pakse and some piles of mud

I've now been in Pakse for a week and had four nights of teaching. Until today when I spent most of the day in bed feeling sorry for myself after eating something bad, it's been pretty interesting. 

Pakse is a nice town. It's big enough that there are lots of places to eat, but small enough that you can cycle around the whole thing. I found one place that has very good coffee, which is obviously very exciting. I was also very excited to buy some mangos yesterday (it's actually difficult to find them ripe, because Lao people eat them green.. I don't recommend it, it's kind of like eating only the tendrilly bits of a banana).

Ongoing saga of the week: The road the school is on and a whole lot of mud. A big ditch was built along the side of the road (which is unsealed and therefore very muddy in the wet season, which is starting now), by a very big digger machine in an attempt to drain the road. As well as digging a very big hole, the digger also pulled up a large chunk of the water pipe. Hence the hole flooded, and the dirt from the hole is now piled up near the road also filling with water.