My Graduation Day With World Vision And My Farewell Letter (words of gratitude)

Too risky staying in a fancy office like WVLaos, Vientiane...

A working place like WVLaos, Vientiane where I worked had an impressive look. This former Brunei Embassy construction seems to be the most noticeable site among all offices building in town. A fancy style of white building with a spacious parking park and green yards attracted many viewers passing by this location. 

Actually many offices both commercial and non-profit institution including UN (United Nation) office representative also look great but cannot be compared with this building. Often times working in an outstanding place like this bring a sense of honor among its staff. Their confidence and appreciation increase towards this organization. 

Looking five years back before I became a fulltime staff in WV, I once had a short visit to the older WVL office. It was a simple and small office where they were about 50 staffs joined WVLaos at that time. 

One time a supporter of World Vision came across this looking good office and filed a complaint even sued the office with improper misused of resource entrusted by the donor. This polemic was publicized widely to gain international attention. 

This was a great lesson for the WVL office in addressing the sensitive issue upon negative feedback of the visitors. Public were not yet well informed that this fancy property actually under a special arrangement and agreement between WV management and the owner. The rental land contract was given at a lower cost by the owner knowing that WVL was a non-commercial organization and the facility was intended to address the poverty in the country.  

Kid's adventure continued to Bangkok

Ello was excited to learn
to be a mechanist at Kidzania.  

 It was  an unplanned holiday to Bangkok after traveling to Kunming, China. Our boys, Jeremy and Ello were not quite happy when visiting tourist sites at Kunming. 

We had limited info on the object. English communication was quite challenging in the area. Even to access public transportation services in the city we found it very difficult in the area.  Therefore, we had a lot of walking to see interesting is around our hotel. We only had one chance to have meal at local restaurant since they cannot speak English. Many time we only had meals in the Mc Donald restaurant since the menu is available in English. 

In compensation with this displeasing experience, we instantly changed our trip schedule. Instead of returning back home we proceeded out trip to Bangkok, Thailand. We flew back to Wattay airport Vientiane from Kunming. The airport actually was only 30 minutes' drive from our residence in Ban Phnonexay, Vientiane. 

We just realized the change schedule was indeed quite costly particularly with international flight, but in the interest of our children's happiness we just decided to proceed the trip. 

Finally the kids had a good time in Bangkok as  they stayed in a nice hotel, played at Kidzania, fun swimming, and dinner cruise a long Chao Phraya river. The fun time in Bangkok replaced their sad and tough experience in Kunming. It was such a happy time to dine in a luxurious cruise. In addition we were also surprised with  so many Indonesia tourists joined in the same cruise. .

Our family experience to Kunming, CHINA

My family had a strange holiday to Kunming, China. One of the tourist sites in China but we found it difficult to explore the area due to English communication. It was very rare to find local people could understand English.

It was April 15th, 2013 when the weather was cold.  We were surprised to face weather changes in the area as we were not equipped with sweater or warm outfits. As soon as we landed at the airport we were freezing with the cold wind. Our casual outfits could not bear with it. Jeremy, Johannes, me and June, my wife were wearing only t-shirt.

 

One of the reasons why we arranged a trip destination to  Kunming was to visit the museum where they preserved the skeleton of a Dinosaurs. Unfortunately we could only find a  museum with Dinosaurs statues. 

Nevertheless, we had a lot of fun walking around the city. Whenever we have meals and finding interesting sites nearest our hotel we just went on foot.

Local transportation could only be accessed with local language. No one seemed to understand English. However, we all enjoyed the moment although it was quite adventurous and sometime displeasing. We visited the zoo in the city. The boys just excited to see only some animals inside.

God special blessing for my family to live in Vientiane, LAOS

My family and I melted with Lao culture. God had given us the opportunity to live like Lao family in Vientiane for 4 years (2008-2013). Thank God for this wonderful experience when entrusted working with World Vision in Laos Office. 

As a family living in a foreign country we felt enriched meeting a lot of wonderful families both expatriates and locals. 

One memorable friendship is with our special Lao friend, usually called as Kem,. He was indeed a gift from God. This Tuktuk driver was always ready at any time to transport my family wherever we wanted to go in the city. A place like number of traditional Markets, Hospitals, Churches, tourist sites, friend's houses, restaurants, Mekong river, Offices, Schools, and even to Thai border were taken by his Tuktuk.  

We became his family and his family was ours too.

After 14 years away we see each other again in LAOS!!

Min Sor, my Cambodian brother, was my first recruited staff back to 1996 in World Vision Cambodia. We worked together to set up sponsorship office in Phnom Penh. 

