DISCOVERY DAY: Big Brother Mouse goes to the orphanage school in Luang Prabang

We arrive in a large truck. Yai and I are in the cab with the driver: standing in the back, hanging onto the pipe frame, are 6 young Lao women in pa siin, looking fresh faced and country healthy. They stand amidst boxes and bins -- the educational displays and games we are bringing to create Discovery Day, a first time initiative of Big Brother Mouse, an innovative book publishing social enterprise in Laos.

The young men follow on their small motorcycles, some alone, some 2 up, few with helmets.

20 minutes later we turn off the main road into an area green with bamboo and trees. We soon cross a stream and enter the gates of  the Luang Prabang Residential School for Orphans in northern Laos.

While the name chills my heart, the space is sunny and bright. Long low, white buildings frame large playing fields and grassy patios with benches and shrubs. Behind the buildings on our left, beautiful plantings of vegetables slope down to the creek.

No one comes out to greet us.

Sasha directs Big Brother Mouse staff (aka "the Mice") to bring all the supplies into an empty classroom. Tables are brought outside. Desks and benches are arranged. Boxes are unpacked.

It shapes up slowly yet by the time the children come to see what is happening, the Mice have created a dozen or more "discovery stations" through which the children move like water in a creek. Here and there BBM staff provide explanations but it seems that little are required.

In less than an hour, the milling and noise level have dropped to a slow buzz. Most of the children have settled into an activity:

• an explanation of human organs illustrated by a plastic model that can be dis- and re-assembled
• a series of electric connections that snap together to light a bulb
• carefully rendered cardboard models of the pyramids -- both Egyptian and Mayan -- along with the Great Wall of China and the Roman Coliseum, accompanied by a globe with which to locate them
• a table full of visual experiences: a classic kaleidoscope, a 3D Viewmaster, as well as those special glasses to view a 3D elephant poster, and a handful of other optical illusions

There's always an audience for the explanations and magnifying glasses that accompany the mineral and fossils collections.

Inside the 2 transformed classrooms there are 10 kids seated around most of the "play stations." Log cabins are being constructed at one, while colorful plastic tinker toys inspire loftier constructions. And while the plastic lace snap-togethers are new to me they are every bit as compelling for the youngsters constructing whimsical rotundas.

There are puzzle books and colored pencils, modeling clay and  number games.

And everywhere there is a hum of curiosity and absorption.

No voices have been raised; nothing has crashed to the floor; nobody has run about excitedly; no squirmishes have ensued.

I can't imagine 200 Canadian children in behaving like this.

I welcome news from inspired teachers telling me I am just inexperienced.

Text: Alleson Kase

Photos: Darunee Suppawan ("Yai")

More about Big Brother Mouse:

• Big Brother Mouse website
• TAMMACHAT website
• More books for Lao children - our blog post of Jan. 29, 2012
• TAMMACHAT customers buy books for Lao kids - our blog post of Jan. 4, 2012
• Photo Essay: Big Brother Mouse Brings Fun & Educational Books to Kids in Laos - our 2011 time with Big Brother Mouse in Laos

Saoban: development with a heart

The capital of Laos, Vientiane, is increasingly a city of contradictions. Our annual visits sound discordant notes that grow shriller with each new year. Gleaming luxury cars (this year I saw a Lotus!) park next to broken sidewalks that expose the stinking sewer beneath. I imagine an unwary tourist falling into one of these manhole-sized openings while gawking at the cake-like decorations that frost the Buddhist temples.

Tourists' cafe tables sprout bottles of Lao beer -- as tasty as it is cheap -- while Asean businessmen savour European wines. The menus of the newer restaurants in the old city centre boast bottles of wine that sell for $100 -- in a country where $50 will feed an impoverished family for a month.

Amidst these anomalies is the fair trade social enterprise that we've come to see. Saoban, meaning "village people," has grown out of earlier sustainability projects in the Lao countryside. Many of these were the work of a local NGO, the Participatory Development Training Centre (PADTEC).

Saoban ("Village Handicrafts From the Heart of Laos") now stands on its own feet, which ideally is the goal of all development projects. It works closely with village artisan groups in many regions of this diverse and mountainous country to provide training in business planning, product development, marketing, and access to micro-credit. In its Vientiane shop we see elaborate tapestry weaving, precious silver jewellery, intricate bamboo basketry and bags of many descriptions.

