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28/5/06 New Friends in Laos |
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Of course it’s hard to leave friends and family back home, and go to a totally new country.
But several things make it easier. For starters, I had already spent some time with the ADRA Laos country director (my boss) and his wife in Madagascar. I also have a Thai friend from my uni who also did her Ph.D. in ‘Room 410’. Natthira lives just across the Thai/Lao border (i.e. the Mekong River). Her family runs hospitals in Udon Thani and Nong Khai. So that’s three ‘locals’ I knew before coming who were already good friends.
But I’m quickly making many more friends, starting with the Lao staff at the ADRA office. They are really friendly and fun-loving. There’s lots of laughs in the office. In fact my boss said that the staff had asked me if the new program director would be a serious person – because they couldn’t handle that! There’s a new Japanese intern working for ADRA Laos – so she and I are going through the ‘settling in’ phase together. And there’ll be an Australian intern and his young family coming very soon, too.
The ADRA network (as with the wider development network) has so many diverse and interesting people. I’ve seen that so far here in Krabi, where I’ve made a few new friends already – including the fiancée of a second cousin of mine – small world! I’ve also met quite a few people I already knew from church in Australia, or from ADRA Madagascar (including my former boss from there – he’s the country director in Bangladesh now, and he’s here too). There are about 30 ADRA employees from around the world here – from ADRA Australia and ADRA implementing offices around the world that partner with ADRA Australia.
I haven’t yet had a Sabbath in Laos (and won’t until July), but from my experience in the Seventh-day Adventist church worldwide, I am sure that I’ll be quickly making many more new friends there too! As well as the local Lao Adventists, there are a few expats working with Adventist Frontier Missions in Vientiane who I’m keen to meet.
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