Another great week so far!

We ended last week with a lot of corn planting with the Akha village! It was sort of tedious work but I really enjoyed spending the time outside in the beautiful green fields with the volunteers and Akha friends. To plant corn, one person with a hoe quickly digs small holes in a line about two feet apart. Another person follows with a bucket of corn kernels and drops two in each hole, and then lightly covers it with dirt. We make our way up the field, row by row, and it actually goes way faster than I expected. It was a fun time planting corn and so satisfying to look over the fields and see our work! My favorite part of the day was when we would stop for lunch and rest in one of the huts on the field. Arun made delicious vegetable stirfry's and other dishes that were so fresh and healthy. After we ate we all laid down on the bamboo floor of the hut and talked until we felt ready to go again. I just loved the conversations and good feelings all around!

Here's part of what we planted!

Arun, the village leader, who taught us how to plant corn!

Lunch!

On Saturday a group of volunteers went to Chiang Mai and another group was still in the South, so just Shivani, Madison, David, and I were here in Fang. We went up to the Lahu village to finish the mural and to get some sand for the playground's sandbox! It was a really fun morning! Shivani has been working so hard on her mural and it turned out great!

Got a small army of boys to dig sand out of the river!

Yesterday was a REALLY fun day! We headed up to the Akha village in the morning to "help" with some traditional swing building. Once a year there is a big celebration in Akha villages where the men build a giant swing out of trees and rope. It was so fun to watch the whole process of digging the holes, setting the poles in place, and then roping it all together. There really wasn't much that we could help with... but we later found out that Arun had asked us to come as motivation for the men to work. I guess when there's girls hanging around watching they pick up the pace a bit... haha  Anyway, after the swing was built we all got to try it out! So much fun! Tomorrow the actual celebrations start so I'll write more about it later!