Even the black paint for the ubiquitous blackboards that dominate every Lao classroom must come from Bangkok, Hong Kong, Moscow or Hanoi. And they end with the head teacher asking if I could help him get cement, roofing, wood, and nails to build wooden classrooms, a kitchen, a cafeteria and dormitories. And then , he added, perhaps you could send notebooks, pencils, a volleyball, mosquito nets, sweaters and blankets. The provincial government provides each student with 15 kilos of rice per month. But this is not enough and students must grow their own rice to supplement the government provision.
Older students help teachers plant gardens, gather firewood and raise pigs and chickens.
Drinking water is hauled from the river. Even with all this labour, both teachers and students are often hungry and cold. The students try to study four hours every morning and afternoon, nine months a year. The school, however, is really a large village and, as in all villages, the business of feeding and sheltering the inhabitants comes first Very few of these schools have electricity, which makes evening study almost impossible. But setting up a village primary school is no simple matter.