NEWSLETTER FOR FRIENDS OF BOOKS FOR LAOS NEWSLETTER V FOR FRIENDS OF BOOKS FOR LAOS

Hello all (and we have some more ‘all’ for this month – welcome to the fold). Just got back from the good ol’ USA. It was an exhausting five weeks but I think we’ve got some interest for BFL and if only 10% of the pledges and promises come good, I think we can consider it a resounding success. But, promises are easy.

TOYS
Didn’t get any pledges for tools or equipment and haven’t yet heard back from Habitat with regard to their abandoned toy project earlier this year. I shall probe further.

PICTURE BOOKS
We’re still pushing ahead for remainders in the US via Daedalus. I think we can get things shipped directly to San Francisco. I’m afraid I wasn’t in San Francisco long enough to visit Books for Asia (sorry Gavin, didn’t make it out of Oakland). For any North American enquiries with regard buying sets of books or shipping, please contact Perri at perrib@verizon.net. Perri has some shipping money now and will be ordering soon. As soon as I get titles I’ll add them to the Amazon list.
If you know people who’d like to order individual books (currently ‘Where is the Green Sheep’) through Amazon, life has been made easier by Emily Bronstern who has agreed to receive the books at 16213 Fieldcrest Ct. La Mirada, CA. 90638, and ship them on to San Fran when we have a set. Thanks, Emily.

TEXT BOOKS
I came home to a donation box full of books. We’ve managed to fight off the ant infestation and these ones are un-nibbled.

SCHOLARSHIPS
We’ve been lucky enough to pick up two more scholarships on this tour and one strong pledge. I’ll be working out how to best get this money to Luang Nam Tha in the next few days. I apologize to those of you who have already paid but things move slowly in Laos and we don’t have student profiles yet from the TTC. Putting on pressure isn’t a concept that has any effect in Laos so please remain calm and cool hearted. If anyone in North America wishes to make donations, I’ve opened a bank account in New York in my name (yes, completely dodgy, but it’s hard enough opening an account in ones name, let alone setting up an organization. Trust me on this, okay?) The account is COLIN WILLIAM COTTERILL 9966283388, CITIBANK, 72ND ST. If it’s hard to transfer money, I left some deposit slips with my friend Margaret Johnson in DC. You can send cheques made out to me to 3200 Garfield St. NW, Washington DC, 20008. But please include a note to say what the money is intended for and a return address so we can keep in touch with you.

You can see, all this facilitation is making things more complicated. So it’s just as well I don’t have any major commitments (other than writing books, designing book covers and T-shirts, and generally having a life) between now and Christmas. Let’s hope Santa’s kind to us this year.
CC

Newsletter IV for Friends of Books for Laos

Hello all,
I have to get this off early as I’m leaving for the States in a couple of days.

TOYS
On my latest trip to Vientiane I was able to collect several reasons why our little toy project might not work – lack of soft wood, lack of equipment and expertise, lack of funding and motivation. But I was also able to meet enough enthusiastic people to believe these aren’t insurmountable problems. Don Koi, the training center, is keen to host a woodwork shop. CUSO may have a carpenter in-country who can help us out. Some old-timers offered suggestions for getting decent wood. So, I’m going ahead with it. We can start small and see how it goes. I’ll be begging, stealing and borrowing money on this trip for Toys for Laos. Let’s see what comes of it. I am quite a miserable little beggar.

PICTURE BOOKS
Yes. I know I said the Bangkok books would be in Vientiane by now but in fact they’ll be going over this month sometime. You can’t rush these things. I’ve left off money with ALC to make stickers and print the translations and I’ll be adding the list of English language books to the bottom of the BFL doc. on the website. This might help if anyone has single copies of books we’ve already got. Haven’t had any more books from the blog.
\n \nTEXT BOOKS\nI’ve just sent off two more crates of books to the TTC in the south. \n \nSCHOLARSHIPS\nWell, we do have two more pledges to sponsor teaching-students but we’re having a bit of bank jiggery pokery to contend with. Although sending a Thai baht cashier’s cheque from a Thai bank to a Thai baht account in Laos would seem like quite a simple transaction, the Lao have announced that we have to convert the cheque to US dollars so they can convert it back to baht when it gets there. You work it out. So I have no choice but to carry cash over the border in a basket and pay it in by hand. Banks are hilarious, aren’t they?

TEXT BOOKS
I’ve just sent off two more crates of books to the TTC in the south.

SCHOLARSHIPS
Well, we do have two more pledges to sponsor teaching-students but we’re having a bit of bank jiggery pokery to contend with. Although sending a Thai baht cashier’s cheque from a Thai bank to a Thai baht account in Laos would seem like quite a simple transaction, the Lao have announced that we have to convert the cheque to US dollars so they can convert it back to baht when it gets there. You work it out. So I have no choice but to carry cash over the border in a basket and pay it in by hand. Banks are hilarious, aren’t they?

The next newsletter should be a week late and there may not be anything in it. I’ll be Thelma and Louising around America (but without the careening over a cliff part)
cc

Newsletter III for Friends of Books for Laos
Dear all,
It’s that time of the month again and a busy month it’s been for BFL. After a year and a half of hibernation, it looks like the old bear has finally awoken from her slumber.

