The Vientiane Connection

This morning I received an email notification from Facebook. It was a friend's request from someone in Laos, specifically, Vientiane (the capitol of Laos).

In his message, he explained that while surfing one day he had encountered information about Adopt a Village in Laos' water filter project and wanted to know more.

Below is the message which he had sent to me and my response on Facebook.

Bounheng wrote: 

Sabaidee Roland Drake,

I just found your article about "Adopting a village in Laos" on internet, and I was very interested in your water filter system and things you have done to help the community in Laos. If you are in the city (Vientiane), I would love to meet you and learn more about your project. For your information, I am now a teacher at the National University of Laos. My major is on water purification system.

I replied:

Sabaidee!

Thank you so much for your message.

Since July 2010 when I first became involved with Adopt a Village in Laos, I have been volunteering in whatever capacity I can to help the organization's founders, Steve Rutledge and Mike Yap. In December 2011, I will be joining them in Laos to experience first hand the work they have been doing. I arrive in Luang Prabang on the evening of December 5. If there is an opportunity to visit Vientiane, I will definitely let you know.

If you want to know specifics about the water filtration projects, which was initiated in 2010, you can explore my blog, My Journey to Laos, at http://myjourneytolaos.blogspot.com. You can also correspond with Steve Rutledge, who will be in Laos starting in mid-October, at adoptavillageinlaos@gmail.com. He is also on Facebook and Skype.

Please mention how you initially heard about this project.

Roland