Our village home stay was amazing. None of us wanted to leave. We were in a village called Mai Jo. Its pretty much a road with houses on either side and everyones related to one another. I stayed with a woman named Pe Mon, but ate and spent a lot of time next door at her son's house, where Natalie and Eliza were staying. Every day we would eat breakfast then head to Pun Pun, just a short walk up a hill from the viaalge. Pun Pun is a seed-saving farm that also gives seminars on earthen housing and community self-sufficiency. Each day we focused on something new. One day it was plastering an earthen home's walls, the next day clearing and seeding a garden, then making natural shampoo and soap, and so on and so on.
The view from the village was great. We were completely surrounded by mountains and farmland. In a 20min walk to the end of the road you could get to a resovoir, the village's water supply, and go swimming. I did, however, discover that I hate chickens. Particuarly roosters and mostly when they decide to crow from 2 to 4 in the morning. Everyone in the village was so nice. No one spoke english very well or at all, but we got along just fine. Pe Noy, Pe Mon's daughter-in-law, cooked us all of our meals, which was great because she is a fabulous cook. After we left the three of us missed having her food twice a day(we ate lunch at Pun Pun).
The last night we were there they threw us a going away party and had a village elder bless us and tie a string aruond our wrists that was supossed to "tie our souls to the village." I can't imagine that we'll get so attatched to all of our homestay families so strongly, but at least I'll have plenty of places to stay if I ever come back.
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