An Event In Asia

This post is about an event that happened in Asia, maybe good or bad, it depends on what event I'm telling you about. You might already know the event, but this post is for those who don't always know about some events in Asia. The events that I am posting might not always be recent ones but I want you to know some history and modern events that happened in Asia. So here is an event that happened in Asia :

Around 2008, in Asia (Shanghai) there was an issue with the milk they were producing in one of the milk companies, it was contaminated milk. They had kept the safety of the contaminated milk a secret for almost a year until they finally announced that the milk company had been shut down for making contaminated milk. The milk made tens of thousands of little children sick and that was not a good sign. After the issue was released to the public they were then questioning there food supplies, wondering how safe their everyday foods were. How was Shanghai supposed to gain back some of the peoples' trust in the food that is produced there? Later, Food Safety Authorities investigated about the Shanghai Panda Dairy Co. Ltd. saying that they were one of 22 other companies/people that produced contaminated milk in Shanghai.


So that's the event for today, I hope you learned something from this post and keep coming to this blog to maybe find out more about Asia and the things/places/people in it!

(information from: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34747359/ns/health-food_safety/)

School in Laos

This post is about school in Laos, my mom told me that she went to school in Laos but only for a little bit. She didn't go to school for a long time because when my mom went to school she said you don't have to be any certain age to go to school, like my dad, he didn't go to school until he was 9 years old! She also said that school was in a building and there were no separate desks, there was just one long table with a bench and everyone would sit at the same table. She also said that there was no talking allowed in class, the teachers were very strict. My mom said that even though Laotian parents were very strict, teachers were even more strict. She also said that the teachers and principals had more of a right to discipline the kids than the parents did. Usually discipline was if you had a little bad behaviour you would get hit on your hand with a wooden ruler. But if you were really, really bad behaved you would get hit on your body with a bamboo stick, particularly your behind. Besides the discipline, you did actually learn things in school, you would have a different subject for each different day of the week. Like you would have math on one day and then you would have language on another day. You would only have one class a day where you would learn one subject all day. School hours were about the same as ours, they were maybe 9:00 am to about 2:00 pm. They had some normal school supplies like pencils and they would sometimes write on clip boards. So that's pretty much what I learned from my mom about school in Laos.



School in Laos is obviously not like school that we go to. Discipline is definetly not as strict and neither are the teachers. We also learn different things in one day, and everyone has a desk of their own. And usually children would start school at the age of 4 or 5. The school hours are somewhere around 9:00 am to 3:20-3:30 pm. We can have a lot of different school supplies like scissors, markers and glue sticks.



As you can see, schools around the world are very different. Do you know any other countries that have different school routines?

Some Games/hobbies My Mom Did In Laos

This post is a list of games that my mom played when she lived in Laos when she was younger. She said her family didn't have a lot of money so she would find anything lying around and try to turn it into a toy. That happened a lot she said because a lot of families didn't have enough money to buy toys, only for food and clothes they needed. She said she would find a lot of things that were thrown out by other people. As some people say, someones trash is another persons treasure. So this is what she said she did as hobbies and games:

• she said she tied rubber bands together to make skipping ropes to play with


• she dug under the dirt to find clay and make things out of it (she said she would make a toy camera sometimes)


• a game that is well known here was also played in Laos too, the game is tag, my mom said she played tag a lot with other children


• she would also play checkers sometimes too, of coarse she had to make it herself out of bottle caps and paper


• she would also play some games with sticks and twigs she found

Now, these games are somewhat similar to the games we play but at the same time somewhat different. We can buy our toys and games but like I've said before, they don't have a lot of money so they were into making things. I'm sure that other games were played too but that's all I know from what my mom told me. Some of the games that were played were probably made up. That would require a lot of creativity, see if you can be creative too and make up your own games!

The Stores, Land and Streets of Laos

(Picture from www.wayfaring.info/.../laos-photo-by-lorna87.jpg)

This post is about the stores, land and streets in Laos. Today i was looking out my car window while i was on my way home and wondered......... what are the streets of Laos like? Are they different, are they the same? These questions came to my head, and im going to find the answers to them!!!

I asked my mom about when she lived in Laos, what the streets looked like, she said they were always busy, morning, afternoon and night. She said that Laos is a very small country, but with many people. She said there were lots of people on the streets buying things from outdoor markets. The markets were basicly where they got what they needed to live, like our stores. Food, clothes and some household things were things you could buy. My mom also said that there weren't many wealthy people, in fact, most people were so poor they had to beg on the streets for anything they could get. It's actually very sad. I wish i could go to Laos for myself and see the markets and the streets. My mom also said though it was a poor and somewhat dangerous country, the land was very beautiful. Lots of trees and plants were grown everywhere. There also were also lots of elephants and other animals sometimes walking around, I've always wanted to see an elephant or a tiger in Laos.(Picture from khamlatours.com/images/mc1.jpg)

Laotian Clothing

This post is about Laotian Clothing. I was going through my mom's closet, and i found an odd piece of clothing, i asked my mom what it was, she said it was a sarong. I asked her what a sarong was, she said it was basicly a long piece of Laotian designed fabric which you would wrap around your lower body and was sewn on one side. Usually, for your upper body, you would wear a blouse, tanktop or really, any shirt at all.

(This picture is from saodarly.com/.../uploads/2007/07/img_8060.jpg)

In Canada, we wouldn't normally be wearing a piece of fabric wrapped around us, the closest thing we would wear to that would be a skirt. Even though we might think that their clothing is different, if we went to Laos, I think they would think the same.

Sometimes i wonder what other countries in asia wear..........

Some Animals Of Asia

( pictures above from: www.cincinnatizoo.org/images/Animals/Asian-el..., farm2.static.flickr.com/1051/774339031_858f55..., https:/.../Web/350_Web/Thi_Group/pandagi.jpg, susty.com/image/clouded-leopard-neofelis-nebu...)



Here are some animals of Asia, Asian elephant, Asian one-horned rhino, Giant panda and a clouded leopard. The Asian Elephant is found in Southeastern Asia. The Asian One-Horned Rhino is found in Southeastern Asia. The Giant Panda is found in Southwestern China. The Clouded Leopard is found in Southeastern Asia.



As you may already know, some of these animals are endangered. These animals may become endangered because some humans are capturing and torturing poor animals. If you are concerned about animals, visit http://helpanimals2010.blogspot.com/.

(information from www.panda.org)

About Laotian Food

This post is about some Laotian Food. I'll talk about the most served food, and compare the food to Canada. This information was provided by my mom. She lived in Laos and i asked her about the food she ate and how she got it, and this is what she said :

• most meals were served with rice(and probably still are) , or included rice (rice was one of the main foods in Laos, and im pretty sure some other Asian countries too)
• lots of vegetables and fruits were grown because you would normally have lots of fruit trees (which you would have to climb) and vegetable plants around your home in Laos
• there were no little snacks like candy, ice cream sandwitches or chocolate cake
• there were no packaged foods like fruit cups or canned pasta/sauce
• to get food like chicken, you would have to find one and kill it, it wasn't the most pleasant thing, but they had to do it because Laos was a very poor country
• you couldn't just buy every kind of food or snacks you wanted, usually you would have to make everything yourself

In Canada, we could usually go to a grocery store and buy the things we want to eat. We have packaged foods ready to be bought, and we have candy, pop and things that are already made for us. Sometimes we buy ingredients to make food of our own, but most ingredients aren't made by us. I think that buying food for us, is a little easier than making everything by ourselves, but in Laos (and other not very wealthy countries), it is easier to make because they don't have a lot of money.