-^-for posterity-^-

there's a huge animal experiment going on outside of our rooms. in a country where most of the people are farmers, agriculture is very important. having a university that can specialize in agriculture is a luxury for a province. this province is lucky.

there are teachers here from all over laos, thailand, china, cuba and venezuala. they all stand around in old t-shirts and admire their work. their work is definitely altering our home. they built a large building about fifty yards from our house. it amounts to a small barn. it's filled with small ducks and goats and pigs and chickens. they all peep and bleat and make an assortment of noise long into the night that seems to drown out the constant groaning of the frogs. they've also made a small compost pile. it's enclosed in a small brick square and smells to high heaven. that sits right under my balcony.

i'm sure they're here discovering wonderful, new ideas that will be easily applied by farmers throughout the mekong but they're nothing but a nuisance to us. they have taken our peaceful home and turned it into one large, bleating, smelly experiment.