There were a couple of hundred of the monks proceeding in small groups for the various monasteries. The groups were led by the oldest monk followed by the younger ones. Novices (those who are still in training to be a monk) wear a sash around their robe. We were given sashes to drap over our shoulders as a sign of respect. It was a very moving and interesting activity.
We took our places before day break and waited for the procession to begin
With our sashes on and bowls of sticky rice at our feet. As part of the solemn ritual we removed our shoes.
You can see that some people gave bags full of food for the monks.
Novices with their sashes around the robes.
After the procession, we went to the temple and offered some additional food to the monks. They came to the door to accept our donations and in return said a chanting prayer for us.
A bag with fish.
The temple where we made our offerings.
After completing our donations we went to a very popular street cafe for some authentic Laos breakfast food and coffee. I had the beef and noodles along with some donut style bread. The coffe was nice and strong.
We then proceeded to the morning market for a little challenge and some fun. We were each give an item to purchase in the Laos language along with the appropriations amount of local money to buy it. We had to communicate with the vendors to try and find the items which would be used for our lunch later in the day. I lucked out and the first vendor I asked for phak thiam (waa ja tea m) had it and asked me how much. So I gave her the money and she weighed out the garlic and handed it to me. Fun experience.
Some odd items were available at the market. This gives a whole new meaning to Fish sticks.
Or how about a live frog?
I told this duck he better watch it or I'd be eating Duck Blood Salad again!
Packages of Mekong River Weed??? I would find out later how good it tasted.
Everyone was successful in finding their items so we got into our tuk tuks and went back to the hotel. They were still serving breakfast so I indulged myself with a fried egg, bacon, and toast.
We soon boarded a bus and headed out of town to visit a small village about 45 minutes up into the mountains. The tour company I travel through, Grand Circle, has a foundation that supports local communities throughout the world. This village is one of the newest and has been sponsored for just 2 months. We met with the village leadership who answered some of our questions about local life and showed us around. This village was established by the government about 20 years ago as a blend of different ethnic groups (lowlanders, middle landers, and the Hmong mountain people) in an effort to reduce the fighting among them. There are about 250 residents.
The second man from the left is the head leader of the village and the third man from the left is the leader of the Hmong people of the village.
This is the community hall.
The village supports itself with farming plots up on the mountain side for food production and craftsmanship workshops. They showed us how they did the basket weaving.
John put one of the hats on my head and ask me to sit with these ladies. I don't think they were too amused. Part of it was that we were wearing name tags with our names spelled in their native language and when asked if they could tell me my name they weren't able to read it.
This lady was sitting on her porch chewing betel nut (remember from Myanmar I tried it).
She showed us how she made her package to chew. She bragged that she didn't have any tooth pain and that she still had all of her teeth.
As we approached the school we could hear the children laughing and having some fun in the building. It was Saturday and they had gathered the children so we could visit with them and learn about the school system. The teacher came out and spoke with us. He said he had been teaching for 20 years. His annual salary was around $2,500. Yes folks, that's just a little over $200 per month.
The children were beginning to get anxious so we went into the school house. They have a o e room school that serves the 1st and 2nd grades.
We took seats with the kids.
They said their alphabet for us and sang a song.
We then led them in a couple of songs like Hokey Pokey and Itsey Bitsey Spider.
As we were leaving they came outside and started playing a game.
Then they posed for a group photo before telling us bye.
One of the projects the Grand Circle Foundation has under way is to build toilet facilities for the school. Now the children just go out into the bushes. The foundation is also planning on building new walls for the school and bringing in new desks.
Another project that has been completed is the water filtration system that serves the village.
The Hmong leader invited us to his home where he shared information about his family and their lifestyle.
Living area was on a concrete pad. The children had thin mats that were unrolled at night and mosquito netting was used. The parents slept behind the draped area.
The kitchen area. Notice the dirt floor.
He had a Qeej (Kheng) instrument hanging on the wall and we asked if he could play it. He told us he needed more room and asked us to go to the community hall. The instrument is made out of 6 bamboo reeds and carved wood. It is found mentioned in Chinese scriptures dating back to 3000 B.C.
After a few minutes he came out in a full dress costume and played for us. It was beautiful.
He explained that it is usually played only for very special occasions such as a wedding.
He also brought out his cross bow that he uses to hunt with and let us have a try a shooting it.
I did hit the target.
We then went to the head leader's house for our lunch. They brought out all the ingredients we bought at the market that morning and we helped prepare the dish.
As an appetizer, they fried some of the river weed till it was crispy like a cracker. It was very good.
They also passed around a bottle of rice whiskey. This was very strong and burned on the way down. The bottle had sticks in it but not scorpions or snakes. Thank goodness!
Fixing our special dish.
Starting with the bowl of bananas and going clockwise we had sticky rice, ivy green soup,our vegy stir fry dish, a pork roll and glass noodles steamed in banana leaves. You would take a small wad of sticky rice with your fingers and pinch off a bit of the pork roll to eat. The glass noodles were also eaten with the fingers.
It was a most fascinating visit. We asked the leaders several questions about their daily life routines. I was heart broken when after we got on the van to leave, the leader came to tell us goodbye and he apologized that his home wasn't very fancy and hoped that we would come back to visit some day. It was frustrating that we couldn't communicate to him that he had a good loving home and there was nothing to apologize for.
Tomorrow morning we have a couple more places to visit here in Luang Prabang and then we fly to Vientiane which is the capital of Laos.
It is hard for me to believe that I have only been over here for 2 weeks and that I have 3 more weeks to go. Whew!!!!
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