Homestay with the Akha Hill Tribe

Wow. What to say about the homestay week? It was pretty crazy. I don't even want to try to start from the beginning, but I will write down points that I remember and want to discuss. We stayed in the Jalae Village that's about 18K from Mirror in Mae Yao.

So, here was the sleeping situation: concrete. And sleep is a generous way to put it. There wasn't much of it happening. We put up mosquito nets--two of us to each net.

We had little woven mats that helped protect from the cold but didn't add any padding. It was amazing to see how the people live there. They live such simple lives, and yet they work so very hard. They eat the plants from around them, whether that's fern, bamboo, rice, or whatever.

Our meals consisted of, in percentages, 97% rice 1% pork, 1% vegetation, 1% eggs. Rice for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. And a lot of it. They heaped our plates with it. We ended up putting 3/4 of our portions into a heaping bowl to give back to them.








Anyway, the food was fine. I mean, I didn't love it, but we were sure grateful for their cooking and what they were giving us. They wouldn't eat until we had all eaten. They were so generous and gracious. We would see the old women returning at the end of the afternoon with a heavy bag of vegetation to cook for dinner--they strap it on their heads so that their necks carry the full weight. And these people are old. Way past retirement age in the U.S. Their faces are absolutely full of wrinkles.
Toilet situation:

Yeah. Oh, and that's also the shower. I never showered there though. Instead, I showered in the waterfall called Huay Mae Sai. Yup, took my shampoo, conditioner, and body scrub and showered in my clothes.
As for the work...I didn't get to participate much because of my wrist. Basically, the job was the use hoes and buckets in order to get dirt and move it to an area that will soon support the new village church. Sun, humidity, chopping trees down, bucket lines. I really felt pretty useless. I tried to help a couple times, but my wrist didn't agree.

Darling village boy hanging out at the worksite

At one point, we were working and it started raining. The villagers we were with told us to take cover under some bamboo huts. Why? Because it's acid rain. So, we went under the huts and waited it out. Also, while under one of the huts, a ginormous spider crawled on my foot. And then a few minutes later tried to crawl back on me. Awful day lol.
Thank heaven for the waterfall. We went after work, sometimes even on lunch break. It was a needed cooldown for everyone.













On the first day, one of the volunteers climbed up the rocks to jump in (because of peer pressure from other volunteers.) He jumped too far and ended up spraining his foot. First day. So he and I were the useless, injured ones.

In the area we worked in, as we hoed through the dirt, there was a termite metropolis. It was huge. Also, very angry red ants. Bugs everywhere. Everywhere.
We made trips to the village shop about 3-5 times daily. We all needed a break from rice, and it was nice trying the different chip flavors and cookies they had. The little children in the area were so cute. One in particular was especially friendly with us. Sawanee was her name.

Full to the brim of energy. These kids know how to entertain themselves like no American child possibly could. Also, Sawanee and the others must have the most amazing immune systems on earth. I watched her suck on suckers all day long. The sucker would fall in the dirt. Right back in the mouth. She'd rub it all over the windows and the cinder blocks. Right back in the mouth. She followed me one day as I went on a walk. She went in to the bushes and picked some berries and started munching down on them.


As we went running back, she held my hand. Loved that. She also gave me a massage a couple of times. Best kid ever. Some of the girls in our group have a zero tolerance level for children. They couldn't stand her, her constant chatter, and her hanging around. Sad.
One thing for sure--I reached a new level of dirtiness at homestay. So did everyone. I've never ever been that disgusting, nor do I ever hope to be again. I got all sorts of exciting bites, as well. Pretty sure my legs are covered in what I think are bed bug bites. I've got some mosquito bites as well of course. I also got some weird ones that would bleed in the middle. Lovely.
On Thursday night we had a celebration dinner. Oh, back up. Janella and I went to the waterfall before everyone else. When we got back to the village, we walked in right as they were putting a machete to the little black village dog's throat. One of the other volunteers said, "Wait! No!" We almost witnessed the slaughter of the dog. Joe tried to convince them not to kill the dog for the celebration dinner. Anyway, Janella and I took a walk since we understood they were going to kill the dog anyway. So sad. That dog had been hanging out with us all week. Some of the volunteers even named him. We took a walk...apparently in the wrong direction. On our way back, I looked over and saw them about to cut into the dog with the machete. Ugh. Later, they brought the stiff dog into the village for cooking. Awful to see that.
The celebration dinner was good--there were two tables: one for those eating dog, one for those not. Guess who was at the dog-eating table? Only our volunteers.

