Rainy season is basically over and now things are starting the heat up, prior to them cooling down for winter.
Mirror as usual has been pretty busy. Last week we had home-stay for the new volunteers and the outdoor program. We went to village about 2-3 hours away, we packed up into two cars the Eco and the white truck. Linda, Jim and myself were in the back of the eco car and headed off. Of course stopping at the petrol station 20 mins away to get a bucket load of snacks and drinks for our trip, not that we knew how far it was at the time, you know thai time is a little different. And of course who could forget the ice-cream. YUM!
Off we went and was nice to be able to put some time in on Pimslers (?) Thai audio tapes, i think i did like 15 mins then went to music. La la la Needed a bit of a pick me up. Tis all fun a games.
The home-stay was organised last minute as our original village's access point was compromised and we were afraid we could not get there with the
cars. So we went to another village, we met with another NGOs representative who lived at this village in a town near the village (30 mins away from the village). We followed him to our destination. Below is the track to the village.
The track to the village started to get really muddy. Someone popped up with 'how funny would it be if we got bogged'. That was the sign or jinx. The reps car got bogged trying to make it up the hill. We all jumped out to give a heave-ho (in thailand you get in the back of the ute and jump up and down, pretend your in a mosh pit thats elevated and moving so hold on tight!!) It was fun, then it started to rain and of course next the Eco car got stuck, we did the same and also had to push. Finally the white car had to come through, with Thellie at the wheel and a lot of muscle power they were able to make it through…. just. So we made it to our destination a little muddy, for some a lot muddy, and a few good laughs on the way. Below is Jayden who got a little muddy.
Our home-stay village was Lahu tribe, we spent the rest of the afternoon hanging out waiting for dinner and watching the village boys playing soccer, and one of the volunteers joined. All you could hear was 'galah' 'galah' which in Lahu is foreigner (not the bird). Jim played really well. And provided much entertainment to the locals I'm sure. Dinner was all together at one of the houses on top of the hill, after dinner we had a meeting where we got to learn a bit about the villages' history and traits. This is the view from the village, so beautiful.
After that we went to our host mothers house. I was roomed with Melissa, Caitlyn, Lydia. We set up our stuff in the house and sat down with the family, or rather the family sat there the entire time and watched us as if we where 'animals in a zoo'. We had to put up of mosquito nets and that was very comical for our hosts. They ended up getting string and hammering nails in their house for us. 'Thanks' Talk about being a inconvenience! All good though, I then just dropped my stuff and sat on the floor (no chairs I'm afraid). They spoke little thai or they couldn't understand me or just ignored my attempts at thai (I found out it was the later two). Which ever we sat there and stared at each other. They cut up a melon for us, eating casually as we could Ms. Lydia decides to drop a piece on the floor and picked it up to eat it. And shoved it quickly in her mouth, I started laughing which then everyone was laughing. They were having their Lahu/Thai convo and we were chatting in English. Can anyone say AWKWARD!
It was all good though I love homestays! Part 2 coming soon.
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