We've been traveling through some pretty unique countrysides, into and out of some major cities and small communities, hiked to spectacular waterfalls and ridden atop elephants over the last month. Our three days depicted below follows us well beyond the dirt roads, underneath the end of the power lines, and into a place where self sufficiency isn't just a novelty lifestyle but rather the only way to live. We went trekking into central Laos with a guide for three days and two nights staying in two different hill tribes one the Hmong people and the other the Khmu. Although the pictures may depict a beautiful and tranquil place the hiking was anything but requiring plodding through deep muddy single file paths filled with leeches, sloshing up rivers, and hands ahead of feet pulling ourselves up steep mountainsides. We ate local food for breakfast lunch and dinner and home stayed with prominent families in each village. Translated that means we had rice for breakfast, rice for lunch and rice for dinner and that we slept on bamboo floors in a hut in both villages. It was an experience that created powerful memories and insights on a way of life not often thought about or witnessed. Certainly the trekking has provided us each with more than just a few memories.
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| Our host in the Hmong village, Mrs Yeng |
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| Our private room attached to Mrs Yeng's |
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| The shower |
We brought school supplies and a soccer ball to donate to the school. They didn't have a ball so they were all excited to play. We played a game with the older boys while the younger boys were promised they would get to play the next day.
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| Chinese jump rope |
Mrs. Yeng and our guide, Julie (who-ly), organized a Baci Ceremony to call our good spirits and bring us good luck for the future. The village Shaman summoned Josh's spirits from America (Erin's apparently followed), two chickens were killed to be eaten and the eight people in the room tied stings around our wrists while wishing is good luck.
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| The Shaman calling the spirits |
We passed through a Khmu village on the second day stopping by the school in time for a math lesson.
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| Khmu School House |
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| 2nd and 3rd year students |
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| Farmers let us share their rest hut for our lunch break |
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| Our hosts in Khmu village, the chief and his wife |
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| We shared the room with our guide, the chief, his wife, their daughter, son-in-law and two granddaughters |
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| Josh joined in on the top spinning game |
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| Knife making |
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| Both villages had this community blacksmith hut available to anyone who needed it |
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| Our destination below only a couple hours away |
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| Pulling leeches out of the shoes |
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| Best pizza ever after the trek |
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