Lights, camera, action

The phone rings and Lathsavong, Dairy Manager announces that the government would like to come and visit the Dairy tomorrow.  In Laos there can be a fair amount of government bureaucracy to satisfy with any business let alone a new industry, so not quite understanding the harassed quality to Lathsavong voice I ask what time they’re due to arrive, thankfully it’s tomorrow afternoon. We have the career fair at the Northern College of Agriculture starting at 8 am tomorrow but if we leave at lunchtime we should be able to make it the 90 mins over to the farm in time for their arrival. So unconcerned am I, that Steven, the Dairy General Manager is having a well earnt day off the next day and asks if he should attend.  No, No that won’t be necessary!
The career fair goes well (see Mobbed by the Crowd) and we start our journey across town with a quick stop off to pick up more yogurt and cheesecake having been cleared out at the career fair.  Arrive 90 mins later, set up a table with some information on the Dairy and some product ready to go.  The night before had seen torrential rain so whilst waiting for government we decide to help clear out the storeroom which had seen some water get in and unable to help myself, I proceed to re-arrange it.  We have printed out signs in English & Laos to keep everything in its proper place, so that my mild case of OCD is satisfied. Job done, we now wait to see what time our visitors will arrive.
A few minutes later we hear cars approaching along the road and a convoy of cars complete with police escort passes the gates.  We go to sit down again, however as we go to turn I notice the police escort do a U-Turn followed by the rest of the convoy, I say to Jennifer I think they may be coming back to us. Jennifer laughs no it couldn’t be ohhh it is, they are turning into the gate. A definite pregnant pause as we all look at one another with a “What do we do now?” expression across all of our faces. 
At this moment all I can think is: thank goodness we had the career fair earlier in the morning so I am wearing my “Sin” traditional Laos skirt and good shirt as opposed to my usual wardrobe of jeans and t-shirt.
I, Lathsavong & Lam all line up – think receiving line at an event with the Queen or equivalent! The rest of the team all looking slightly nonplussed pause in whatever they are doing to see what they should do next.  Very good question as we’re not quite what sure to expect at this point either. 
The cars have now driven up our very muddy road and begin to disgorge their guests. We have the official staff of the Lao National Council, Livestock & Fisheries department, Luang Prabang Agriculture and Forestry; the Chief of Luang Prabang Livestock and Fisheries, Mr. Kanchan and then our guest of honour Deputy Director Lao National Council, Mr. Sounthone. Greetings alone take a good 5 minutes particularly as none of us are really very sure on the protocol of greeting this many people from the government!  
The only “meeting spot” we have is a low table with tiny stools that the staff use when having lunch. Greetings over, we gather around the table, some on stools, some sitting on the railings and some standing, it’s quite a crowd! Lathsavong begins with a formal introduction of himself, me and the rest of the team, this could take quite a while!  It then moves on to a laptop presentation with me holding the laptop so everyone can see. The noisiest things by far are the chickens who have decided that running around between everyone’s legs and under the tables is great sport – definitely going to be chicken soup at this rate! 

Then proceedings pick up pace and it’s a whirl of activity as we head towards the milking area. Many questions and quite a few jokes ensue as we discuss milking and udders.  The word for milk and breast are the same in Laos, so quite a few guffaws all around as our husband and wife team Boon Soon and Saw step us to begin the milking with Boon Soon being asked about touching boobs with his wife in the vicinity.

Next comes feeding our baby calves. The cuteness factor never fails and we soon have everyone jostling for a turn to hold the bottles. Then it’s on to taste testing the yogurt and cheesecake. 

A few days later, there was another call from Lathsavong. Being “old pro’s” now we spring into action and have everything ready and everyone lined up for our next visitors.  Dr. Bounkhuang KHAMBOUNHEUNG, the deputy minister of Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry of Luang Prabang province is our guest of honour today and have to admit it never gets old when your visitor has a police escort!  He is also companied by various staff from the ministry and today not only do we have photographers we have TV.  Sure enough after this visit we appear on the Laos News channel. One of our friends even took a photo of his TV screen to show us!

