Reveal

Hi,

Everything is calm in Chiang Rai, in spite of what you may hear about Bangkok. Life goes on. Today we went on a big adventure to the south, into the mountains. This evening we had 'last night' dinner with Blue. He leaves tomorrow.

Our 'Easy Monday' song was "Addicted To Love" by the late Robert Palmer. I thought you knew. Try this one out:
"...He cries 'oh girl you must be mad, what happened to the sweet love you and me had?' Against the door he leans and starts a scene, and his tears fall and burn the garden green. And so __ __ __ __ fall in the sea, eventually."

We have a friend named Libby, who lives in an Akha village in the hills south of Chiang Rai. Today we went to visit her and see where she works. She's a nurse and has been living with the Akha since 2008. We followed her directions and just before we lost our phone signal she called to see where we were. At the end of the call, I pretty much knew what to do for the rest of the journey. We did encounter one fork in the road that we had to think about. When we arrived in the village, I slowed down hoping to see a sign of what to do next. Just then a young man rode up on a motorbike and we told him we were looking for Libby. A big smile crossed his face and he said 'Khun Ribby' and motioned for us to follow him.

We got a tour of Libby's humble setting and then she took us on a walking tour of the village. This is the first time we have been to a Hill Tribe village that was not dependent on or based on tourism. Most of the people on the hill were able to get their citizenship papers because they stayed in the same place for a prescribed number of years. By tradition, the tribes were nomadic and so permanent residence was not their way. There are about 100 families/300 people in the village and it's spread out in a meandering arrangement. We met some of the women of the tribe. A few of them know some Thai. Libby speaks Akha and it was beautiful to hear her talking to her friends. It's a soft, bouncing language that is much different sounding than Thai. We were shown a bird trap by a women with a great personality. She made these traps and tried to get us to try our hand at setting one, but we declined. Almost all of the women we met had black teeth from chewing Betel nuts. There is a stimulant effect that probably helps while working in the fields. Hmm.

We found it quite interesting that someone could come to this country and live with this tribe without anyone to talk to until you learned the language. Libby has friends in town, but on the mountain, she lives as an Akha. She has a clinic and provides medical care and also teaches the children English two nights a week. It's a very brave thing that she does and it was a real treat to see this place we never knew existed. A whole world was opened up to us and we'll probably go back and visit again.

This evening Blue took us to dinner at the Night Bazaar and then we strolled around a bit. We made a stop at Tops for our favorite cookies before returning home. Tomorrow we say goodbye to our dear friend.

It's time for Wacky Wednesday.

Peace,
Danny

"The greatest good you can do for another is not just share your riches,
but reveal to them their own."
~Disraeli

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