Lao Voices

I am very fond of sunflowers. My deceased Grandmother used to grow sunflowers on her front yard, along with marigolds and other flowers she could take to the temple. When we relocated to the US, I grew the same flowers that were on Grandmother’s lawn.

When I was in Laos earlier this year I was very sad to see no sunflower or any type of flowers that used to be on Grandmother’s lawn. There were some sort of flowers that I didn’t recognize and they were all dead because no one took the time to water them. They were dead and forgotten just like my Grandmother. When she passed away a few years ago my aunts and uncles inherited the farm land in Ban Keun and sold all of the parcels. My mother didn’t want any piece of it because she didn’t want to claim anything from the family. It was sad to see my Grandmother’s house in Vientiane torn in half because one uncle sold part of his land without telling anyone.

I have no right to say that he shouldn’t have sold it but he could have sold it to one of the relatives, rather than to a complete stranger. My hope is to buy that one piece of land back and rebuild my Grandmother’s house and plant sunflowers on the front yard. Someday I want my children to visit that same place so they can look up at the tall sunflowers, standing tall and proud.