Villager for a Week: Part 1

Sawat dii kha! I am back in Chiang Mai from a four-night village homestay in the Phrao district. I made so many special memories that it is difficult to know where to begin . . .

Well, as Julie Andrews would say (or sing), let's start at the very beginning (a very good place to start). We arrived on Wednesday afternoon at the village wat (temple) where we were matched up with our host families. Carmen and I were staying together as we are both vegetarian and it would be easier on the families to only worry about one "vegetarian house." Our host dad "Pa" brought us to the house in the back of his white pickup, where our host mom "Mey" greeted us and showed us the room with twin beds and a TV (!) where we would be staying. She caught on to our names pretty quickly and had no problem calling us ("Car-meen! Jess-ee-kha!") when it was time to gin khao (literally "eat rice" - the phrase used when any meal is served) or aap naam (take a shower).

We ate some watermelon and talked about where we were from and what we studied in school. I was so, so glad for investing in a pocket Thai dictionary before coming because otherwise conversing would have probably been impossible. Then Carmen and I took a walk around the village to see what there was to see. We took a lot of pictures of the local animal life, including cows, dogs, chickens, and two kittens where Grace and Nicole were staying. An older lady called us over and we sat with her in the shade for a little while. She didn't speak any English so the conversation mostly consisted of her asking us things in Thai, then laughing good-naturedly while we shrugged our shoulders.

A little history on the Chiang Mai area: it used to be called Lanna, the land of a million rice paddies, and it certainly lives up to its name. The two main forms of agriculture that we could see were orchards of lychee-like fruits (of which I now have a huge bag of sitting in my fridge as a parting gift) and rice. It's definitely a rice-centric culture - I honestly think we had some sort of rice-based dish for every meal. The fields are beautiful, though, nestled in the valley between the thickly forested hills.

The next day started early as we were to go to the temple with offerings for Buddha before the day began. I was woken up by a rooster - but not the kind in storybooks where it cock-a-doodle-doos right as the sun breaks over the horizon. No, the rooster outside our window crowed about every thirty seconds since two in the morning, and just when I thought he would stop the neighboring roosters would start to crow which would set him off again. Nevertheless, at eight o'clock we were back from the temple and off to the rice fields to help bundle the plants to place in the flooded paddies. It was a hot day, so many of our coworkers insisted we pai baan (go home) before we got sick from the heat.

I walked to the neighboring village temple with Laurel, Nikki, Neung, and Bee before lunch, then spent a lazy afternoon hanging out at the house with the kittens. In the evening, we made sure to aap naam before hopping in a pickup to go to a temple two villages over. Apparently, a famous monk was visiting and we stayed for about an hour visiting, drinking a beverage that I referred to as "hot corn juice" (tasted like creamed corn in totally liquid form), and praying.

I feel like this is enough for my initial post on the village homestay, so I'll sign off for now but be sure to update really soon!