Sabaydii,

 

Here is the continuation of a series ‘Coming home’ entitled ‘The other side of the fence’

 

Hakphaang,

 

 

With the phone number

My brother gave me

Before taking a trip to Laos

I rang that number

 

A woman voice answered

My brother’s classmate

Now working with the Swedish agency

With a nice lucrative deal

 

Glad to hear from me

Whom she said she once met

She invited me for a dinner

At her home

 

 

It was nice of her indeed

To invite me

Whom she hardly knew

Better yet

She came to pick me up at the hotel

Herself

 

On the way to her home

Somewhere on the way past Wat ThatPhun[1]

She related her story

Of where she had been

 

Graduated from a university in the Eastern Bloc

With an Economics degree

And now happily married to a son

Of the late Quinin Phonsena

A neutralist minister siding with the Pathet Lao

 

Maybe

Because of this connection

Her husband held a no less significant position

Likely on the way up to the minister post as well

 

When we got to her house

Her husband was still stuck in the meeting

Likely to be home

Some time before dinner was over

 

Would say

She had such a big house

Typical of the newly rich or on the way up

A maid was at her service

Taking care of the house

And raising her toddler daughter

 

Joining us at the dinner

Was her sister

A law professor

Not so sure of her role

in the new Laos would be

 

Only when we were half way done

Her husband did arrive

 

First I thought of sparing

Questions about politics

Wouldn’t it be nice

To do so as a guest anyway

 

Then with some encouragement

My brother’s friend insisted

Herself curious to know

What I thought of the new Laos

 

I then asked him

A link to the power-that-be

Why Laos was still lagging behind

After a quarter of a century

Of a new enlightened rule?

 

Wasn’t that Laos supposed to be

better off by now?

 

True to what got drilled into any cadres

He came out insisting

The country was much better than the old days

Just look at the statistics

In every field Laos was taking a giant leap

 

Unexpectedly

Coming to my help

Was my brother’s friend

She asked back

What statistics?

Was it the one from the World Bank?

Or was it from the regime own make-up?

 

Seeing that the couple had different political views

And with so intention of intensifying them further

I told her

I need to go home

And kindly invited them

Whenever they happen to come to the U.S.

Please drop by and see me

 

With a big relief

They somehow managed to drop me off

At the hotel

 

It would be a while

Before I dared to ask

Those kinds of questions

With the power-that-be

In paranoid Laos again

 

9.8.03