-deep mud does not enter into her assessment. If she tells you your little Honda City can make it - no problem, it probably means she thinks a Honda City is a massive four-wheel-drive truck with chains. But because we didn’t know about Chantavone’s lack of engineering qualifications, and we are trusting souls, Jess and I set out from Chiang Mai in Thailand still believing we could drive all the way to Luang Nam Tha in Laos. We were weighed down with two-hundred kilograms of books, two crates of toys and a computer, and even the ramp from our condominium gave us problems.

   During the night we spent at Chiang Khong on the Thai bank of the Mekhong, with the rains lashing the building, we were still working out how to share the driving. It wasn’t until we disclosed our plan to the visa agent the following morning that we began to feel the slight crush of disappointment that accompanies being confronted by a man laughing uncontrollably. When he’d recovered sufficiently he said,

   “You won’t get half a kilometer.”

   We decided to downsize our ambitions. It was possible, the agent told us, to get a four-wheel drive on the Lao side. But we had ten crates crammed into the little car and we (henceforth known as ‘I’) had to rewrap them in plastic and carry them down the dock to load into a rickety long-tail boat. The boatman was enjoying the show too much to lend me a hand. Meanwhile, Jess parked the car in a sleazy spot that still bore the scars of previous hubcap removals and window smashes.

  And there we stood on the dock at Huay Xai on the Lao side, dripping in the downpour, waiting for our fashionably late truck. Dayt the driver eventually arrived with a well-timed Lao smile and took us up the hill to the customs shed. I was able to bypass the need for the several documents required to do almost anything in the People’s Democratic Republic of Laos, by telling them I didn’t have any. It was a circumstance they’d not come across before. I added to their confusion by saying I didn’t care whether our contraband was allowed in or not. I was just helping out the education department and if they didn’t let the books pass, I’d just leave them there and let the Ministry of Education sort it out. Jess and I had our visas and could progress quite happily without the books.

   The consultation that followed resulted in an arbitrary decision to call in the District Cultural Department. If they considered the books free from subversive Thai propaganda they’d let us take them. The passing of this particular buck took three hours. In Chiang Mai, we’d already removed anything historical, social and religious and were left with some three hundred something science and education texts. The quaint couple from the Cultural Department still insisted on looking at each of them and, apart from a short debate over a lithe Thai dancing girl on the cover of a physical education textbook, we were allowed to pass.

   But, by this time we only had four hours of daylight to make the journey and Dayt had another job later that night. He said he’d take us half-way and try to arrange us an ongoing truck from Phou Ka. If the road had been even partially completed, if it hadn’t been raining continuously in Laos for a week, we might have actually made it that night. We crossed two downed bridges on temporary logs, passed a dozen trucks that had bogged down in the mud, and managed to transfer our goods to a second pick-up as we waited in a queue to ford a flooded stream. But, with only forty kilometers to go to our destination, we rounded a bend in the road and came upon an impassable landslide. The river we’d crossed earlier was still rising and would be impossible to re-cross, so there we stayed till morning – the driver, his road-sick girlfriend, me, Jess and forty-seven mosquitoes locked in the airless cab of a Toyota Hilux drummed into unconsciousness by the incessant rain.

   During the night, a few other trucks had joined us in our impasse but there was no way of contacting anyone beyond. With our bare necessities on our backs, our driver and books abandoned, we waded through waist deep mud along the side of the mountain to where the road continued on the far side of the slide. We walked to the next village, negotiated a ride to Luang Nam Tha with a sinister chap and shared his truck with three drunk Vietnamese and a crop of cucumbers. And, once again, we almost made it.

   We paid some villagers a few dollars to make a hasty reparation of their busted bridge in the next community and were all sails before the wind. We were some five kilometers from the actual paved road to the provincial capital, when another obstacle, this time a fallen tree, blocked the road. No sapling this but a proud old Sunda Oak some four feet across. Trucks coming from the other direction stood in a convoy and their drivers sat and stared at the tree wishing it away. Rain still lashing, our hopes were all but doused, but the driver had an idea. He left. We stood with the rapidly sobering Vietnamese watching him go and wondered how long it would take us to walk thirty kilometers in damp socks. But, just as we’d made the decision to attempt to do so, the driver returned with ten sturdy hilltribesmen armed with axes. They set about the tree like ants on a sweet breadstick and within half an hour the road was clear.

   We arrived at Luang Nam Tha twenty-nine hours after leaving Thailand and five kilos heavier with mud. As we stood at the bus station, several tourists mistook us for ancient monoliths and took our photo. Miss Chantavone was delighted to see us alive. She admitted she hadn’t actually consulted anyone before her road report. She just thought “It ought to have been ready by now.” The power had been off in Luang Nam Tha for three days but a shower is a shower and a bed is a bed and Chantavone made up for her lack of street savvy by buying us a slap up dinner. Half-way through our candlelit meal she got a call on her mobile from the teacher’s college.

   Miracle of miracles, the books and the computer had actually arrived. The road constructors had found petrol for their long-dormant backhoe and had cleaned away the landslide. Even before heading home for a meal, tired and damp, the driver and his girlfriend had gone to the college to offload their cargo. How can you not love the Lao? Astoundingly, the books were not sadly soggy or unreadable. The computer defied logic by working better than it had in Chiang Mai. The following day we had a slap-up beery lunch with the college administrators where the delivery was lauded and toasted - Books for Laos: the new Air America, anything, anywhere, anytime.

