Thailand
An Akha Village
Our second night was spent in an Akha village; it was a bit more out of the way and poorer than the Lahu village we had visited before. The first thing our guide B said about the tribe was that the Akha women have the hardest lives of all the women in the hill tribes. Many men start smoking opium when they marry (as is the tradition)--something which slows their work down a bit. According to the Akha spirit (animistic) tradition, the luckiest place for a village is at the top of a hill. This means that the women spend a lot of time lugging water and rice up steep slopes (no fun even when you don't have a heavy load), and farming. The kids in this village are what really stood out though. At night, they entertained us with traditional Akha songs, and a few not so traditional ones (like Frère Jacques and Old MacDonald). In exchange, we brought thumb wrestling to the Akha. They will never be the same (prime directive be damned).
The Village
An Akha woman an her child.
Akha Traffic Jam
Mindi--my new best friend.
Mindi with her older sister Misu--another real charmer.
