The day I lived the Village Life. Lahu Style.

Long time no see! Internet has been very sparse (and expensive) since leaving Chiang Mai, so I have not been able to update as frequently as many of you would probably like.

Since leaving Chiang Mai I have:
- traveled by tour bus cross country through Thailand. We stayed at wonderful hotels, saw ancient temples and ruins, and even played with a couple of wild monkeys that pulled hair, bit fingers, and stole earrings. Mean.
- went on spring break to the BEAUTIFUL island of Koh Chang where I laid out in the sun, snorkeled in the BLUEST water, hiked to a waterfall, and stayed in a bungalo that cost $6 a night.

- came back to Chiang Mai for one day, where I experienced my first earthquake ( a 4. somthing in Chiang Mai, the center was 2 hours away.. feeling the earth move is a strange feeling!) and frantically figured out my classes for next semester
- Travelled to the beautiful Lahu village

The rest of this post is going to be about my time in the Lahu village, probably the best (tied with Searching for Sanook) experience I've had in Thailand so far.

It took us about 3 hours up windy roads to reach the village in the mountains. This village, consisting of 40 families, is in one of the most beautiful locations I have ever seen. Rolling hill surround the houses, blue sky, clear air, and wonderful people. As soon as we arrived, dozens of kids came out of no where and jumped on us, kind of like the wild monkeys from our cross country trip. They had beautiful smiling faces and loved to play, play, and play. I don't think I've ever played so much Frisbee in my life. I even became best buddies with a little 4 year old girl that would pick me bouquets of beautiful flowers and run into my lap whenever I sat down.



The wonderful part about this village was that they let us into their lives. I got to stay in a real village house, take FREEZING bucket showers, and sit around and play games with my host sister. Our time there was actually unusual because it was the first time in about 40 years that the temperature has been less than 70 degrees outside, so we were all pretty cold (especially the village people..they were BUNDLED like the biggest snow storm had just happened). They slaughtered us a pig to feed us for the 4 days (sad.. I had to help remove all the hair from the pig. Made me seriously consider become a vegetarian). We also went fishing with the people. Now when we think fishing we think..relaxing..sitting on the side of the river with a pole and the nature. Not for the Lahu people. They built a dam out of bamboo and mud in the river, and then we jumped in and caught fish, bugs, and other creatures for our stew for dinner! Definitely an experience, and I am now a professional bug and fish head eater.

The Lahu people are wonderful. They are some of the few Christians in Thailand, as many of the various villagers are because of Western missionaries from over 100 years ago. They love to worship God, dance, and have fun. They make moon cakes out of sticky rice and seseme seeds, and whoever makes the most beautiful mooncake (judged from the elderly mooncake women in the village) gets married next and has the most beautiful children. Guess who won? thats right..YOURS TRULY. Get ready for my gorgeous kids.

We also got to visit an orphanage that some professors on the trip sponser. Its sad, because there are literally only 4 men in the surrounding area. Because the mountains provide such poor farming, many men leave the village for Taiwan or Korea and send money back. Some kids are left behind as orphans when their mother dies, and ar sent to the orphanage. In order to make sure that men don't feel like they have to leave, they are learning how to do sustainable farming...growing such things as coffee and avacados (MY TWO FAVORITES). The Lahu are tradtionally slash-and-burn farmers, so this teaches them how to get the most nutrients out of the soil, for the longest amount of time. Both coffee and avacado trees can live up to over 100 years, and the bring in a huge profit! Its great for the people to learn these things.

After a wonderful farewell party with lots of dancing and food, we left for our second village stay at the second tribal village: The Karen Village. It was a 7 hour car ride with almost 2,000 turns through the mountains. Needless to say, I took 2 Dramamene and was barely awake to experience the waterfall that we visited along the way. We arrived safely, and this village is a little more developed with electricity and (expensive) Internet, which I mean is understandable because I have no idea how they get internet when I can't get any cell phone service, and there are no buildings for miles and miles around, besides Karen villages. I am here for the next three weeks, so towards the end I will write a blog post about my experiencce here!

Sorry I can't provide pictures, the internet is really slow, so you'll just have to wait til i gt back to chiang mai!

Love and miss you all!

Kitty