“It’s a marvelous story,” he said. “Wouldn’t it have been a spectacular ending if you’d arrived here to find your soldier in front of the blackboard teaching social studies?”

“It would have been nice, yes,” said Siri.

“But I’m sure your guide here has told you how many caves and tunnels there are in our province. You’d need a year to visit them all.”

“This one just happened to be convenient,” said Daeng. “This was the closest to Thakhek and it’s appropriately called Thum Huk. But as we’re here, could I ask you something personal?”

“Of course.”

“Apart from being devilishly handsome”—she and Siri exchanged glances of varying intensity—“you seem to me like a highly educated and eloquent educator. Your blackboard writing is gorgeous. Our country is desperate for qualified professionals. If you were in Vientiane I’m sure you’d be teaching at college level.”

“And your question is why am I teaching in a one-room school in rural Khammouane?”

“Exactly.”

“I was born here in Sawan,” said Satsai. “My father was the headman. Before this school was built, he taught his children at home from old textbooks. When he was young, he’d left the village to get an education in the temple. He returned, married, and passed on what he’d learned to us. He believed that only through education can we develop ourselves and our country.”

“That doesn’t explain why you’re still here,” said Siri.

“I left for a while,” said Satsai. “As I was a rare Lao who could read and write and add up, the French administrators recruited me as a low-level official. Actually I didn’t have any choice, but my father encouraged me to go. ‘Every experience is an education,’ he said. I learned French quite quickly. They liked me because I picked things up easily. They said I was the only Lao they’d met who wasn’t stupid and lazy. That was part of my education too, bigotry and racism. It was only by leaving this village that I could learn to appreciate its simplicity and honesty. We aren’t on the road to anywhere here. We’re isolated, so we’re untouched by all the antisocial diseases that infect the planet. That’s why I came back, to immunize our children and prepare them to survive.”

“Wow!” said Daeng.

It was a word she used rarely. Siri took her hand to bring her back down to earth.

“When did your people settle here in this valley?” he asked.

“Three generations back,” said Satsai.

“Really?” said Siri. “I couldn’t help noticing all the buildings here are new.”

“That’s very observant of you,” said Satsai. “It’s true. Our original village was burned to the ground in ’75. This whole valley was charcoal. The only thing that survived was our village pillar. Its survival inspired us to begin again. We rebuilt, replanted, and remained.”