Yesterday afternoon, we talked with Newt about our trip to Chiang Mai. Newt is Hlong's cousin. Hlong is Daeng's sister-in-law. Wow, I think I got that one right. Here is a picture on Newt and son getting ready to go home on her motorbike.
They are all dressed up like it is freezing out and the temperature is about 90 degrees. Thai girls do that because they want to keep their skin light colored. It may be a good idea with all this stuff about the sun and skin cancer.
We got a call from Chom-nom yesterday saying that there was a get together for his Mother, Mechu. I don't quite understand the get together except that it has something to do with everyone getting together to pray for his Mother's health.
We got up around 6:00 AM, had breakfast at the local market and did a few things around the house before dressing to go to Ban AYO.
By the time we made the 46 kilometer trip it was about 11:00 PM. They had already killed the pig and were starting to roast it over a charcoal fire.
It was great to see all the kids and the Akha folks. We now know most of them. A lot if the kids were playing on a pick-up truck rack that was placed under the big tree in front of Mechu's home.
When another Akha lady saw me she started dancing, kind of imitating me as I'm always doing stuff like that.
We hung out with the kids on Mechu's front porch eating cookies and pineapple with the kids. It was only about an hour and Chom-nom drove in with his motorbike. He had to travel about a hundred kilometers from the Doi Chang Coffee Company. He was looking well.
We talked for a little about his work at Doi Chang Coffee and then headed down the road to see the children's shelter. The roadway to the shelter had been cleared. The buildings were about the same as when we saw them in spring.
You could see the water tanks and all the brush was cleared back from the building so they could now be worked on.
We talked and Chom-nom said it was hard to get people behind this project again until they trusted him. He did say that the video production company that helped before were planning on coming up to help more this month. He did not know the dates, at this time.
Another good thing is the electricity is now withing 150 meters of the shelter. The water is available at the road, as well.
We headed back up the road but stopped at the little church just above the children's shelter. They were have a Thanksgiving Dinner and ask us to stay. We just could not say: "No". We knew a lot of the folks and kids, as well.Thanksgiving here in northern Thailand is celebrated on different dates by each town or village, all sometime during this month.
After we ate, the ice cream man showed up so Daeng bought all the kids ice cream.
When we got back to Mechu's home the lady across the street was cutting up banana plants for pig food. I had never seen that done. I tasted the banana plant center and it tested okay.
It was almost two o'clock. We talked with Mechu, wished her the very best and told her we loved her. We took some pictures and she laughed at us because we are so much bigger that she is, even Daeng.
By this time the ice cream man made it up the hill so we had to have more ice cream. I love the coconut favor. Yep, everyone loves ice cream.
It was now prayer time. The elders all sit together and everyone bows in front of Mechu, holding her hands, passing some money to her and praying for her health.
Daeng and I both did that but did not pass any money as we had given her some when we said "Good-bye" before the prayer session.
We think we stayed within the tradition.
We said our "Good-bye's" again. We told Chom-nom we would call him next week and come see him at Doi Chang Coffee Company. That trip will be an over night trip.
We headed home and our Nissan March ran well. I think we got great mileage and it passed other cars and trucks on hills much better than I expected with a 1.2 liter engine.
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