Abroad Trip Day 9 and 10

Today was our first overnight visit. We got to sleep in, but I got up at 7:45, ate breakfast and headed to 7-11 for water and snacks and flashlights. Good idea, too. Our ride there were 3 vans, which were super comfortable, because the seats reclined. One of our running jokes on the trip is “This is more comfortable than our beds!” because anything with a cushion is more comfortable than our beds.

We left at 10am to head to a dara ang village. It was only a little over an hour away, but we stopped for lunch on the way there. ISDSI staff ordered us several kinds of food for us to share, such as papaya salad. That is actually the only thing I recognized, but the rest of it was good, too. I also got a coffee, which turned out to be iced heaven in a glass. Cold and sweet and caffeinated. Amazing!

When we got to the village, we dropped our stuff at the longhouse where we would be sleeping, and sat outside in the picnic benches for a lecture from UHDP, Uplander Holistic Development Project, which works with uplander farmers to create a sustainable farm and lifestyle. Instead of a corn monocrop with a lot of chemical fertilizer and pesticides, they rehabilitate the soil and grow local plants in a way the local plants are supposed to grow. They have fruit trees for a canopy level, coffee and rattan for a mid-level, and pineapple and lemongrass for a ground level. They are all integrated into each other, so there isn't one area that has only one kind of plant. The areas that grow corn also grow rice and beans so the soil doesn't get depleted, and the family is still able to feed itself. We also talked with local farmers about the dara ang culture and how they live.

After, the farmers gave us a tour, and we walked along the beautiful mountain path to the farm, where we ate coffee berries fresh from the tree, and they knocked down a papaya to cut up for us. They even gave us lemongrass to repel mosquitoes. It was so cool to see this beautiful area where all the plants were useful. Even the bamboo was helpful because it controlled the moisture in the ground so plants wouldn't rot and needed less irrigation during the dry season. They could also use it as a building material.

Then we went back and were fed. Hill rice (short grain) and chile bean paste, with fish tail palm sprout soup. It was delicious and filling. After dinner, we did a cultural exchange. Some local girls did songs and dances for us, and we sang and danced American songs like the Hokey Pokey and the Star Spangled Banner. All of us from both cultures knew Head, Shoulders Knees and Toes, If You're Happy And You Know It, and the Itsy-Bitsy Spider.

Then it was an awkward bedtime. It gets dark at around 7, so the candles came out during dinner. By the time we had to go to bed, we had to coordinate flashlights and squatty potties, teeth brushing and face washing, then bed-making and finally, the couple hours between when we were ready for bed and when we were tired enough for bed. The squatty potty wasn't bad, except toilet paper doesn't make it down, so we had to keep a bag with dirty toilet paper next to the bathrooms. We can use the water to wash our faces and shower (Thai shower=dumping buckets of water over yourself, scrubbing, then dumping more buckets. Needless to say, no one took a shower there), but not to brush our teeth. So we have to somehow get toothpaste on our toothbrush, pour water on it, brush our teeth, rinse off our toothbrush all while holding a flashlight. Good times.

The longhouse is a one-room building with a lower middle aisle and two long sleeping platforms. It's made from bamboo with the roof from fan palm leaves. The village set up 18 areas with mosquito nets, thin mattresses, 2 blankets and a pillow. ISDSI also brought sleeping bags for us. It was fine sleeping at first, but by the time 1 or 2 am rolled around, we were freezing. Luckily I brought my winter coat, which was a good blanket, but my feet and legs froze. Also, the roosters started crowing at 4am. There are probably 100+ roosters in this village. It was impossible to sleep, but no one wanted to get up because we were tired and couldn't see anything. We got up around 7.

We were fed a breakfast very similar to the night before, with delicious squash along with our rice and greens soup. Then we went to the K-6 school, where we split into groups of 2 or 3, and went to different grade levels. Katrina and I went to 1^st grade. They already knew the ABCs and how to count to 10 in English. So we taught them animals, colors, body parts (Head shoulders knees and toes was sung around 5 times). It was very fun and cute.

Then we had another hour or so of Q&A with the villagers, lunch (again, delicious rice, squash soup and fishtail soup), and then back on the buses for a relaxing afternoon. In an hour or so, we're going to a party at an Ole alums house. She teaches English at the University here, and invited us over for the evening. Should be fun!