Saoban's Vientiane shop brimming with handcrafted products

We met Saoban in 2009 when they were establishing their store in Vientiane. That year we accompanied one of their young staff on a visit to a small village several hours outside Vientiane where the women weave intricate bamboo baskets. We were impressed with everything we saw, especially the absence of toxic chemicals often used to produce bamboo fibres. Together we designed a bag that combined the villagers' basket-making skills with indigo cotton produced by another village and sewn by a third group. We also arranged for a Big Brother Mouse book party in the village later that year (and provided the funds for same.)

This year, however, we have come to find products woven from organic cotton dyed with natural indigo. In planning for this visit, we had a meeting on Skype (amazing that we can do some of this work from afar), while we sat in Chiang Mai, Thailand and Bandith Ladpakdy, Saoban's Manager, spoke to us from the shop in Vientiane.

softly draping, handspun organic cotton indigo shawl

We're delighted to find that we do not need to make a special order: on the shop's shelves we find almost everything that we had imagined we might design together. iPad pouches in indigo cotton yarn dyed with mudmee (ikat) designs are displayed almost exactly as we had imagined them! The heritage variety of organic cotton used is inter-planted with upland crops of indigo, corn, beans and chilies. The weaving is done in Central Laos, in an area known for its indigo dyeing. Products like these are then sewn by an urban sewing group in Vientiane, where most of the women work at home.

quilted iPad sleeves in organic cotton

Nubbly, handspun organic cotton scarves and shawls in an assortment of naturally dyed colours are nestled into a large bamboo basket that greets us as we walk in the door.

organic cotton scarves in a handwoven bamboo basket

There are even 2 extraordinary handspun organic cotton shawls, yarn-dyed with traditional mudmee designs in a beautiful mid-range shade of indigo.

rich traditional mudmee design in handspun organic cotton

We spend 2 afternoons at the shop. This is the first opportunity we've had to get to know Shui-Meng Ng, who has worked in development with rural Lao families for decades and is now serving as the Managing Director of the independent enterprise that Saoban has become.

Bandith helps village weavers and dyers organize themselves into groups, select their leaders, learn about business planning and how to set realistic, fair prices for their work. Through his work with more than 300 artisans in 14 villages, he is becoming an important local resource. Bandith is also a key figure in a new Lao Fairtrade association formed by and for Lao social enterprises to support each other and learn about fair trade together.

The Saoban team: Bandith, a volunteer from Australia, Shui-Meng and Samoy

While our focus for this visit has been on handspun, indigo organic cotton, we are also keen to learn that village-based organic silk production is again on the rise after decades of dwindling resources and practitioners. This news prompts us to add to our shopping list an elegant but simply designed silk scarf  in naturally dyed shades of gleaming, burnished metals.

hand-reeled organic silk with weft bands from the looser, outer fluff of the cocoons

We look forward to continue building our relationship with Saoban and visiting some of the more remote villages with Bandith in coming years. Until then, we are anxious to share our indigo Laotian treasures, and a bit more, with fans in Canada.

Also: See our video about a Weaving Bamboo Baskets in Laos.

Alleson

New creations from Prae Pan weaving co-op

Later in January than usual, we're happy to finally arrive at Prae Pan.

Fon, this weaving co-operative's shop manager, returned from maternity leave in December with her newborn son, Pai, who seems to be growing as fast as his name (Bamboo) would predict! No surprise that he (and Fon's breastfeeding) have become a special part of the fabric of life at the co-op's shop: another example how women can shape organizations to best suit their own needs.

Alleson, Pai, Fon and Mae Ouan at Prae Pan's shop

The co-op's Khon Kaen location in Northeast Thailand (known as Isaan) serves as a retail shop, office, meeting space and warehouse for textiles woven by members in 7 surrounding villages. This community business glows with the pride of self-sufficiency that has been a core value of the co-op for over 20 years.

Inside we're excited to find loads of new hemp fabric in a range of beautiful earth tones -- Prae Pan's specialty -- so, of course, we order more hemp tote bags. We designed this bag last year and found it was popular as a knitting tote.

