From a Blog I've shared with the Department of State

 I was 9 1/2 years old when I first arrived in Vientiane at Wattay Airport with my family. I remember landing there and being picked up by Bill Thomas and his family, long-time Foreign Service friends who at that time we had already shared a couple posts with. My dad would be working in the ICC slot* within the Political Section of the US Embassy Vientiane for the next nearly 3 years .

Now 60 years later, I am not only returning for the first time since I left at the age of 12 1/2, but coming to stay for a while. I’ve been blown away by the what’s the same, what has changed and what memory is returning to me from the echoes of childhood.

What’s the same is the gentle, understated Lao spirit of humility, kindness and service. I remember this from my teachers when I was young, and the spirit on the street responding to a young “falang” who went out by herself in samlors and on her bike to Le Lycée Français, the school I attended during most of our stay in Laos.

Today, I feel it everywhere — with the students and staff at the American Center, the shopkeeper helping me to buy my first Sinh Lao, a Lao skirt, and other places I’ve visited since coming here in mid-September.

What’s changed, it seems to me, is the confidence of the youth. They appear to have more in common with the youth of US, Europe, Africa, global communities of shared appreciation for musical, sport, and business and other talents, no matter the country. They have been learning English to engage more fully with this global culture. And lucky me, I’m going to get to help support their engagement and be a part of many people’s adventures in their chosen areas of speciality and interest.

I’ve just completed two weeks of teaching at the American Center here. I was fortunate to arrive with a  ELFellow, Sharon Torkelson, and many Fulbright ETAs. We’re all waiting for paperwork to be able to travel to our assignments. Yet, the delay has been a wonderful way to build a cohort of mutual interest, practice and service to the Lao community as we all learn more about our new host country and people.

I’m looking forward to mid-November, going on to my host university. But in the meantime, I’m enjoying the sense of having walked along Lang Xang (a main boulevard) before, having passed the shopkeepers along Talat Sao (morning market) , and even recognizing words when they are said, before I’ve had a chance to (re) study them! I am truly grateful for this fabulous time travel and the opportunity to try to return in service with gratitude for what I received so much of, as the daughter of a Foreign Service Officer.

On left: my new Sinh Lao which I will wear to the Marine Ball on Nov 1. The skirt is folded up, so it really looks like I'm even more out of proportion top vs bottom, than I really am. :P

*International Control Commission, established by the Geneva Conference on Laos of 1961-62. That conference attempted to set up a coalition,a tripartite government in Laos, with the Pathet Lao, the neutralists and the right wing. On the ICC there were the military groups or delegations from three countries: Canada, Poland, and India, representing roughly western, eastern and neutral viewpoints.
In his exit oral history interview, my dad, Frank Burnet, explains that Laos, then, “was a territory that was in contention between the United States and the Soviet Union, and the ICC was there to attempt to keep the peace, to be kind of a benign police force. And it was my job to report back to Washington what was going on.” taken from https://tile.loc.gov/storage-services/service/mss/mfdip/2004/2004bur04/2004bur04.pdf