1.

Education has always been an important part of my life. When I was in my twenties, I was lucky enough to travel out of my village for teacher training. When I returned, I began teaching in different schools nearby. My favorite subjects to teach were the Lao language and geography classes. I taught for 30 years.

Sadly, my own children were not able to attend secondary school even though I was a teacher. It can be very difficult for villagers to go to school mainly because road access is poor, there is a lack of good teachers and teaching materials, and the schools themselves are in poor condition. In the end, my children preferred to live culturally instead of going to the secondary school in the nearby village. This has been something that makes me upset and sad to this day because I value education very much.

2.

Fortunately, things have changed a lot since I became a teacher 40 years ago and it is getting easier for children to finish school. When I started teaching, there wasn’t a school in my village but now there is. Before many villagers were illiterate but now with improved transportation, health care and access to electricity, our day to day lives are changing for the better and education is becoming more valuable. This gives me hope that in the future all our children will be able to attend school.

When I retired from teaching in 2017, I decided to go back to my roots and return to farming, which I learned to do when I was a small child. I heard about coffee farming and encouraged my fellow villagers to test it out. A few families listened, but most weren’t ready yet. Lucky for us, after the first year of farming, the families who tried were successful and so other families in the village decided that it might be worth it.

3.

The other passion in my life is my family. I’ve been married to my wife for over 40 years and together we have a very large family-13 in all! They all live in the village with me, which is quite unusual as it is common in Laos for some of the children to move away. We live in 3 houses that are facing one another, and we gather to share meals every day. When I go check on my coffee seedlings in the nursery, my grandchildren often join me. The kids keep me very busy and active but I love to have their company! We like singing songs, dancing and playing volleyball together. I also like to teach them and I look forward to watching them grow and learn. It makes me happy to know that they have a hopeful future on the horizon.