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While in Ghana I learned that strangers can often be your most reliable allies. I am happy to say this has also been my experience in Thailand. When I was searching for a teaching job a couple of months ago I responded to an ad to teach in a hill tribe village. I was disappointed when I did not hear back from them. But a few weeks after accepting a different teaching position I got a phone call from Rocky. Warmth radiated off of his voice through the phone. I told him that I already signed a contract but I was very interested in what he was doing.
Rocky is an American man who lives in an Akha village. He has spent the past two years working through Thai bureaucracy to start an organization to help the Akha who live in this village. He helps the people in many ways, but the organization has recently focused its efforts on teaching English. He has built a small English school for children and adults in the community to attend. A few weekends ago Rocky opened his home to Brittney, Zandy, and I so we could see what the village is like. We
stayed on his living room floor and his wife fed us delicious food.
The Akha are one of many hill tribes in Northern Thailand. There are about 80,000 Akha in Thailand; they are also in Laos, Burma, and Vietnam. They are originally from the land that is now Burma. They moved into these mountains in the 1200's before Siam or Thailand came into existence. They are marginalized in every country they are in. Only in the past few years have they been given Thai citizenship. Similar story that we have all over the world.
The village in nestled in the infamous Golden Triangle, the north western tip of Thailand where both Laos and Burma are only a handful of miles apart. This region is no exception to the fact that most every inch of Thailand is gorgeous. It is filled with lush green rolling mountains and lime stone cliffs.
We arrived in the village when it was dark so I could not see anything. When the roosters woke me up at 5:45 AM I was like a child on Christmas morning. I jumped out of bed so excited to see what was around me in the
day light. I went outside and watched the sunrise. I was happy to have dirt under my feet. A young woman who spoke English stopped me and asked where I was going. I was going nowhere. So she asked me to join her to the market. I jumped on her motor bike and drove past rice and corn fields and smiling faces. The air was cold. Something I have not felt in months. It was so refreshing.
The grandmother of the family I stayed with had a beautiful vibrancy about her. She is called Mama. She was always surrounded by her grand children and I could feel laughter radiating from her heart when I could not hear the sound. She does not speak a word of Thai or English but we were still able to communicate. She loves to be around the action and gets a kick out of us foreigners. She dresses half in traditional dress mixed in with some funny t shirts such as WWF Wrestling shirts. Part of the traditional dress that she always wears are these leg warmer type things with bright hand stitched designs and beads. I love them.
Before going to
Scary
The photo that caused our laughing fit the village I had seen many pictures of hill tribe women with strange dark red stuff coming out of their mouths and their teeth all black. When I saw it on Mama I had to ask what it was. I asked and they began preparing it for Zandy and I. We were told that it made our teeth strong. I realize now that it is similar to chewing tobacco. They took a leaf and put some sort of mixture of different herbs and a white paste inside the leaf. We were told to chew slowly on it for 5 minutes. It had a strong but not bad flavor. It sort of burned. Soon there was dark orange seeping from my mouth. My teeth did not turn black and it was not as red as when they do it, they probably did not make it as strong for us. I took one picture of myself making a scary face and Mama thought it was hilarious. She grabbed the camera from me and we had a full on laughing fit together. It was one of the happiest moments I have had in Thailand.
Most of my time was spent with
the children. We went on a lot of walks with the kiddos. Our favorite place to go was to the lychee trees. One little girl was a tree climbing pro and provided us with as many lychees as we could eat. Next to the lychee trees there were also fields of pineapples and papaya trees. They also led us to their swimming holes. Brittney and I jumped in one of them Thai style, fully clothed. Only one of them could really swim. On minimal English I taught a couple others to float on their backs.
In the evening we played a lot of games of memory. When we were not doing this the kids got a kick out of pretending to abuse me. They would scream “YOU!” And then do a little charades depicting whatever they thought should happen to me. My personal favorite was when they said “YOU!” and then did a cutting motion and then pretended to throw something in the trash. Apparently they wanted to cut me into pieces and throw me away. It was all in good nature and we all got a good kick out of it. During one of these evening gatherings on
the porch one of the girls caught a very large bug. I knew that she had a bug in her hand and I wanted to see it, so I got very close. But when she opened up her hand and thrusted the bug towards me you would have sworn I had never seen bug in my life let alone that I had actually wanted to see it. I freaked out. The bug was some sort of huge moth creature, much more like a small bird really. It touched me. I flailed and screamed. I think everyone present laughed so hard we cried.
I adored all of the children, but one little girl, Lulu, really stole my heart. We met at night after I had already become well acquainted with the others. She spoke a little more English than her friends. After we exchanged names she got a very curious look on her face and then eagerly blurted out “are you a girl!?” When I said yes she was beside herself. She could not believe it. She spoke Akha with the other kids and then looked back at me saying “Really!?” Funny thing is before I spoke to her I
was thinking “I can’t tell if that kid is a little boy or a little girl.” We instantly became friends over our gender confusion.
On one of our walks we went to another little swimming area by a creek. The pebbles there were perfect to play jax with. These kids were incredibly fast with their hands. I, on the other hand, have always seen horrible at this game. Lulu took a good 30 minutes away from her friends to teach me. She was the most patient and encouraging teacher anyone could have. Every time I caught a pebble she clapped. After a while I actually improved.
The entire weekend was filled with smiles. I would not have been able to experience this amazing weekend without meeting Rocky. And it would not have been anywhere near as amazing if the numerous strangers had not greeted me with such generosity.
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Collin
non-member comment
You really should consider travel writing! I loved this entry and have been meaning to comment on it.