Pre-Lao New Year

Tomorrow is the first day of Lao New Year. The actual holiday lasts for three days (this year it's the 13th 14th and 15th) but Vientiane has been gearing up for it for the past 2 weeks.

This being the last day of school before our break, we had some special activities.

First we had a Baci ceremony (you can read more about these here) to welcome the new year and ask for blessing.

I was blessed by two of my girls with strings from the Baci tree. As they were tying them on my wrist, they said "I hope you have a long life and that you will teach at KIS forever." They also gave me this decoration to put on my motorbike to keep me safe.

After that, the entire school took part in the biggest pre-Lao New Year water fight this side of the Mekong. (Not that there would be any pre-Lao New Year water fights on the other side...)