Our bus is 20 years old. It is from the “88-89 Lao-Japan Cooperation Project for the Improvement of Public Transportation in Vientiane,” where we are headed. There is packing tape on the ceiling holding a broken panel together. The bus is a reminder that this is a poor nation. The minimal (yet increasing) development is obvious, just a few main highways connect the country, but they are not that busy with long distance traffic. Poverty is less apparent. During our many travel days in Laos, I have been reminded of the poverty as we pass by offices for NGOs—UNICEF, WHO, World Vision, Red Cross, Oxfam—all the big ones. It’s thought provoking that the poverty is visible by the presence of these NGOs and not by destitute faces of hungry kids and pleading adults. I think from a western mindset; poverty is associated with homelessness. So these people have homes. But they are temporary. A lot of the structures we’ve seen outside of the bigger towns are temporary—woven bamboo, thatched roofs. These types of structures do not last forever. Beyond a shelter though, there really isn’t much. I suspect that in the villages we don’t see there is even less. So what is the full scope of the poverty here?