Follow the Journey

Last week we began our tumultuous adventure into the Lahu and Akha villages. Due to some communication breakdowns and language barriers, when we arrived at the Mirror Art Foundation’s base camp, we didn’t know exactly what to expect, but our host Pi Moo quickly filled us in. While we were here, this Thai organization was working with the local hill tribe villages (Akha and Lahu) on a retaining wall project due to a recent landslide that threatened access to their villages.
Soon we met our guide, Pi Surachai who works with the Mirror Foundation. He really enjoyed answering all of our questions and practicing his English, but unfortunately we couldn’t always understand his responses, sometimes leaving us dazed and confused about many of the traditions and people we met. The upside to this confusion was that it inspired many of us to conduct our own research about these villages on our own time.
On this journey, we helped build the retaining wall for the Akha village, which was physically demanding, but we were honored to be part of it. At the beginning, many of us felt a little out of place because of the language barrier and because we weren’t quite sure of the procedure of doing things. However, after a few days we were able to partake in the workload and spruced things up with a little music and games. On our last night, the village sacrificed a pig for us to eat, which is a grand gesture in their culture, but many of us were quite startled to hear the squeals. After a bracelet tying ceremony and a traditional dance, we hit the hay. The next morning we trekked… and by trek i mean half of us rode in the back of a truck to the Lahu village.
We spent the next two days harvesting bamboo, making bracelets and doing bamboo cooking. This village was much smaller with about seven families. We were able to play with the children and explore the scenery. The best part about our time here was being able to see the beautiful stars on top of a water tower. The Milky Way was clearly visible and we were able to see plenty of shooting stars. Oh, and the sunset was unreal…. Amby got some pretty sweet pics of Cole and me atop a boulder. After sleepless nights and meals of only cabbage and rice, we were all pretty ready to head back to Chiang Rai.
Talk of pizza, cinnasticks, brownies, and ice cream was at an all time high. As soon as we checked into the hostel it was time to pig out. We all spent a little too much money on food, but it was all worth it. In Chiang Rai, we visited the White Temple and Black House which were both beautiful places. The Black House was a huge art piece made up of buildings filled with animal bone sculptures and macabre. It was one of the most interesting yet disturbing places we’ve been to.
This trip taught us all about the importance of being proactive when it comes to information and knowledge about cultures. It was definitely hard to learn about the cultures because of the language barriers, but that shouldn’t stop us from at least trying to learn and ask questions. We aren’t always going to be spoon fed information. This part of the trip was challenging, but we have all grown from it and are happy to have had the chance to experience it.