"(Do not )....Drop it like its hot.... (in the village)."

I woke up Friday morning and thought to myself "I don't know if I really feel up to this". I was supposed to go to this village in Chiang Rai (6 hours away...) to teach English, and that's all I knew. But, simply because I didn't want to disappoint my friend, or 20 monks... I went, despite my cramps and tiredness. And I will never... ever be able to express how amazing it was.
I arrived at Wat Chedi Luang at 8 am, helped pack the songtaows (pickup trucks with 2 benches in the backs..) with clothes that the monks had collected, as well as saplings that we would be planting in the village and food and other things... and we left. The first hour, we were peering through trees lined in the middle of this truck at like 6 monks, trying to talk through trees. haha. Then we stopped at one of the monks houses for lunch, which was awesome... I tasted tobacco... like, chewed the leaf, they put salt in it and you chew it up... it was DISGUSTING. I also tried Thai rice whiskey, which was really nice... no burn. it was good.
Then we switched trucks, and went for the next 4 hours in other songtaows that were a little bumpier and the fumes were worse... I had so much fun on the ride though. We just goofed off like crazies. Monks are funny funny people.After about 3 hours like that, we stopped again and switched trucks AGAIN to go onto the dirt roads through the mountains... which were amazing, I still have bruises on my bum from all of the bumps!
When we got there, these little boys all ran out to greet us! It was wonderful. Then we played soccer with them for about 2 hours, Beth Squashed one pretty bad, he's probably still complaining about his bruises from that huge white girl crushing him on Friday., but it was so so so much fun. "that little kid is probably like... 'MAN! we have all the huge people and we're STILL losing!"
Then we had dinner, sang songs, played with kids... listened to monks... had a meeting and went to bed in our school room, that was freeeeeezing cold, and the floor was hard, like a floor should be, but I slept a pretty solid 4 hours I think.
We played games for a little while, dances around in circles, and then ate breakfast and taught... we taught our class animals, and tried to get them to recognize the spellings... it was so much fun. Hint: no matter HOW old the kids are, singing "head and shoulders, knees and toes" is STILL a blast. After class, which ended at 11:30, we got lunch and played some more... I mean, we played hard. We played games until 4:30 in the afternoon. During this 'game playing time" an Akha lady dressed beth in her entire Akha outfit, it was amazing! Beth was dancing around like a PRO. "Why you tryin' to be Akha?" haha. I must say, she did make quite a stunning Akha lady, the chuck taylors definitely added to the outfit. As did the GORGEOUS little kids in their cute little hats. That was an awesome display of Akha fun-loving-ness.
WE practiced our Akha dance moves (I'm horrible at them... I think it has to do with the outfit Beth had the outfit, so she did better, it has nothing to do with natural inclinations... at all.)
I have never laughed so much in an entire weekend without somehow finding a way to be a 'debbie downer', and this weekend, I did, and it taught me that I am capable of actually being happy in the moment, without considering the bad, or my body, or the tiredness, or all of the things that I could have let hinder my ability to really experience these wonderful people.
After game time, we went on a walk all around the village, we saw pigs living in houses with people, puppies that haven't been cared for... houses with dirt floors and thatched roofs, but the best part about what we saw was happy happy people. People that look around them and see some of the most beautiful mountains in the world, they see the fog rise everymorning, they see their coffee plants in bloom, and their children growing well, and having chances that they didn't have, and they're happy. I'm not saying that these people aren't poor, God knows that they have nothing, but they have everything at the same time. Maybe simplicity is the key to a peaceful form of contentness, I don't know. But they amazed me. I saw one little girl tie her shoes to a string, and then another little girl chased them...
"what game is that? I've never seen that game"-me
"it's the tie your shoes to a string game" (little girls take off chasing their shoes) "it goes like that..." -Beth. We goofed off so much (despite the fact that someone had stolen beth's camera...) She was so good about that, meanwhile, I'm freaking out, checking little kids bags and telling thai people to ask kids things, and crying... Beth was just like "I'm going to NOT be upset about this." I was very proud of her... I would've been throwing a fit, which I kind of did anyway. Right before the walk around the village we planted trees. I loved my tree... it was a mango tree, and I hope that it grows LOTS of mangoes and that the village loves my mangoes best. ha.
After dinner and all of those things, some of the kids danced, and beth and I got asked to 'perform'. I sang a song, but couldn't stop cracking up the entire time, cause Beth was holding the mic...and Beth makes me laugh. Then BETH sang a song, ACCAPELLA in Thai! She was even reading it in Thai. Amazing. She did so well... I was so proud. Then they massaccred us with wilted flowers and these funny I LOVE YOU hearts. It was awesome. I'm pretty sure that Beth and I are the most spastic, goofy white girls to ever go to that village... they loved us. we were all OVER it man.














Saturday night we did Kareoke until about 2 am, just being complete retards, it was SO much fun. Then, I went to bed and Beth stayed up pondering life with monks... or pondering MARRYING a monk, *shrugs* I'd like to marry a few of them. But no touching, ever. NOOOO touchy.

uummm... is this my life? Cause, it's awesome.

I'm finding that the things you know will take the most out of you, are always the things that mean the most to you, and change you the most in the long run.

I am SO glad I live here.