Jan 11 - Return of the ASV Cobras!

We're baaa-aack . . . Unbelievably, we stumbled upon our old Cobra mascot, in town - I believe it was at the door of the Lao National Museum.  Our Cobra used to be at the entry to our school, six kilometres outside of Vientiane.  K6 was where our school was, our stables, and where most of us lived during our time in Laos.  I lived there for a few months, before we got a house in town.
Here are Frank Manley (who never left - Our Man in Vientiane!) and Lloyd, with our mascot.


First, a few pics of school days - Sadie Hawkins (OK, who remembers Lil Abner?), exploring the countryside, and SEAP (SouthEast Asian Peninsula) games - all in K6 area.  I am not sure where all these competitors came from, but it was definitely a big deal.








Below, the start of the Sadie Hawkins race.  For you young people who have never heard of this, the girls go after the guys, and grab 'em for the dance that night.  
There was also a real live greased-pig catching contest, pie and watermelon eating contests, and so on.

  I wish I could control the formatting better.  But here you see old Americana at its finest.  Yes, we had cheerleaders, and baseball, and the Blue Team and Gold Team.  Some of the American families did everything they could to recreate Stateside life.  My folks chose to live in town - they wanted to experience the place as it was.  My dad and I truly loved our time there - my brother and mom not so much.  For sure, it changed us kids forever.

Captured!  A popular guy!

And we have a winner of the watermelon eating contest!

Our cheerleaders.  Nope, not me.  Not in a million years could I have done that in middle school.  

Instead, I was learning how to burn off leeches from our horses' legs when we swam through ponds out in the country.  In dry season, we would gallop through the rice paddies, jumping the low walls every 10 strides or so.  We were not supposed to ride out, and heard scary stories of Pathet Lao kidnappings - but we didn't take it seriously.  I don't really know if it was dangerous or not.  We liked to think so then, in our relative ignorance - danger meant adventure.  Knowing a little more now, I feel a bit ashamed that I treated possible danger in such a casual manner.  Not all of our parents and friends made it out of the country alive, and some are still there.  

I remember one boy who tried his hand at riding a water buffalo.  He did not do that again.  Boy 0, Buffalo 1.

Below was the prototypical scene, most anywhere in lowland Laos.  It's still there, but you have to get outside of Vientiane now.  There are highways and multi-story buildings where this photo was taken, on the way to K6, I think.