Dear Sombath,
I don’t remember what our first conversations were about exactly. Broadly it was upland agriculture and the RIFS project you were working on. But I clearly recall your position that if farmers were not accepting new ideas it was because those ideas were not being adequately demonstrated, or they were not appropriate for local conditions.
Having grown up in a farming family, you knew farmers are creative and practical…if there is real potential. It struck me this was not an abstract ideal for you, but the reality of your own experience combined with an unshakable confidence in Lao farmers to make rational decisions for themselves.
In those years we often met in airports. Flight times were very unreliable, and the waiting could stretch for hours. In addition to our own travel, we were often meeting our spouses. We often joked about establishing an association for oppressed husbands…but we first needed their permission to hold the inaugural meeting!