   There was a return trip that involved several hours on a speedboat down the Mekhong and a truck journey to the Thai ferry port. But that’s another story. Our awesome little adventure won’t win any prizes but it did make us proud. A lot of good things are going to come out of the trip. Jess will be going back to offer some training at the end of term, probably not by truck, and Chantavone and I set up an education fund. Luang Nam Tha has the highest population of minority tribes in the country and a lot of them still don’t have the opportunity to study. Chantavone is working on an EC programme helping to change that situation but the process is a slow one and in the meantime a lot of kids won’t have the option to go to school.

   So, we opened a bank account and a channel of communication and Jess and I started the ball rolling with a year of support for two Gui boys who’d trekked for four days to the teacher’s college and asked to join the course. They had no money and one blanket between them – just a desire to learn and faith that it might happen.

   A year of study for a primary school child would cost $US230. A year of study fees for a trainee teacher is $US300. A hilltribe teacher will return to the village and teach the children there. Investing in one teacher is investing in several generations of kids. It’s the cost of a small comfortable brightly upholstered TV armchair against a lifetime opportunity. I don’t see that as a big decision to make.

NEWSLETTER II FOR FRIENDS OF BOOKS FOR LAOS

Hello, him again. Hope this finds you all in scintillating health. Several things to report from the past month so I’ll get straight onto it and forego the witty repartee.

1. Thanks to donations from a few nice folk and me, a thousand hard cover Thai picture books in batches of fifty have arrived at Books for Thailand in Bangkok. There they were joined by the first batch of books from Melbourne. All are awaiting shipment next month to Vientiane. Fingers crossed. Heard, at last, from ALC who are eagerly awaiting this first shipment.
2. There have been one or two positive murmurs from the USA but I’ll hold back on that news till it turns into something real. No more books from the blog appeal so far.
3. The toy samples have arrived in Vientiane and Room to Read have sent them to the apprenticeship centre to see if they’re able to make them. The first reaction (as one comes to expect) was an appeal from money for new tools. R2R have persuaded them to show us what they can do with the old tools first. Well done R2R.
4. Jess and I have 300 kilograms of used Thai textbooks filling up the spare room. We somehow have to get them to Luang Nam Tha teachers college next month in our tiny Honda City. I’m sure the Honda people didn’t expect to find their product kicking up sparks as it drags through the Lao jungle. It’ll make a good TV ad assuming we make it there and back.
5. Been talking to Sasha Alyson who’s working on the writing and printing of Lao language books for kids. He also has a lending room in Luang Prabang which has become an instant hit with local kids. I’ll try to get some of our books to him once they’re translated. If anyone has any idea how he can channel donations to this part of the world through an existing NGO he’d be pleased to hear of it.

Those are the highlights. Thanks to you all for your continued support and let’s hope this is just the beginning. Best wishes. Col.

NEWSLETTER FOR FRIENDS OF BOOKS FOR LAOS

Hello y’all. Don’t panic. This isn’t one of those hugely annoying group emails that makes you feel guilty and forces you to donate larges sums of…okay, well, yes, I suppose it is something like that. But it’s actually more of a reminder. I’ve realized that absence doesn’t make the heart grow fonder. Once I’m away, all the big ideas have a tendency to vanish like incense smoke. It’s only natural. I’m like that myself. So I’ll be sending out these little, only moderately annoying email newsletters once a month to jog your memories and let you know that the Books For Laos project is still rocking on and that there’s a lot of potential for new programmes.

   Text Books

            So far, we’ve shipped about a hundred kilograms of second hand textbooks across the border to teachers colleges. I know you shouldn’t judge the value of a book by its weight but I can’t wait for feedback from readers.

   Kids’ Picture Books

            Following my recent trip to Australia we have some good pledges of donations of thirty to fifty copies of hardback picture books for kids. The Asia Foundation in Bangkok is waiting patiently for their arrival so they can ship them on. The ALC is waiting patiently to translate them into Lao and attach stickers before sending them off to the provinces. All we’re missing is the books.

   I’ve been doing some shopping inside Thailand as well and found a lot of good quality hardback picture books. This is a viable alternative to spending money on shipping from overseas as the publishers will send them to the Asia Foundation at their own cost. I have titles lined up and ready to send at about $US180 per set of fifty after discount. (this is just in case you know anyone with ?US180 to spare)

   Our friend, Bek in Melbourne has just set up a blog site (http://booksforlaos.blogspot.com/) with a wish list for people who’d like to donate one or two books. We select the books and donors order them on Amazon and they’re sent to us here. Once we reach our quota for that book we change the title. Thanks for that, Bek.

   Toys

            New idea, new project. Nursery schools in Laos don’t have any toys. Together with Room to Read in Vientiane we’re looking into setting up a woodwork shop to produce educational toys for little kids. We’re hoping to run this through an existing apprenticeship scheme for unemployed youths who are being trained for trades. We’ll probably need to invest in some basic equipment and hire a qualified carpenter to work with the kids. I’ve shipped over some samples for the Lao to practice on. This could be a good project to help two disadvantaged groups in one foul swoop. The toys will be distributed to the schools through the Room to Read network.

   Okay, that’s pretty much all we have. If you know of anyone who wants to contribute time or money to our programme please feel free to put them in touch with me. It’s a simple little project that can have a big effect.

                        Thanks to you all for showing an interest. Lao kids appreciate it.

                                                Best wishes,

                                                            Col