Jan 11 - K6 - Full Circle

Someone help me out.  I need a new word, because "surreal" is just not enough.  Maybe there isn't a word for this.  For so many decades, this whole place, and the people, were locked up in my mind, sitting on a dusty shelf.  And I had accepted that, but did not feel complete, really, with this weird disconnect in my personal timeline.  Kwan were missing.  Especially now with my parents both gone, I needed to see that it all really happened.


With the advent of the Web, and Becca's efforts to reunite us, and Lloyd's can-and-will-do attitude, here we stand, back in the old 'hood. 
If there was one thing I wish I could add to a blog, it would be the sense of smell.  The annual burning off of crop fields adds a tinge of grass smoke.  The warm cereal smell of "haam", the rice mix we fed our horses.  Oil heating, for food on the streets.  Klong water.       Photos and inadequate words are all I can do, but at least it's down off the shelf, for family and friends, and my own peace.

 The entrance gate.  In K6, there is now the Kaysone Phomvihane Memorial Museum, and K6 is the base of the Central Committee of the Lao People's Revolutionary Party. (Thanks, L, for the write-up help!) We did not see the Museum, which is usually required.  Lloyd says that chronologically, the events are basically correct, but the presentation depicts foreigners in Laos from the 50's through the 70's as Imperialists.  Lloyd gives the excellent advice in advance to remember that "this is their way of telling their history . . . and we are guests in their country.  We are not asked to accept any of this, but we are expected to participate quietly in the tour . ."  

           
Here is the neighborhood.  Small bungalow homes, tree-lined lanes.  The trees are much bigger than I remember, and the houses smaller.


















We approach The President's home.  This is a museum now, and was Marilyn's home back in the day.  Kaysone Phomvihane was the first President of the new Laos under the Communist regime.  Imagine Marilyn's surprise, when she found out a few years back, that her old home was now a cultural touchstone of Laos!

Marilyn says the swing was put in place by the President. She marveled at the size of the trees her mother had planted, Bougainvillea and Frangipani.  There is still the rattan chair there, probably old USAID issue.  The President's bedroom was actually M's old room!


Our guide and Marilyn look over photos.


      President Kaysone used the house next door to Marilyn's as his "office". Here is the living room of this house, now with artifacts.











Below, Kaysone Phomvihane with his his mentor, Ho Chi Minh.  The house bookcases were also full of Lenin and Marx's works, and treatises on economics and political theory.

                                                                    
Below, our ASV alumni group, with our gracious hosts.  
We signed the guest book, after watching a short film - reminding us of the Party Line here.  But it's not over yet. 
Since the Soviet collapse, the Lao attitude has become much more relaxed.  During the first reunion in 2000, K6 was not permitted at all, I believe.  Then, in 2010, a neighborhood and museum visit was OK'd, but they never got to see our old Alma Mater.  Now, that is about to change. 
One of the Museum Officials came up at the end, to especially thank Marilyn - it turns out, unbeknownst to any of us, that she has been sending supporting funds to the museum in order to preserve our joint heritage.  We are amazed and grateful indeed!  And the unforeseen benefit is that we are now allowed a bus ride around our school - we finally get to see what is still there, and what has changed.  Turns out, the pool is still there!!  We all were pointing, and shouting out our memories - (quite a few involved that darn high-dive board, Rick F!)  What a joyous thing to be a part of.  This building is now called Ban Sivilay, and is refurbished nicely - but it IS the Central Committee Headquarters, and most Lao never get to see it.  Equivalent to the Pentagon, or possibly even the White House, it is protected by their secret service, and non-essential visitors rarely get withing 100 yards. (thanks again, L)
No photos were allowed.    That Sadie Hawkins field? Still there.