Over the past four years during February and March we (a couple of a certain age) have worked for various volunteer projects around the world. For the last two years we have supported English teaching in Luang Prabang. Last year Ken was exploring the right bank of the Nam Khan river area when he saw the new LEOT school being built. The builder showed him round and on his way out past the entrance he picked up a small leaflet on LEOT. It sounded an interesting project so we filed the leaflet away in our travel documents but forgot all about it. In Autumn 2012 as we planned our next project for 2013 the leaflet surfaced and having decided we would love to return to Laos we contacted the e-mail address on the leaflet to ask for an update on the project and whether LEOT might be interested in two British volunteers. We had an immediate and encouraging response from Alan Shiel providing all the information we needed to make a decision about working with LEOT.
At the end of January having committed ourselves to six weeks in Luang Prabang Alan met us at the airport on arrival and took us to the school for our first visit. We were welcomed warmly by the staff and were amazed at the quality of the building and the access to I.T.for the students. We settled in to Cold River Guesthouse where we had stayed in the past. We know the owners and were confident we would be well looked after. Moreover we could walk to the school over the Nam Khan river in about 25 minutes. The day of our arrival corresponded with Australia Day and we were invited to a barbecue where we met other volunteers and staff
During the first week we worked alongside the Lao teachers in order to understand procedures and routines. This led on naturally to our subsequent timetable of about eight classes a week. We both taught Beginners and Intermediate groups and concentrated on pronunciation and conversation practice. We were impressed to see four other English speaking volunteers working in a similar way, two from Australia, one from Canada and the other from the U.S.A. One morning an intrepid, lone English motorcyclist arrived at school and volunteered to stay a while to help students and staff service their motorcycles. For several days practical English lessons were conducted with greasy hands and amongst motorcycle parts. This was a terrific addition to the curriculum.
Students are a delight to teach and their commitment to and enthusiasm for learning overwhelming. There is an atmosphere of pleasurable learning that we have not encountered before in Laos. The majority of students come to class from school or after work and attend classes every night of the week. We think the staff are doing a great job in establishing the school as an important centre for learning English. In this they are exceptionally well managed by Alan whose commitment is unquestionable.
In a short time LELC has become an established part of the Luang Prabang educational scene. Ask students how they heard about the school and they invariably answer "from my friend". The warm, friendly and fun approach to learning English by both staff and students is infectious. We thoroughly enjoyed our experience and hope that other mature volunteers with relevant experience will come forward to help the school develop. We will certainly be maintaining our contact and spreading the word wherever we can in the real hope that the project will continue to flourish.
Ken and Tricia Shooter-Bennett
PS
Many thanks from all at LEOT to Ken & Tricia for their fantastic help
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