The non-dog-eating table was me, Janella, Steph, Jess, and the village people, including the chief.

Anyway, we ate rice (naturally), ferns dipped in chili sauce, spicey pork, etc. It was pretty good, actually. We also had ICE in our drinks! Best day ever.





Unfortunately, that night was the first night of the spider bathroom experience. I drank too much at dinner, being hyped up about the ice, so I had to go to the bathroom twice during the night. Yuck. Second time I go in, equipped, thankfully, with Stephanie's flashlight. I shine it on the wall, and right there is a big. fat. huntsman. spider. Big as my hand. I just sat there. For about 10 minutes, needing to use the bathroom, but way too scared to get closer. And I was not about to let that thing out of my sight. I vowed not to use the bathroom no matter how bad I had to go after that.

Last night, the very same spider shows up. So, I decide to try the other toilet. I scan the walls and find a poisonous millipede AND a huntsman. Worst ever. I didn't go to the bathroom all night. Even though I had to from 11 o'clock onwards.
The village rises and sleeps with the sun. They have one solar panel that powers a battery which powers two lights. No electricity apart from those two lights. And if there's rain and not enough sun, no light at all.
We used candles last night because it had rained most the day.

I had stupidly handwashed my clothes the day before, and they hung up until we left this morning (still wet) because it just rained like crazy.
This morning the chief of the village was called away. Why? There was an accident somewhere involving 6 people, ribs and collar bones broken. The hospital couldn't do anything (for whatever reason), so they called in the Akha chief. He was doing all sorts of medicinal, tribal healing things for Antoine's ankle during the week as well. Chanting, spitting on it, massaging it. Interesting stuff. He was so sweet. He tied a bracelet on each of us during the celebration dinner, and he came to shake our hands as he left this morning.

We trekked to the Apap Village today.


It was about 40 minutes of walking, and we got to see the huge tribal swing they have (don't know what the significance is), as well as the "God Gate."


When a villager wants to marry a girl, he goes there to ask permission of God. We got to watch some cute village children entertaining themselves for ages with a string. I took some video of it.



Anyway, we also did the elephant ride today. Sooo cool! We climbed a big platform to get on. Nella and I rode the biggest elephant. The Thai man was sitting on the head. We got to ride in the river. The shorter elephants were almost completely submerged. It was crazy. It was interesting to sway side to side with every step of the elephant. After our ride we got to feed them apple bananas. Elephants are such cool animals. So friendly.














We've been in town since the ride. First thing we did after getting our room at Boon Bun Dan (100 baht per night per person--sweeeet) was to head to Central Plaza in a tuk-tuk and get some McDonald's!!! We'd been craving that all week for SURE. It was delicious. Don't know when I've enjoyed it more. Fries, McChicken sandwich, and Ovaltine. Yum. And just to make sure we didn't leave any fat untouched, we went to Swensen's after and got ice cream. Malteser double scoop sundae. Yum. But we were all so full.
Then we headed to the Saturday walking market by the clock tower (which we got to watch change colors). The market is super cool--really big and long. There are colored lanterns hanging over the whole street. Tons and tons of vendors--clothes, food, Thai handicrafts, jewelry, etc. We also got foot massages--120 baht for an hour long massage. What a delight. I sure felt bad for the woman massaging my feet after the homestay week though lol.

The fattest dog at Boon Bun Dan