If we were building a Hollywood set for a film set in Laos, we would start with this building. We wouldn’t change the wood. We wouldn’t touch a nail, a beam, or the way the late-morning light falls across it. It is worn smooth in all the right places, its grain carrying decades of stress, weather, and time.
We wouldn’t change the way it sits in the landscape, either. Like it wasn’t built, but more like it grew there.
And if we were directing the scene, we would place two children in front of it: a boy and a girl leaning against the wall the way children do when they are completely at home. But we didn’t need to direct anything. Ms. Jatoc and Mr. Van were already there, exactly as they were.
There is only one thing we would change about this building. Water. Accessible water. Close water.
Not down a mountain path. Not a stream that may run dry in the dry season. Water that comes to this home, instead of this home having to go find it. That is the only missing piece. And it matters more than anything a set designer could ever add.
Until then, the Botstiber Water Projects and CARE Laos keep pushing, village by village, pipe by pipe, as we continue working toward solutions for homes like this one that deserve to be complete.
