Sabaadi from Laos!

Hello everyone! I thought instead of sending out a whole bunch of emails I would just blog my greetings from my visit with Souksavath. I have tons of pictures already but sorry I couldn't upload them because I wasn't lucky enough to grab the computer with the capability. Maybe next week.

So far, me and Andrew are having alot of fun. We know very few words; Sabaadi means hello, KopChai means Thank you, Sebly means very delicious, Bo means no, Jou means yes, and Yo means Cheers! (the most important!). To ask for beer (but it's brought to you whether you ask or not and the glass is never empty) you would say BeerLao.

Fr. Souk has been extremely hospitable, taking us on all his pastoral visits and showing us his mission territory. So far we have stayed at the sisters residence in Paxse, in the same yard as the seminary where Souk lives, but last night and tonight he put us up in a relatively inexpensive ($40/night) hotel so that we could get some A/C and could sleep without mosquito nets. But for a couple days later this week we will be staying in a hut which is basically completely outside with a roof over our heads and a mosquito net around us. The food is absolutely fantastic but today I had to start taking Immodium pills as my stomach apparently agree with something. It is a very beautiful country, of what I have seen of the south, but the city, Paxse is rather dirty. Souk says noone has common sense to throw litter in the garbage or pick it up of the streets. Mass with Souk in Lao is really neat as they chant alot, even Souk! The seminarians are really great guys and Souk has been teaching them a bit of english so they can communicate on a very basic level with us. So far, very few people know English except this one youth minister that works with Souk who studied in the Philipines in English last year and learned English there. His brothers and sisters are learning slowly but we have a hard time besides those few words I mentioned above. Mostly, all I need to say is Cho when I'm asked if I want a beer and Bo if I am trying to be prudent. Everything else takes care of itself!
My next update I will try to have pics and I would like to tell you about the Seminary that Souk is in co-charge of. 3 months ordained and already a formator of 17 seminarians! God bless from the Far East! Please pray for me!