Blog from Cooper
After arriving at the Mirror Foundation and helping restore some of there rice fields, we got dropped of in the Lahu village. Right away we got greeted by friendly smiles and kids jumping on us already wanting to play football. Abooja, abooja saying hello in Lahu to the friendly people. We get into our home stay and get accustomed to our blankets for beds and the ground for seats around our handmade bamboo table. We start the next couple of days by caring bags of sand and rocks up a steep path to make a road for farmers to get there crops more easily. This will help create income to the village by selling there crops to keep there culture and village alive. After lunch we shovel sand into bags for the next day and then raced to the local waterfall to cool down. We swam with the village kids and they showed off by jumping off the waterfall into the water. We did this for next three days.
After we finished the road to the farming fields we took a day off to learn bamboo skills and get a cultural tour around the village from our guide Sarachai. He taught us how to make bamboo rings, spoons and cups. He showed us where he was born and the local villages surrounding us. That night we partied hard with the Lahu village. We had a proper feast with the entire village and danced around the fire . As a blessing they tied rope around our wrist to ground us to the village. We all enjoyed the last night with the Lahu people.
We said goodbye or Abooja ( it means just about everything in the village) and made our way to Chiang Rai. We got dropped off at the Mirror Foundation Guest House, which was very nice with real beds, real showers and real toilets. We got reacclimatized to modern amenities and then explored some of Chiang Rai including the white temple, a very rare sight in Thailand which is probably why there where so many people there. We also stopped by Baan Dam, a interesting museum with a lot of dead animals. We slept well in our air conditioned rooms before leaving in the morning to Chiang Mai for a couple rest days. The group connected with friends at the Internet cafes, ate good food and relaxed.
This morning we left for our week stay at Pun Pun farm and now I am drinking a smoothie grown from the garden next to me. That’s where this week ends, life is good.
-Cooper
