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For my 60th birthday this past summer my friends got me an Inkle loom. It's a pretty simple table-top device to weave belts and bands.

When our landlady, Lani, saw it she immediately thought it could be a way for some of her handicapped trainees to make a living -- they are polio victims who can't work the foot pedals of larger looms.

So, believe it or not, I've been teaching weaving here in Laos, a land known for exquisite textiles.

This is part of what both Joanna and I love about being in Laos. Whatever knowledge you have, whatever skills you may have acquired along life's highway, you can use it to make a huge difference to people's lives here.