Mae Chaem home stay

I just came back from the village in Mae Chaem and am now showered and clean. Yesterday was Ginny's birthday so were going out to eat tonight. 

It was good to have our "Thai buddies" there for the first half of the trip to help us get acquainted with our host families but when they left I had no idea if I just didn't know the vocab when my host parents would speak to me, or it was a mix of that AND they were speaking northern Thai. My host father seemed to get a kick out of saying a sentence to Ginny and I and than laughing hysterically when we gave him unsure smiles. Our host mother too, only she would sometimes use hand gestures. 

They raised roosters who were obnoxiously loud at four am, but officially they are retired. They also have two sons who moved off but they seemed very proud of, and our parents were among the oldest in the family. Our mother and two others were some of the only woman who wore a pha sin (tube wrap skirt). Their house reminded me of my Yai's in Lopburi except theirs had an extra story, but other than than it was pretty close with bucket for bathing and squatting to pee. 

The village just finished a crematorium. We were told that Thai people rarely get buried, and immediately I thought of the trip my mom sister and I made when we I was nine. We came to Thailand because my mom's friend had just passed away, but hte only memory I have from the funeral was her coffin. Her body was in this gorgeous, elaborate coffin that was white with gold accents of some sort of Thai design, and I remember thinking how beautiful it was and watching it get pushed into the flames and there were doors of some sort that closed and no one could actually see the coffin being burnt. Anyway, we tried to help finish work on the crematorium, but I feel like we mostly just got in their way. There was a ceremony the day after we tried to help: monks chanting, a talk none of us learning Thai could understand. We later we taken to see work that the Thai studies group before us had done. (Bringing  running water to a village that was near by the one we were staying in) 

We took a tour of Mae Chaem via song tao and saw some of the local art. This included food, cotton woven goods and a man who made traditional Thai hair pins by hand. Apparently he is one of the few who still knows how to and does make them.

Although Mae Chaem is much more rural, we still found ways to do touristy things such as get Thai massages, and go to a center were we got to learn how to cook Thai desserts. But I'm still exhausted, and I have to get ready for Ginny's birthday celebration, so that is all for now.