TAMMACHAT hemp tote bag

some of the new tote bag fabrics

We're also excited to find a new design on the shop's ready-to-wear rack. Ellen tries on a pair of these unique culottes and loves them immediately! Comfortable, loose and easy to wear, they come with choices of 2 pocket designs. We carefully choose cotton, hemp and silk fabrics for the body of the pants, then in consultation with Fon and Mae Ouan, we choose contrasting mudmee (ikat) fabrics for accent details.

Ellen sports a pair of cute culottes!

Apparently choosing fabrics works up an appetite! At mid-day, mats are rolled out on the shop's gleaming wooden floors, Pai is put in his hammock and we 4 sit down for another delicious lunch. The rice is Mae Ouan's own. Afterwards dishes are cleared, mats are rolled up and Ellen lays down on the floor for a short rest. ("You ate too much sticky rice so now you want to sleep!" Mae Ouan chides,  in Thai of course.)

Every visit provides us more language lessons and more teachings about natural dyes. We ask Mae Ouan, the resident natural dye expert, to tell us more about krang, the "mother" of pink dyes:

• The colours are stronger when the insect resin (known as "stick lac" in English) is fresh.
• Krang can be collected from the trees on which the insect lives anytime -- except rainy season.
• The resin can be collected after the insect has gone through its cycle and flies away.
• In former times, most natural dyers raised their own krang (is "raised" the right word when you're dealing with insects?!); the colours were stronger, as strong as chemical colours because it was fresh; now few do this work.
• Recently, the price has increased 6 times so pink silks will be more expensive than before.

Alleson helps Mae Ouan fold organic silk fabric dyed with rosewood

More local dye wisdom:

• Colours are stronger in this season because the plants are not as saturated as in rainy season.
• The shade of grey (or grey-green) produced by ebony fruit depends on how mature the fruit is and whether it's fresh or dried.
• The leaf of a local vine, baie beuak, yields delicate shades from silvery grey to sky blue: "You don't want the water too warm or it changes the colour." If it's hot, you get a grey-green instead. Mae Ouan cultivates a planting of this that she originally got from a friend in Mukdahan province. She says, "it gives a more beautiful colour,"  so she has shared cuttings from this plant with other Prae Pan members.

fresh ebony fruit

hemp fabric (on the left) dyed with ebony

After this break that has fed our stomachs and our minds, it's back to designing! Over the next several days we look and learn, think and choose, joke and eat. Alleson shows an unexpected fondness for waltzing Pai around the shop, while Ellen probes Mae Ouan for her traditional knowledge and practices her Thai with Fon.

We order bags in almost every colour and size. Bags with zips, bags with drawstrings, bags with dinosaurs and elephants! We re-order bags that we designed 3 years ago, the Prae Pan signature shoulder pouch, and a new design -- a drawstring bag, perfect for smaller knitting projects such as socks, mittens or a hat. This year's version -- improved with feedback from local knitting shops in Nova Scotia -- will be available in the spring.

prototype knitting project bag

Last but not least, we immerse ourselves in the beauty of silks. In their glass-fronted cupboard, we find a small, treasure trove of organic, hand-reeled village silks. We unfold metres of a deep, ruddy rosewood, and smaller amounts of silvery greens and blues, all of which we will bring home with us for Quilt Canada 2012 in Halifax. (We're happy to be a "Special Friend" of Quilt Canada 2012; you can find us in the Merchant Mall, May 30-June 2 in Halifax, Nova Scotia.)

We also choose 28 beautifully unique scarves for our spring shows but find very few of our favourite Prae Pan scarf pattern, lai bpit, which we've named "Tendrils." We check on silk yarn availability (lots!) and order 8 each of 2 of our best selling colour choices -- a krang magenta and a baie beuak mint blue, both on an undyed warp.

Tendrils scarf with ebony fruit dyed weft

After 4 days of visits, we are sorry to say goodbye but thrilled to leave Prae Pan's shop with a true sign of our closeness: Mae Ouan and Fon each gives us a kilo of rice -- this year's harvest -- from their families' rice fields, another sign of our deepening fair trade relationship.

As we leave, Mae Ouan is also saying goodbye to Pai, who is now old enough to leave his mother and return to the village to be looked after during the week by Fon's husband and mother.

We look forward to next year's visit. Khit thung ("thinking of you").

Ellen and Alleson