TEXT BOOKS
Another 200kgs of books have arrived at their destination but not without a smattering of drama. For the full story you can read the adventure on the ‘BFL news’ button of my website (http://www.colincotterill.com/)

KID’S PICTURE BOOKS
The shipment from Bangkok is on route as I write. I’m off to Vientiane next week to arrange for staff to do all the cutting and pasting. Altogether there will be some 1,500 books in batches of fifty. With regard to our American cousins, it looks like we might be able to get help from Daedalus in discounting and shipping batches of books to San Francisco. For updates on this, please contact Perri the book Nazi on
perrib@verizon.net\n We’ve had another book for our blog appeal which brings the number of ‘Where is the Green Sheep?’ to eight. Forty two to go. \n \nTOYS\nOn my foray into Laos next week I’ll be visiting the trade school to see how much it will cost to set up a woodwork shop to make our toys. We have the enthusiasm and the place. All we’re missing is the equipment, the material and the money. I’ll be visiting the CUSO (Canadian) volunteer center to see whether they could provide us with a qualified carpenter to set up the project and help train the staff at the center. I also plan a visit with old friends at the forestry department to see whether they can supply us with offcuts (if not entire trees) without having to grease any palms (tree joke)\n \nEDUCATION FUND\nWhilst in the north, I inadvertently set up an education fund. It’s specifically aimed at minority kids who don’t have access to schools near their villages and have to board elsewhere. This includes older kids who want to study at the teacher training college but who don’t fit into the government plan. A ball-park figure for a year of fees is US$300. We’re supporting four trainee teachers at the moment. I can give you more details of this if you’re interested. \n",1]
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perrib@verizon.net
We’ve had another book for our blog appeal which brings the number of ‘Where is the Green Sheep?’ to eight. Forty two to go.

TOYS
On my foray into Laos next week I’ll be visiting the trade school to see how much it will cost to set up a woodwork shop to make our toys. We have the enthusiasm and the place. All we’re missing is the equipment, the material and the money. I’ll be visiting the CUSO (Canadian) volunteer center to see whether they could provide us with a qualified carpenter to set up the project and help train the staff at the center. I also plan a visit with old friends at the forestry department to see whether they can supply us with offcuts (if not entire trees) without having to grease any palms (tree joke)

EDUCATION FUND
Whilst in the north, I inadvertently set up an education fund. It’s specifically aimed at minority kids who don’t have access to schools near their villages and have to board elsewhere. This includes older kids who want to study at the teacher training college but who don’t fit into the government plan. A ball-park figure for a year of fees is US$300. We’re supporting four trainee teachers at the moment. I can give you more details of this if you’re interested.

That’s shallot. I expect to have more news next month and anticipate something good from the US. I hope you’re all well and not sick of getting these updates. At least I’m not contributing to deforestation in their dissemination. Be good. Col.

Newsletter II

Hello y’all. Don’t panic. This isn’t one of those hugely annoying group emails that makes you feel guilty and forces you to donate larges sums of…okay, well, yes, I suppose it is something like that. But it’s actually more of a reminder. I’ve realized that absence doesn’t make the heart grow fonder. Once I’m away, all the big ideas have a tendency to vanish like incense smoke. It’s only natural. I’m like that myself. So I’ll be sending out these little, only moderately annoying email newsletters once a month to jog your memories and let you know that the Books For Laos project is still rocking on and that there’s a lot of potential for new programmes.

Text Books
So far, we’ve shipped about a hundred kilograms of second hand textbooks across the border to teachers colleges. I know you shouldn’t judge the value of a book by its weight but I can’t wait for feedback from readers.

Kids’ Picture Books
Following my recent trip to Australia we have some good pledges of donations of thirty to fifty copies of hardback picture books for kids. The Asia Foundation in Bangkok is waiting patiently for their arrival so they can ship them on. The ALC is waiting patiently to translate them into Lao and attach stickers before sending them off to the provinces. All we’re missing is the books.

I’ve been doing some shopping inside Thailand as well and found a lot of good quality hardback picture books. This is a viable alternative to spending money on shipping from overseas as the publishers will send them to the Asia Foundation at their own cost. I have titles lined up and ready to send at about $US180 per set of fifty after discount. (this is just in case you know anyone with $US180 to spare)

Our friend, Bek in Melbourne has just set up a blog site (http://booksforlaos.blogspot.com/) with a wish list for people who’d like to donate one or two books. We select the books and donors order them on Amazon and they’re sent to us here. Once we reach our quota for that book we change the title. Thanks for that, Bek.

Toys
New idea, new project. Nursery schools in Laos don’t have any toys. Together with Room to Read in Vientiane we’re looking into setting up a woodwork shop to produce educational toys for little kids. We’re hoping to run this through an existing apprenticeship scheme for unemployed youths who are being trained for trades. We’ll probably need to invest in some basic equipment and hire a qualified carpenter to work with the kids. I’ve shipped over some samples for the Lao to practice on. This could be a good project to help two disadvantaged groups in one foul swoop. The toys will be distributed to the schools through the Room to Read network.


Okay, that’s pretty much all we have. If you know of anyone who wants to contribute time or money to our programme please feel free to put them in touch with me. It’s a simple little project that can have a big effect.
Thanks to you all for showing an interest. Lao kids appreciate it.
Best wishes,
Col  ¶ 11:15 pm