The day I lived in the middle of nowhere- Karen Village part 2.

Ok, so I already talked about the first part of my interesting experiences at the Karen village- interviewing, going to a funeral, and a wedding.
Many have asked me why the bride was not allowed to look happy at her own wedding, so I thought I would address that question. The bride is supposed to show remorse because she is leaving her family, the people who have taken great pains and cares to raise her. If she was "happy" to be leaving her family, she would basically be saying that she did not appreciate everything her family did for her. Even though she is probably ecstatic inside, it is not culturally acceptable for her to show her happiness.

Anyways, next I'm going to talk about my three homestays. Like I said before, we were living in a hostel that is used for students during the school year, but is vacated now that it's summer (in Thailand the school summer break is March until June). Because we were so removed from the actual village, we were itching to live with the people that we encounter everyday.

Our first homestay was in the village we lived in, or a surrounding village nearby, all about 3 minutes away from the hostel. I had the privilege of living with the village medicine man, who was also the father of the pastor at the village church. He lived with his wife, and 4 of his 10 children. Their house was small- 3 rooms, on stilts, and the floor was made out of bamboo mats. I felt like I was going to fall through, but I never did! Bamboo is such a strong fiber! They also make a fire pit that is in the middle of the house out of bamboo and ash. Bamboo does not easily catch on fire, so having a fire pit right there a nice way to cook and stay warm in the middle of the night.

Not only did I get to interview the family, I got to hang out with them as well! They had a son who could speak Thai, so we were able to communicate through 2 translators. I was pretty sick at this point- I had to go to the village hospital for a bad chest cold I got, of course- so I had been coughing up a storm. It just so happened that the man we were living with was the village medicine man, so he made me various teas and brews to heal me. He also made me an AWESOME necklace to protect me from snakes. His daughter was amazing at embroidery- she was sewing a shirt for her khun mee, and it was absolutely gorgeous. Karen people are very particular about their clothing, and they sew different beads and threads into each shirt. I thought I would come out of the village realizing that clothes do not matter, but it was absolutely opposite for me. The Karen women so much of their time and effort to sew their clothes so they can look presentable, and it made me realize that putting time and effort into your appearance isn't a bad thing. It just depends on where your focus is. If you take pride in making yourself presentable so that others will respect you and honor you, that is good, but if it turns into vanity, thats when it is a bad thing. It put a whole new perspective on that for me. She let me try on the shirt that she was making,  and I got stuck, which everyone thought was a riot :).

My khun mee was very shy and quiet, but obviously cared about taking care of us a lot. Even though we slept on the bamboo floor, she gave us her blankets and pillows so we were more comfortable. In her free time, she made troughs for pigs out of bamboo. How cool is that? She also gave me great information for my paper, and spent hours making us breakfast in the morning. It was awesome being welcomed into such an interesting family.

khun mee and khun paa

Inbetween our two homestays, we had sports week! Thirteen different villages come together and play football, volleyball, and degra. Its a BIG deal- they use most of their government funding on this week, and everyone gets involved. One girl, Jess, from our program, was asked to light the torch at the opening ceremony, and then they asked us to form a team to play volleyball! Now, we had only been playing together for a week, and these girls have been playing their WHOLE lives. Needless to say, they killed us. They returned EVERYTHING, and it didn't help that I was the starting spiker. It was cool getting to hang out with all the village people, interviewing more people for my paper, and watching degra, a really cool foot game.

degra

Next, we were sent off to our remote homestays, where Ajarn Mike claimed that they had never seen a white person before. Although that might not have been true, we drove 4 hours on dirt mountain roads to  go to a village in the middle of NO WHERE. Even though the hostel is pretty remote itself, this was another league of its own. We ate the traditional Karen meals of boiled rice and vegetables, slept on the bamboo floor, and got to hang out with the karen people. I had a khun yay, or grandmother, that was over 80 years old. She chopped us firewood and gave us rice as a gift (which we used to warm our feet from the cold mountain air.. ingenious. I know). This village only had about 5 different families in it, so it was very interesting to see how the welcomed over 20 farang. We got to participate in various village activites- such as gathering different vegetables from the forest, and going fishing! At the Lahu village, the women built a dam for us to catch stranded fish. Here, we hiked for about 2 hours through the river, until we got to one area teaming with fish, and we cast out our nets. Very Bible-esque of us. We also took lots of naps, and generally soaked in nature. It was a relaxing and great day.

Me in front of my house

Now here comes the exciting and adventurous part of my story. We were supposed to spend 2 whole days in this village, and another 2 days in a village farther away. The morning of the second day we were told we needed to pack because a storm was coming. This was VERY bad news for 2 reasons.

1) The rainy season is not supposed to be until October, so the more it rains out of season, the longer it takes people to be able to plant their rice. Not good for the local economy.

2) And, more importantly to us at the time, we were traveling on STEEP CURVY DIRT ROADS that would turn into mud if it rained. Literally, during the rainy seasons, all of the roads on that mountain are closed down because they are too dangerous. Literally within 2 minutes of rain, they have turned into slush and cars can spin off of the mountain. 

Needless to say, those in authority decided it would just be better to head back to the hostel than to head to the other village, so we would be able to leave and beat the rain. We all quickly packed our stuff and jumped in the trucks, and headed out.

Unfortunately, around 10 minutes after we left, it started to POUR. It was getting pretty nerve wracking. We would stall out, spin out, and mud would be flying everywhere. We picked up stranded Karen people along the way, and finally had to stop because one of the trucks got stuck. Unfortunately, I was in the only truck with 4 wheel drive, so we were chosen as the guinea pigs to see if we could safely get to the next village. Terrified, we climbed up the mountain. I had my eyes closed for most of it...just opened them once to see how steep the drop was on the other side of the road (which we got REALLY close to sometimes) But, we made it to the nearest village safely, and begged them to let us stay there. Fortunately, they were VERY hospitable. They gave us food, blankets, and shelter as the truck went back to pull the others out of the mud. This village, who had NO idea that we were coming, found housing for each and every one of us. It was amazing to see hospitality at its finest.

The storm has cleared!

The rest of the time, as we waited for the storm to pass, we worshipped with the local village people, who were Christians. We also attended their church services (I preached at the women's service!) and they gave us a huge meal for lunch. After that, we headed back to the center, where we got great banana bread and even more interviews.

Well that concludes my time in the villages! Next post- my time back in Chiang Mai! Stay tuned to Kitty In Thailand.