Yesterday I ran into a friend of mine from high school. Turns out that Jon Morris (who Joe has met) went to high school at Manual in Louisville. We had Freshman English together, maybe German too. Anyway, he remembered the Shulls, and decided he had to join me and Jake for an impromptu dinner at AFECT. He has lived in Thailand for 9 years, speaks fluent Thai and understands Akha, and isnow doing an MBA at Yale even though he already has an MS from MIT. Overachiever. He had to leave today (back to the US), which is a shame since he knows quite a bit about fundraising for the Hill Tribes.
At any rate, I am learning a great deal about the work of AFECT. Today I went with Jake and Athu, (who is director of AFECT and an Akha who was sponsored by AFECT when he was growing up) on a cross-country tour of a few Akha villages. We drove in Athu's shakey old jeep anhour south of Chaing Rai ntil the pavement ended, the hills ramped upat 45degrees, and the air got much cooler as you enter the forest. We stopped in a village of wood and bamboo houses, all the huts gathered on the slope of a green mountainside where most of what you see of your neighbor is the top of his thatch roof below you. Our hosts were the shaman couple who have been healing the village for more than 44years, at 81 years old so thin and fragile looking it seemed even their headdresses with the silver coins and metal beads would be too heavy for their necks. We performed a welcome ceremony, each peeling and cracking a boiled egg that was read and eaten by the woman shaman. She was sick herself, soeating the touched brought by visitors from afar and the incantations murmured by her husband were to give her strength. After the egg we each were given a white string to tie around her wrist (similar to the Buddhist blessing in the form of a string we recieved in Ayutthaya froma monk) and we were told not to touch any part of her but her hand. We were then led out to eat lunch on the porch: a low table covered in banana leaf, upon which was arranged various main courses. We were offered pig skin bathed in blood, a sort of chicken bone and skin BBQ, a delightful tomato salad with fish sauce, sauteed bamboo shoots, and something that I suspect was dog. I had been told about their tradition of eating and raising dog, so I prepared my hosts to tell everyone that I was vegetarian, which of course was incomprehensibleto the Akha, but they accepted it and just gave me more mountain rice, which is nutty and very good. I ate watching the poor pups of the village slinking around the house, though it mattered less with each refill of my little glass of rice whiskey. After lunch the shaman had perked up a bit, and as we shook her hand to thank her for her hospitality she hung on and started reading palms. When my turn came she rubbed a bit of ginger on my middle finger and palm asked what I wanted to know. "Will I be ale to help the Akha tribe?" I asked through my translator. "Yes, you are giving and you will help all you set out to help, but you must be careful not to keep giving or all your luck and strength will run out at the age of 50. Keep some for yourself." Then she quietly stated that I was married and had been with my husband for one year (exactly!) and that he was a good man (indeed). And that we would have 2 boys and 3 girls(yikes). With stuffed bellies we got back in the jeep and drove another couple of hours to see first an herbal training center, then a village where the Doi Chiang coffee is grown, and then met with a family of 6 who now lives on public land between a rock-face and a road since they were able to escape the village and the traditional Akha rule of killing twins if and when they are born. The tribe kills babies with hairlips, missing fingers, or any defect because they are considered to bring bad spirits to the whole village. So AFECT has a small fundto feed and cloth these children. I met two of them, identical twingirls who are now 15 years old and finishing high school although the diploma they get will be no good unless the Thai government agrees that they are citizens.
Such an interesting day.Then I met a group of Thai and German high schoolers who had lived with the Akha for 2 weeks and were just going home, I couldn't imagineg\doing that at the age of 16, holy cow. We ate Pad Thai with the AFECT staff and were on our merry way home when Jake was hit head-on by another motoscooter who fled the scene. He was fine (I was imagining missing toes), but he does have to fixthe bike now, the front is all smashed in. Piece of advice, never gothrough yellow lights in Thailand.
At any rate, I am learning a great deal about the work of AFECT. Today I went with Jake and Athu, (who is director of AFECT and an Akha who was sponsored by AFECT when he was growing up) on a cross-country tour of a few Akha villages. We drove in Athu's shakey old jeep anhour south of Chaing Rai ntil the pavement ended, the hills ramped upat 45degrees, and the air got much cooler as you enter the forest. We stopped in a village of wood and bamboo houses, all the huts gathered on the slope of a green mountainside where most of what you see of your neighbor is the top of his thatch roof below you. Our hosts were the shaman couple who have been healing the village for more than 44years, at 81 years old so thin and fragile looking it seemed even their headdresses with the silver coins and metal beads would be too heavy for their necks. We performed a welcome ceremony, each peeling and cracking a boiled egg that was read and eaten by the woman shaman. She was sick herself, soeating the touched brought by visitors from afar and the incantations murmured by her husband were to give her strength. After the egg we each were given a white string to tie around her wrist (similar to the Buddhist blessing in the form of a string we recieved in Ayutthaya froma monk) and we were told not to touch any part of her but her hand. We were then led out to eat lunch on the porch: a low table covered in banana leaf, upon which was arranged various main courses. We were offered pig skin bathed in blood, a sort of chicken bone and skin BBQ, a delightful tomato salad with fish sauce, sauteed bamboo shoots, and something that I suspect was dog. I had been told about their tradition of eating and raising dog, so I prepared my hosts to tell everyone that I was vegetarian, which of course was incomprehensibleto the Akha, but they accepted it and just gave me more mountain rice, which is nutty and very good. I ate watching the poor pups of the village slinking around the house, though it mattered less with each refill of my little glass of rice whiskey. After lunch the shaman had perked up a bit, and as we shook her hand to thank her for her hospitality she hung on and started reading palms. When my turn came she rubbed a bit of ginger on my middle finger and palm asked what I wanted to know. "Will I be ale to help the Akha tribe?" I asked through my translator. "Yes, you are giving and you will help all you set out to help, but you must be careful not to keep giving or all your luck and strength will run out at the age of 50. Keep some for yourself." Then she quietly stated that I was married and had been with my husband for one year (exactly!) and that he was a good man (indeed). And that we would have 2 boys and 3 girls(yikes). With stuffed bellies we got back in the jeep and drove another couple of hours to see first an herbal training center, then a village where the Doi Chiang coffee is grown, and then met with a family of 6 who now lives on public land between a rock-face and a road since they were able to escape the village and the traditional Akha rule of killing twins if and when they are born. The tribe kills babies with hairlips, missing fingers, or any defect because they are considered to bring bad spirits to the whole village. So AFECT has a small fundto feed and cloth these children. I met two of them, identical twingirls who are now 15 years old and finishing high school although the diploma they get will be no good unless the Thai government agrees that they are citizens.
Such an interesting day.Then I met a group of Thai and German high schoolers who had lived with the Akha for 2 weeks and were just going home, I couldn't imagineg\doing that at the age of 16, holy cow. We ate Pad Thai with the AFECT staff and were on our merry way home when Jake was hit head-on by another motoscooter who fled the scene. He was fine (I was imagining missing toes), but he does have to fixthe bike now, the front is all smashed in. Piece of advice, never gothrough yellow lights in Thailand.
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