We went through a good and bad times together to help the needy children in Cambodia. Tears and joy along with prayer were the color of the work especially when building the capacity of sponsorship staff both at National level and District level. We became a good friend. God gave us the opportunity to travel overseas, America for his job orientation.

We had a memorable but funny experience in our first travel to Seattle, America. At the hotel our throat were dry and thirsty in the cold weather.  Hurriedly we searched for drinking water at our room but we could not find any glass neither jar for the drink. We complained about this situation how could a nice hotel in modern country like America failed to serve the guest. Then we rang the hotel receptionist asking about the water.  We both were shocked by her answer. She just informed us that we could drink the water in the bathroom from the tab. Oh my...we just laughed at each other....drink water in the bathroom....ha..ha..ha..we felt like a remote villager coming to the city. 

Anyway now I thanked God that after more than 14 years we could meet again in Vientiane, LAOS.

Min Sor, is now a lecturer of ASDEC institution. Also he has shared his leadership to NGO staff including World Vision. I was son blessed when knowing him had taken many different leadership roles in the past years (Country Directors of Habitat in Phnom Penh, Country Director as RoomToRead, Founder of local NGO, etc.)

What a wonderful meeting with an old friend again after so long years in a country like LAOS.

My family and mom had also the opportunity....

I was very pleased to travel with my family and specially with mom. She stayed for sometime when I moved to Vientiane.  I work with WV Laos. Actually this was my dream.  I just realized a silent prayer had been answered. It reminded me when I laid down on the comfort of Changi airport carpet while observing a family travelling. What a beautiful picture looking at a family having fun together in an overseas trip. 

Later that untold wish came true when I brought my family travelling to a new place like Laos.  Indeed since I have a family the enjoyment changes. I was happy and excited travelling alone when I was still single especially visiting a new place. 

Now wherever we travel with a family the joy follows. In contrast a married one usually find it difficult to be away from the family. A day away can be tolerable but if the longer one we feel lost inside our mind. So, it is always beautiful to have the opportunity travelling together with your loved one. 

My mom had a rare chance living with my family in Vientiane, LAOS. She also had never thought that could travel thus far. It is really a blessing from God to live overseas.

Just like 'reunion' in Manila, Phillipine

This was like reunion for us.  We met again with some old friends from different part of the world in Manila. My good friend such as James, Mandla, Michael, Japhet from Africa region joined this new initiative called ID Scanner pilot project and step coaching. 

Some other friends came from Armenia and Albania (Ranie & Roy). 

Also Sharon and Marcella from Latin America who also participated in this global team. Me and Sovithyea representing the Asia region offices. 

The workshop event was actually quite tiring but we enjoyed a good fellowship. Montserat from Mexico, Jenny from California, Mercy, Kombo and Lilian from Manila were excited to facilitate all the session in this project. 

In World Vision fellowship is always the most valuable moment and we celebrate the multicultural background. Here, we had a beautiful dinner at Kombo's family and it was fun.

A new way of looking at Sponsorship

My friends from all offices located in Asia Pacific region (Mongolia, Nepal, china, India, Bangladesh, Srilanka, Myanmar, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, Phillipine, Thailand, and Indonesia) joined together in Bangkok for a full week meeting. 

 It was such a long but exiciting week for the participants. The workshop called Sponsorship Basic Training for trainers (SBT) was an essential learning for the sponsorship program. It started from 21 to 27 September 2008 at Windsor Hotel. 

The new method and approach of the training is based on the Robert Gagne's Nine step of instruction. 1. Gain attention, 2. Inform learner of objective, 3. Stimulate, Recall of prior information, 4. Present information, 5. Provide guidance, 6. Elicit performance, 7. Provide feedback, 8. Assess performance, 9. Enhance, Retention, and Transfer.

SBT is a new way of looking at the sponsorship program. Key changes of the approach is to strengthen the field workers or the front-liners working with the family and community.  A new paradigm of sponsorship towards transformation is to be implanted in their basic understanding.

Vientiane, LAOS has changed a lot !!!

Seen in the picture is WVLAOS office building located in Vientianne. It is said it belongs to the richest Laos families. The Brunei Darussalam Embassy once rented this nice building as their office. 

I worked in this white building after five years away from Laos, 

A lot of changes had taken place within those years in Vientiane. Many apartments have shown up and including traffic congestion are common in the city now.  

A long the Mekong river there are a lot of restaurants set up by local and foreign business people.
.

And water fountain at Namphu area...is also colorful now....