There is however a serious side and the government from both visits are very keen to understand more about the dairy and how everything works; the involvement of the farmers buffalo, how we will look after the buffalo and most importantly are very keen to know how they can help.  It’s becoming apparent that they see our business as the beginning of a sustainable industry filling a real need in the market for dairy products that will also assist the local farmers through additional income, conserve buffalo and provide another attraction for tourists along the Kuang Si Waterfall road thus extending their time in Luang Prabang and helping to increase the average spend of tourists in the city.

Mobbed by the crowd

It all started innocently enough, a visit to the Northern Agriculture & Forestry College about 45 mins north of Luang Prabang to discuss partnering with the College for research & training purposes with their students. For an Agricultural College surely 200 buffalo being used for the 1 st dairy in Laos must be of interest!

Sure enough there was a great deal of interest, in fact the College currently has buffalo on one of its many farms and they were quite keen to discuss moving them to our farm so they could have a larger herd size to study.

Then we started to learn more about the College and the types of programmes they offered, in particular;    

• Agronomy – soil management and crop production
• Livestock & Fishery – animal husbandry, breeding and vet science
• Food Production – micro finance, marketing & agricultural products processing

And that in a few days’ time there would be graduation for those students who had finished the 3 year courses.

Would we be interested in attending the College Job Day so students could learn more about Laos Buffalo Dairy and perhaps we could find graduates interested to work with us?

Considering we have 20 hectares of land to grow grass for buffalo, 200 buffalo due to arrive by November and a kitchen being built to produce delicious cheese and yogurt, students who had respectively studied; agrimony, livestock and food production seem to fit the bill perfectly!

Of course we would love to attend, what did we need to prepare? Nothing to complex just; a sign up sheet for students – buy clipboards & don’t forget pens, power point presentation in Laos, projector (find projector), some of our delicious food – yogurt & cheesecake, necessary serving implements…

Then the question “how many students would be attending?” A few hundred, oh ok 1 cheesecake may not be enough – quick call to the chef who was actually flying to HK the next day – “please make a few more cheesecake”, Chef -“How Many” oh just a few hundred mini- cheesecakes! Chef – “insert expletive here” and as pushing my luck anyway, “please make a strawberry compote to accompany the yogurt”. Chef – well I’m sure you can guess what goes here!

Food now taken care of we run around in the two remaining days to put together the rest of our list. Day dawns and I literally mean up at crack of dawn. Coolers for the 12 litres of yogurt, compote and cheesecake, tablecloths, plates, spoons, power boards, back up computers, your basic pack mule scenario! Then off on the 45 min tuk tuk ride, stop for ice, warm yogurt not quite so delicious!

Arrive to find we have prime spot opposite the stage and graduate presentation area. Set everything up and then realise it’s too bright so impossible to see the presentation. Unpack table again move to another spot in the back row and re-set table up. At least we know where everything goes – go 10 rounds with the borrowed projector which belongs to our French friends – practice my school girl French with technical equipment – Yeah…

Then the fun began, students started arriving from their dormitories en masse, a sea of white and orange (teachers & administrators) shirts swelled towards the booths and us. Food always a draw, we have wave after wave of students keen to learn about this strange new business in Luang Prabang and try some new foreign food. Yogurt and cheesecake not featuring high in the Laos diet! The sweeter cheesecake went down a treat although there were a few grimaces for first time natural yogurt eaters, at which point we added some strawberry compote and the grimaces generally turned to smiles. It’s now only 10.00am and we start to run out of mini-bowls, Link goes for a quick jog to a little shop 10 mins away to buy more.

A moment of calm to wander around and see some of the other companies participating. Our friends from Blue Lagoon Restaurant, Luang Prabang View Hotel, The Living Land Company, Indigo Farm & Helvetas.

We even manage a few interviews with prospective employees one of whom, Bee goes on to receive an award later in the day and is now working for Laos Buffalo Dairy! We now have 2 graduates Bee & Khamlee working with us at Laos Buffalo Dairy and more soon to join.

As lunch begins we hand out our last cheesecake and 12 litres of yogurt have been consumed, questions about Laos Buffalo Dairy answered and a significant list of job seekers names collected! Thanks to the College and Dr. Outhai for all their help and support in what will hopefully be the 1 st of many career days Laos Buffalo Dairy attends.

So that was the morning, now off to our farm 90 mins away for a government meeting we found out about yesterday but that’s the next blog post...