Wednesday, February 4, 2009

A Hill Tribe Homestay


(sorry for technical difficulties, will fix)
On Thursday morning we left for our two night home-stay in the hill tribes, a weekend trip that all volunteers get to do at some poi
nt during their stay at Mirror. The 20 of us all piled into a couple of sawngtheaws and headed off. On our way up, we stopped in a town presumably for a snack, but soon found out that we were there for an elephant ride. Elephants are surprisingly big. Even more surprising are their poops, which are the size of small boulders (they thud on the ground accordingly). It was an unbelievable experience to be on top of an elephant, but we couldn't help but think at each jolt: "If we fall from this, there is no way we will make it out alive!" Nonetheless, Anna has decided that the elephant is her new favorite animal.



After the elephant ride we were dropped off at a nearby waterfall and enjoyed our Thai version of bag lunches; instead of peanut-butter and jelly sandwiches there was sticky rice and fried chicken, instead of yogurt there was chili sauce and instead of a brown paper bag, it was all wrapped in banana leaves. From there we began our 3 km hike up the only road to the first village where we were to stay, which doesn't sound long but, because of the heat and the incredible incline, felt like a serious trek.



There are about 7 major hill tribes in Northern Thailand and surrounding countries (as they tend to have more of a sense of tribal allegiance than nationalism). Each tribe has its own language, completely different from Thai, and unique dress and culture. A major goal of Mirror is to preserve these self-sustaining cultures while helping them to survive globalization. One of the ways they do this is with hill tribe home-stays, which gives more income to the hill tribe families (who sell their hand-made goods to their guests) and gives them an incentive to preserve their way of life.

Our first night of home-stay was in a Lahu village and happened to coincide with Lahu New Year, a 10 day festival of dancing and sacrifices. The Lahu believe that every new year they must make sure to give the gods many good things in order to secure a good year - in the center of the village was a sacrifice of different meats and a pig's head! The festival didn't start until the night so we spent the day hanging out in the village, trying to communicate with our host, and admiring the houses. Completely made of bamboo, the houses we stayed in were elevated on stilts and we could see (and hear all night long!) the animals, which live below the house, through the floor slats. Each house is made up of one big kitchen/living room/dining room (which is just an empty room with a fire pit inside) and another sleeping room, and the entire thing is rebuilt every 7 years.

At night
, the festival got started and we all danced around the sacrifice to the pounding of symbols and drums. We went to bed at 10pm with the hope that the party would die down soon but, the Lahu villagers continued partying, blasting karaoke and shooting off fire crackers until 6am!



The next morning
(2 hours after finally falling asleep) we woke up, had breakfast with our host (a shy woman but a great cook) and hiked about 5km to an Akha village, which looked similar, but was slightly more developed than the Lahu village (a few houses were made of cement and some of the younger women wore jeans and t-shirts in place of sarongs or the customary Akha outfit). Before we were placed in different houses (men and women were completely separate), we were taken to a field where we helped (really observed) a few men from the village make a meal of rice, soup, chili and tea for all of us using nothing but nature and their machetes; they cooked all our food in large bamboo shoots over a fire, laid out banana leaves for all of us to sit on, and offered us tea in cups cut from bamboo.

That night, we all got the opportunity to dress up in the traditional Akha uniforms and follow along in their dances around the fire (of which they have many). In return, we taught them the closest thing we have in our culture: the Hokey Pokey.


Despite the stomach aches and unpleasant (and mysterious - is it a spider bite?) bug bites that came with the experience, it was really an amazing opportunity.














Jamie helps make dinner.


View from our hike to the Lahu village.


Handmade Lahu bags and scarves.


A Lahu sacrifice.


More hiking...


Dinner at the Lahu home-stay.


A precarious bridge.


The pink meat is pork (sitting in the sun...mmmm).


Bamboo-cooked lunch.


Elephant (this one is 30 years old)!


Lahu village.

Stilts under the hill tribe houses.

The floors of the hill tribe houses.

Piggies (Anna saw a baby pig killed as a sacrifice at the Akha village).

Our Akha outfits.

All of us volunteers and the women of the Akha village.

Jamie and his host mother.

P.S. Thanks for all the comments! We really love hearing from all of you.

13 comments:

  1. Very cool trip, guys and great photos. Your prior posting reminded me much of Cuba (maybe even of Lost -- when I see "Mirror Foundation" I can't help thinking "Dharma Initiative") - this posting reminds me of Africa, especially waking up with lots of unidentified critter bites. Were the amazing outfits lent to you or did you actually buy them? You'd better come back with at least the goofy hats. Love, Ian

    ReplyDelete
  2. BRING ME BACK AN ELEPHANT!!!!!!!! It can be our pet and mommy can take it out for walks and pick up its poop!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Next time u guys run off to thailand im gonna hide in your backpack and then ull be stuck with me

    ReplyDelete
  4. If you are really good you may get lucky.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I want to be there!!! guess what i'm doing write now... sitting inside because it is butt cold outside. i want to be on a life changing trip through an amazing place RIGHT NOW.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Wow, what an adventure!! I LOVE the outfits. The elephants and the piggies (the live ones) are adorable.

    ReplyDelete
  7. EVERYTHING IS SO AMAZING! i love you guys and i'm so happy to see that you are having such a fabulous time. keep us updated!

    ReplyDelete
  8. oh, and this is nina gordon-kirsch.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Hey Guys,

    Looks like a grand adventure. I'm jealous but I'll get over it, I've already had my turn. Have a great time, keep taking pictures, and I'm excited to see you both upon your return.

    Jonah

    P.S. Be wary of The Thailand Bucket, it's a quite a formidable drink

    ReplyDelete
  10. Great photos. I bet I know what you named the elephant!

    Jamie

    ReplyDelete
  11. The photo of you in your Akha outfits is now my background.


    (P.S. You can bring me an elephant and a wife, if you want.)

    ReplyDelete
  12. I want to make a copy of the photo of you and Jamie in costume as well as the group photo,and give it, discolored and grainy, to your grandchildren to marvel over.

    ReplyDelete
  13. absolutely adorable. The description of the elephant turds prompted dave to exclaim "elephants are fun, but gross!", since posts above keep requesting elephants, i want one too-they are so sweet looking.

    the posts are great....makes me think more and more about where i want to study abroad...it looks like so much fun!

    o and shman-thanks for the birthday wishes, it was fabulous.
    XO
    ada

    ReplyDelete