Visiting a Remote Laos Village, Day One

Kenny took me overnight top his small village about two hours outside of Luang Prabang.  There were There were about 20 people loaded into this truck!

My new friend on the jammed truck...

There are every few schools in the area so many children have to pass through other villages to get to school and some travel as much as 90 minutes each way.  These girls are fortunate to have bicycles by many can only afford to travel on foot.

Kenny's village is about 100 people.  Most live in thatched shacks with walls made from woven banana leaves.

 

This is the home of Kenny's parents.  

I slept where the cat lies for the evening on  a raised wooden platform.  The house has no floors, just the dirt of the earth.  Everything is covered in dust as the house is just a few feet from the road.

This is the kitchen...

Villagers enjoy eating rate and bat. Here are five rates hung up to "cure."  After they have hung here for a few days they will cook them again before eating. 

This is the back yard and the site of the new house Kenny is trying to build for his family.  He built a good foundation and a roof before running out of money.  

Kenny's grandmother is 98 years old.  I told her she is beautiful.

Here she picks dry leaves out of the river sea weed that the Laos people love to dry and eat.

The whole village bathes in the river daily.  This is their new bridge which takes them across to the fields where they farm.  Kenny's father walks over this bridge every day at about 4:30AM.  His sticky nice field is an hour's walk into the hills from here.

This river was so magical...  it was almost uncanny how beautiful it was.  

These are Kenny's nephews.

We had papaya salad later in the afternoon from this lovely papaya.

I love butterflies and it was so sweet to have time to just be still and watch them and try to capture a good image.

We wandered back into the fields.  Kenny and the boys are looking for small birds and field rats to kill to bring home and eat.  Slingshots are a very useful weapon here!

This is is the Laos goverment equivalent of what we call a "halfway house."  Prisoners who have served long terms are brought here to live for a few months at the end of their sentences. there are no walls or fences.  They live communally, faming together.  Kenny said the men who live here are very happy to be here as the area is beautiful and if they act responsible they will be free shortly.

Here the prisoners bathe in a lovely watering hole.

These village women are carrying fire wood on their backs.

Kenny's parents have two light bulbs in their entire home.  This one hangs in the kitchen area where they are preparing dinner.  Electricity only came to this village one year ago.

We enjoyed a simple dinner of fish, chicken soup and sticky rice.  I was starving and stirred the soup and up popped a whole chicken head with eyeballs and all!  I stirred the soup again and up popped a whole chicken claw...  so much for my appetite.  I ate a lot of broth and sticky rice that night!