Living in this town, every time I saw a sign advertising hand-woven scarves in front of a souvenir shop or a weaving machine placed carelessly underneath a stilt house in the suburb of Vientiane, I always thought to myself: "When I grow to speak better Laotian, I want to learn how to weave from a Laotian teacher." However, since I haven't got the slightest idea when I'd really be able to sit in front of a weaving machine waiting for my Laotian to improve, I decided to give it a try, taking courage in the words "It's just weaving. I should be able to learn it just by watching other peopleÉ" Then I started to take lessons at a weaving workshop at a place exporting scarves and curtains to other countries including Japan.

At this workshop, they first dye yarn with natural colors and then weave it into cloth. Male workers handle the dyeing work while female workers do the weaving. There are as many as seventeen young ladies, and most of them are living in a dormitory within the workshop. The youngest among them is sixteen years old. I heard that she is from Vientiane but living in the dormitory. Though she's been here only for one year, I was impressed at her elaborate weaving work. My teacher, Toi-chan, is twenty-four years old. She's been working here longer than anybody else as it is her fifth year here.

Everybody seems to be working pleasantly while listening to Laotian pop music and occasional chatting. They are paid on a per-piece basis, and their meals are at the workshop's expense. I hear that the workers take turns preparing meals each day. Even so, going out to buy provisions is always Toi-chan's job. She heads off to the market every evening on her motorbike.

I heard that the following four qualities are a must for one to be accepted as a trainee at this workshop:

1. Good eyesight
2. Perseverance
3. To be clever with hands, and to be attentive
4. To be below forty years of age

Since the workshop is conducted outdoors, I assumed it would be quite tough during the hot season of April and May. First of all, I chose a yarn of my favorite color, and placed it on a spinning wheel to wind up. It looked pretty easy, but was actually quite hard to not make it mound up in the middle. Next, I prepared a warp yarn, but this was unexpectedly troublesome. It was to check the tension of yarn and make sure there were no broken parts. As a matter of fact, I could do nothing but to be looking admiringly at other people handling the work skillfully. It took a little more than an hour to finish all the preparations. Truthfully speaking, however, it was done in one hour only because the spinning wheel has already been set up on the weaving machine. I heard from the others that it usually requires one or two days to fit the spinning wheel.

Then I finally got to the weaving work. It's just a simple work as to move the weft alternately one after another, but it requires a fair deal of concentration in order to weave uniformly. Toi-chan, who was sitting next to me, was going on weaving very well with nice and rhythmical sounds. She was four times faster than I was, but she praised my work, saying "Wow, you are doing great" as she helped me. After a little while, Bo-chan passed by and said "That looks beautiful!" about my piece. The other girls passed by one after another, and all of them had encouraging words to say. I couldn't help thinking that they didn't have to bother about me that much.

When it got near lunchtime, three girls started to prepare a meal at the kitchen located in a corner of the workshop. The menu that day included cooked vegetables and meats, boiled vegetables, and glutinous rice. The dishes gave out a great smell. At that time, we had a young lady with a huge bag drop by. She was a Chinese peddler selling such things as flashlights, wristwatches, saws, sunglasses, shirts, pants, and so on. Even as my natural instincts told me--"It's not good idea to buy her stuff. Chinese goods break very easilyÉ", everybody else checked out the wares on sale noisily and cheerfully.

Today, I finished weaving my first scarf, which is a plain-weave with no pattern. I'm motivated to challenge a pattern-weave for the second one. I now realize that weaving is far harder than what I had expected. Also, I'm totally convinced that one of the requirements--to have a good eyesight--is an important matter. .

Translated by Maiko Noda