Where are you now?” Ai Siphouthone asked me over the phone. “Where are we?” I said, repeating the question while looking at my companion Noisai, whose facial expression indicated he didn’t have an answer either. “We’ll be there soon,” I said. “Before 9AM.”

Noisai and I arrived in Nam Yu Cluster around 8:45AM. Ai Siphouthone greeted us in front of the health clinic and the three of us headed over to the village’s old meeting room, where a small group of children were running around playing what appeared to be the Lao equivalent of duck, duck, goose.

We sat down and waited for the others to arrive: the vice principal of the secondary school caught up with us as we were walking to the meeting table; the next to arrive was an English teacher, and finally the first female village head I have ever seen took a seat at the wooden table. (#girlpower)

I started by introducing myself, and was happily surprised that the village head had seen me in Meung District many times, herself having worked at the District Administrative Office for over a year. Then I introduced Noisai, and he explained his work with Bokeo Development Fund, how he was helping me with this project in his free time.

After jotting down each participant’s name, I explained that I had grown to love Bokeo Province over the last two years and wanted to come back to help. Then I proposed SangNamGan’s 50/50 model to the group: If the community members wanted to invest in something, I was willing to fund 50% of the cost. I was working with a small amount of funds because this was just a charity, but if the community could come up with 50%, we could implement the needed project.

“So half and half,” the vice principal asked. “Yes, that’s right,” I responded. “Do you have any paperwork with the government?” he asked. “No, this is just charity, not a big organization,” I answered, knowing from my last experience in Lat Khun Meung that being clear about our size and status was extremely important.

And then, the line that I was expecting. “Some villagers,” said the vice principal, “are really poor, they can help with labor but not with the funds. Collecting money from them would be difficult.” The village head joined in: “If it was just the city center, it would be easy, but some of the villages in this cluster are ethnic groups. They don’t contribute to this stuff.” “I see,” I said, ready to stand my ground. “Maybe we can collect more from some families, and less from others. I don’t really know. It’s up to the village. But this charity can only provide 50%.”

Then the vice principal stood up to call the director of the school and explain SangNamGan’s offer. While he was away, the village head of Huay Dok Thong Village explained that this village needed a better loudspeaker (~$500). She already requested one from the district, but the one she received was poor quality. This village also needed a bigger meeting room; they were planning on building it in the very location we were sitting in fact.

The vice principal hung up his phone and joined us back at the table. Trying to break the ice, I attempted to further explain my motivations. “I noticed that charities usually don’t come to help secondary schools, right? They usually help primary schools and preschools, but not many come for secondary schools. [chuckles from group]. Do you have any needs?”

“Oh yes, we have a lot of needs. There are many needs, but I will have to talk to my teachers first,” said the principal. Noisai explained that this was just a needs assessment-nothing final-and asked him to list some of the needs. “Well, more classrooms, there is not enough space for our students. And a dormitory, we need a dormitory for kids. And we don’t have a library.” “So you would say, you need a dormitory, then classrooms, then a library?” I asked. “Yes, yes.” “In that order?” “No, first classrooms, we need more classrooms.”

By the end of the meeting, we decided that what the school needed most was indeed classrooms. After a quick tour of the school, it was clear they were out of room. Even a cafeteria had been taken over for classroom space. Ai Noisai and I asked them to make a draw up a budget and get back to us as soon as possible.